Jessica: Trust is earned
“These things should come as a consequence of hard work.”
That was Jessica Soho talking about receiving awards and living up to the expectations of the title, Reader’s Digest Most Trusted TV News Presenter, during a media call. She belongs to that exceptional status (Hall of Fame), wherein her broadcast journalism work has been recognized for eight times.
“You don’t really set out into this world to say, ‘I’m a journalist, I want to win awards, I want to become famous or, you know, earn a lot of money,’” added the anchor of State of the Nation by Jessica Soho and host of Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho. “You don’t really say those things. It’s really about the work at hand first. As the millennials would say, ‘ATM,’ at the moment lang ang lahat. You don’t really think of these things. These things should just come as a consequence of hard work.” And when she is inside the studio doing broadcast, Jessica doesn’t think of awards. She does what her mandate calls for. “(Our work) is stressful and tedious enough to be thinking of this thing (getting award),” Jessica shared.
Thus, passion for the profession is a secret to success — and everything (all good things) will come naturally. The Most Trusted Brand awards of Jessica, and fellow Kapuso Mike Enriquez (the Most Trusted Radio Presenter) and Ryan Agoncillo (the Most Trusted Entertainment Presenter) resonate the Filipinos’ respect and faith to media work that encompasses delivering news and creating space for public discourse. This is a thumbs-up, especially when institutions like media are accused of spreading fake news.
“Kasi nga ang daming fake news ngayon. It’s so easy for anyone to say fake news. (But) I think people should always be mindful where it’s coming from…,” Jessica shared. “It is always a challenging time for us in the profession, hindi naman tayo pwedeng maging complacent… this job is not really about us. It’s not about ourselves, it’s about the people we serve. It’s about the people we cover, the stories we feature. We should probably take it (fake news) as part of the territory.”
Looking back on her humble beginnings as a journalism graduate who got sidetracked to broadcasting, Jessica said that she didn’t have the “privilege of having a peg… It’s good to have inspirations or it’s good to have role models. Kailangan natin yun. I suppose everyone or each of us should just pave their own paths,” she said. “Parang kanya-kanya tayong tatahaking landas.”
As for the changing landscape of media texts and content reporting and the complementarity of traditional media and social media (as part of new media), Jessica gave her two cents’ worth: “They should go hand and hand. Social media should direct more viewers to traditional media and traditional media should also tap social media for stories, crowd source stories and data, etc. I suppose we can all work, complementary to each other. Lagi namang ganyan. When I came in (on) TV, they said the days of this (particular) media (platform) were numbered, then all these types of media nandito pa rin (are still around). Of course, there are threats. Like what they say, if there are threats, there will be opportunities. So, I suppose it’s a matter of adapting and a matter of evolving or reinventing yourself para hindi tayo maging instinct… But we could also look at it as an opportunity or a challenge for us to improve more ourselves and to continue innovating.”
A valued name in the broadcast industry, Jessica said, “I hope I will continue to be worthy of their (audiences’) trust. Mabigat na responsibilidad ito. When you say trust, you just don’t say, ‘I will get the trust.’ You have to earn it.”
Meanwhile, GMA Network and ABS-CBN received Platinum Trusted Brand awards. According to the information released by Reader’s Digest, the platinum trusted brand shows that the winners had “vastly outpolled their nearest competitor” and shown exceptional performance.