The mixed method study documented how journalists negotiated “the impact of COVID-19 coverage on their mental health” through surveys and in-depth interviews uncovered how journalists balanced doing their jobs and trying to avoid contracting the dreaded disease and possibly infecting their loved ones. Only 47% of the interviewed journalists in the Philippines and Malaysia said they were given protective gear, and some experienced companies’ refusal to cover the cost of testing—something that the Philippine government strictly required especially during the time when vaccines were not yet available.

Exposure to the virus was not the sole source of mental health strain, though, as the sustainability of the journalism outfits was also a concern—especially in the Philippines. With the Philippines counted as one of the countries with the strictest mobility restrictions, lockdown-induced business losses forced community newspapers to close. Journalists likewise juggled both in-person and virtual news coverage, resulting in heavier workload and the need to always be ready to report.

Salvosa and Esguerra are academic researchers of the Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities. Salvosa is a co-adviser of the Varsitarian and is the incumbent Chair of the Department of Journalism.

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In a chapter entitled “,” the three scholars pointed out that the “spread of misinformation, amplified on social media and other digital platforms, is proving to be as much a threat to global public health as the virus itself.” Rumors, hate speech, conspiracy theories, and orchestrated deception campaigns have collectively led to the “large-scale contamination of the public sphere,” the scholars averred, relating to the “information disorder” now present.

The Philippine context was investigated alongside those of Malaysia and Pakistan while utilizing the risk journalism framework of the Global Risk Journalism Hub. Common among interviews with journalists are the observations of an “increasingly fractious, populist, and polarized political environment” in which extremist views of vaccination, promotion of treatment without scientific evidence, and lack of digital literacy leading to the belief in conspiracy theories were among the findings.

The article is part of the new book Ecologies of Global Risk Journalism, published by Routledge in 2024. Salvosa is the incumbent Chair of the new Department of Journalism, and he serves as Co-Adviser of the Varsitarian. Both are academic researchers of the Research Center for Culture, Arts, and the Humanities.

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Arcalas won for the story “” that was published in his current news outfit The Philippine STAR.

A decorated journalist, Arcalas is the first Thomasian to receive the Bright Leaf Hall of Fame award for agriculture journalism. Last November 8, he also won the Agriculture and Mining Reporter of the Year award from the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines.

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Ordinario and two BusinessMirror colleagues won Best Agriculture Feature Story – National award in 2023. In 2022, Ordinario and MA Journalism candidate Tyrone Jasper Piad won the Agriculture Story of the Year award. Ordinario had a bountiful 2021 by winning both the Tobacco Story of the Year and the Best Agriculture News Story – National. Her first Bright Leaf award came in 2018, copping the Best Agriculture News Story – National plum for a story she wrote together with former colleague and BA Journalism alumnus Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas.

Ordinario thus became the second UST product to become a Bright Leaf Hall of Famer, the first being Arcalas.

The MA in Journalism program is offered by the Graduate School.

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