last one

one last posting before the class ends.

like most of the world, i was glued to the television set last night at aroun noon EST, 6 pm CET.

the only problem is, CNN had switched to HDTV in Germany, and so we can’t watch it on our tv set anymore. and all the other broadcasts were from German / Austrian tv. in German. with different people reading the speeches.

a little note on dubbing. i. Hate. dubbing. from whatever language, into whatever language. you lose sooo much of what was being said through dubbing. so to stop myself from throwing tomatoes at the tv, i quickly fired up my laptop and logged onto BBC, where they were streaming the inauguration live, in English. albeit with a 3-second delay, but who’s complaining when it was clear and in. English. sigh.

the very idea of dubbing barack obama is preposterous. how can you possibly dub such a speaker like him? the power of his speeches lie not just in his words, it’s also in the delivery…

so anyways, the internet saved the day. and for people like me, living abroad in a country whose national language is not english, who so obviously preferred the real thing, it’s the online sources which made the experience of the inauguration worth watching.

online journalism complements the hard-copy version, is how i see it. it also complements the other virtual version. the combination of newspapers, television, and the internet is unbeatable. they each have different uses and offer different levels of interaction as well, which i’m grateful for. as long as there’s no censor, bring it all on, is my opinion.

well, this is not the strongest of endings, but it’s been a long day and i still need to hand in my final project… so, that’s it for now…

tis the season…

for looking back. for looking forward. for celebrating. for relaxing. and eating. and enjoying time with friends and family.

i was at a firm holiday event over the weekend. and what an event. i got the privilege of being part of it, and i wish i was actually there with a news organization, with cameras and reporters all over the place. would’ve made an interesting documentary.

alas, the reality is different. so i had to make do with making a documentary film in my head and being satisfied with that.

which brings me to multimedia journalism and the like. i think in one of the postings i mentioned something about journalism  being story telling. and well, computers and the internet have opened up the world of story telling in many ways.

first – fact finding and research has been made much easier, with a lot of information available for free at the fingertips.

one disadvantage is that you can also be easily complacent, relying on others to do research for you.  IT makes it easy for people to “borrow” ideas… copy and paste is the key to success, one boss of mine used to say in jest, or half-jest, really.

but back to the advantages. one of howard gardner’s theories states that IQ is only one measure of intelligence, and that there are indeed multiple intelligences that a person can possess. spatial, mathematical, kinesthetic, social (also different types of) among them.

taking a long leap from that to how your brain working in different ways to how it would make sense that people also learn best through different means. educational psychologists talk about the fact that there are many paths to successful learning. some people learn best through reading something. some are best at a combination of reading and hearing. some need to just hear. or actively draw or write in the process. or see visual images. or all of the above.

the internet – with it’s multitude of possibilities – just makes it easier for people to absorb information, the best way they know how. the internet presents info on many different levels. there’s text and hyperlinks, audio files and video files, interactive exhibits and moving graphs. audio slide shows. you name it, it’s there. it’s made journalism just that much more accessible.

information can be updated as quickly as possible. speed of course, is not always a good thing… sometimes it’s better to wait before publishing.  i’ve seen some bad mistakes, carelessness / system problems. even at the IHT where they published one article on hilary clinton and there were 14 not insignificant errors. spelling mistakes. words cut off. sentence fragments.  god forbid there were errors in content too, and not just in form.

this goes back to another major advantage of online publishing. it’s normally quite easy to check and fix errors in form and content.  it usually only takes seconds or minutes.

you can also interlink – which is just one of the most amazing things about the internet – the interlinking of information. it’s great for abstract thinkers like me – who jump from one thought to another and collect information so that they can see the larger picture and spin their own web of a story.

the internet, and multimedia, is just another tool of spreading the truth. and as tools go, it’s a pretty cool one. sure can be misused, etc, but so can anything else. just need to look at the newstands – and see the paper versions of utter nonsense – to see that.

so from my point of view, journalism and the world, should celebrate the internet and multimedia. it’s just the right tool for today’s global yet local multicultural world.

in the doghouse

was watching the ZDF morning show before going to work, and they did a small report on the shoe incident. apparently it took 9 seconds before the guards reacted. that’s kind of slow.

the shoes are symbolically meaningful, the report said, since according to iranian beliefs they covered the dirties part of the body – the feet, which touch the ground. in persian, to call someone a ‘dog’ is also terribly insulting. coincidentally it’s the same as indonesian – you never want to call someone a dog. and the feet are indeed the dirty part of the body. and touching someone’s head is a no no. so you’ve got shoe aimed at head, and on top of it, the word dog.

so as far as expressing your emotions go, that pretty much says it all. it was more effective than if al-zaidi tried to shoot bush. so  i wondered what happened afterwards to him.  what is the punishment for throwing shoes at one of the most ‘powerful’ men in the world, i wonder? an IHT report said that he will get 7 years prison time for attacking a visiting head of state.

also funny were people’s reactions. according to the IHT al-Zaidi was apparently awarded a medal of courage by someone in Libya. and in southern Iraq people were taking off their shoes and throwing them at a US convoy. the ZDF reported that 50 lawyers offered their services to him for free. the IHT article quotes over 100. that’s a lot of people…

my personal experience doesn’t contradict those sentiments. most found it simply hilarous. some people on facebook also commented that they thought bush had it coming. that god is just and he got what he deserved.

bush has lost just so much respect that a reporter would have the courage to do what he did, and lots of people applaud the action and wished they would’ve done it themselves. i have heard very few indignant reactions. even bush didn’t seem indignant. and that’s saying a lot.

as the dreary wintery days drag on, i can’t help but look forward to christmas. to the 2-week vacation coming up, to christmas trees and roast duck and super calorific, gluten-free (but definitely not fat and sugar-free) french chocolate cake.

so what does this have to do with the news? well, i’m expecting lots of holiday topics to pop up. a wrap up of the year. a look back at the cash crunch and a look forward to what’s to come in 2009.

i’m hoping not too many fatalities, too many crimes, too many terrorist actions, will pop up on the front page. because sometimes bad news also deserves a break. i want news of good deeds – “private funds enable construction of 250 new schools in india.”  “9000 new york homeless celebrate christmas in style.” “investment banker regrets reckless risk-taking, turns over new leaf”, for example.

as we ourselves bring joy and cheer to our homes in the form of decorated trees, presents and baked goods, so shall the media bring joy and good cheer to the world by focusing on the positive things that have happened the past 365 days. “britney shapes up” “consumer spending goes down – less industrial waste produced” “20,000 new trees planted in the amazon”. “€1,000,000 in donations slated for celiac disease research.” that would definitely make my day.

happy early holidays!

even though the mumbai event is not that long ago, it feels like ages ago, because coverage has all but disappeared… it seems like at least.

i followed the developments on bbc very closely. what struck me was how people who just experienced a great deal of stress become very matter of fact when telling their stories. nature’s survival mechanism kicks in, allowing some distance between participants and the horrific events they witness / experience so that they can figure out ways to survive. feelings shut down so that the rational brain can get you out of the situation safely.

one guy interviewed showed no grief reactions until he was well away from the hotel, in the safe confines of another hotel / the consulate ( i can’t remember which).  was interesting to compare the video of him being interviewed right after he left the hotel and the audio of him interviewed hours later.

perhaps, in such situations, it’s better to give people a bit of time to digest what happened to get a truer / more humane account of it…

just a thought.

living in different countries taught me that my way of seeing the world is just one of many ways seeing the world. what i also learned is that it’s really difficult to understand a people until you’ve spent considerable time being in their shoes, so to say.

it’s easy to come to a place as an outsider and make instant judgments about what’s going on. it’s harder to be open to things, to sit and absorb what’s going on around your new world and try to make some sense of it without fear, with sympathy and compassion. it’s a skill every journalist should learn to master.

i always wanted to learn different languages because i wanted to learn how people of different cultures feel and think. so much can be gleaned from how a language is structured and what is important in the language.

i’m lucky that english is the international language. many people speak it, and many things are published in english.  there’s so much in the world that’s in english – books, movies, magazines, websites etc. gives me a better understanding of what’s going on in the world than when i would understand just chinese or indonesian. my world view as an indonesian-only speaker would be very different.

where is this going? these are just some thoughts that relate to diversity and journalistic ethics… i think that being in someone’s skin – whether it be through language, or experience or just being and absorbing, helps people break barriers and go beyond easy stereotyping and thoughtless discrimination. to be discriminating – between good or bad, ethical or not – is not necessarily a bad thing. to discriminate, is something else.  i think in the end people would discriminate less if they really understood what was going on, and if they knew what it felt like to be in someone else’s skin. literally and figuratively.

photos

as a fan of both photography and writing, i’m all for photojournalism.

both the written word and the image have their merits, and i think it’s all the more powerful when you can master the art of combining both without detracting from either.

one of the most difficult skills i acquired from some photo classes i attended here in munich was putting images together well. combining some seemingly random images and telling a story with them (with or without accompanying text) effectively is definitely an art.

but photography, just like writing, tells only one aspect of the story. what you see in the photo is just as important as what’s left out of the photo. that should always be taken into consideration.

images also have their own language, and photographers leave their emotional imprint onto their photos – so as much as or if not more than words, images are also laden with subjective signals. a sad person will take sad photos of a party that for most people would’ve been quite a lot of fun. often, with a picture, as it is with a song, emotions can be greatly magnified.

i think the reason photography speaks so clearly to us is because it involves one of the basic senses. sight, sound, smell, taste, touch – those signals get processed immediately by the brain. whereas with written words, you first need to see or feel (braille), then another part of your brain processes the information, then you get a mental picture of what is being conveyed. it’s not as spontaneous as seeing a photo.

a lot can be said with one or two images. so the message can be delivered with much more impact in a shorter time. in today’s ADD world – that could be a distinct advantage.

nachtwey

i remember the first time i discovered nachtwey. there was a documentary on him playing on arte. as an avid hobby photographer, i’m always interested in documentaries about photographers or photography in general.

i still remember clearly some of the pictures nachtwey took of an armless beggar and his family in jakarta. how the beggar, with his one arm, was bathing his son on the side of a river located near the railroad tracks on which they lived.

i know what those rivers look like; they’re muddy brown, dark green or black, so dirty are they. and the smell is oppressive. my family and i have passed such rivers many a time while sitting comfortably inside an air conditioned car with black tinted windows – windows that discourage beggars like him to approach, windows that make it easier to ignore the poverty, sheltering us from the suffering, giving us a safe haven.

and despite his conditions and what he had to live through, the beggar didn’t give up. he got up day after day, facing people whose ignorance and fear made them turn their heads and hearts away, and asked for just a little bit of money to make it through another day.

through it all, he was still caring and loving with his family.  the government of indonesia didn’t care about him. most people in jakarta didn’t care about him. though somehow, through the kindness of others, and sometimes i think maybe through the grace of god, he gets by.

thinking of him always moves me to tears.

another family nachtwey photographed lived on the sides of the railroad tracks in jakarta. their living quarters were literally an arm’s length away from the moving trains. so when the mother cooked – squatting in front of her small wok which was poised over the sides of the tracks – and a train passed by, everything rattled and shook.

to be honest, until that night when the documentary aired, i had never seen what jakarta looked like for some people.

i wonder about what happened to those two families. if they ever did manage to get out of the train tracks or not. if the beggar still begs. if i’ve ever seen him knock on the car door.

it takes a special courage to stare despair, injustice, cruelness, hopelessness, tragedy, ignorance, ruthlessness – all of it – in the face. to not shy away from or get beaten by it all. and for that, i greatly admire nachtwey.

nachtwey’s silence, his reluctance to talk about what he’s witnessed, is as loud as his pictures. i personally am silenced when i’m humbled or disturbed by or in awe of something. to me, talking about hugely significant emotional events sometimes only dilutes their significance.

i think some pictures are worth few or no words, because more would cheapen the value. and so it is with nachtwey’s.

corporate drone

it’s hard to get away from the corporate world when you’re always smack dab in the middle of it.

am not sure how that reflects on my person and pre-occupations when i get excited about a new online magazine targeted at business geeks such as myself.

funnily enough, i saw a blog discussing business travel, and an entry addressing the fact that it’s gone drastically down, hotels are having problems with occupancy rates etc.

but i do feel that i can get a bit more detailed than that, and might still pursue this topic for the final project.

there are a couple of reasons. i know a lot of people who are affected by this personally, myself included. this past year i’ve traveled more than usual – both personally and for work. flew to the states 3 times, went to thailand and indonesia, and have done countless little trips around europe, it seems. not to mention driving around for hours and hours to visit friends and attend weddings.

a couple of weeks ago i sighed a relief when my flight to london got bumped 2 hours. i made the executive decision to not fly and waste unnecessary fuel and (my personal) energy only to attend a meeting, which by the time of my arrival, would’ve already been well in progress,  only to get back in the taxi to get back to the airport to get back to munich a few hours later. so i went to the office instead. i realized then just how much i started to dread airports. this coming from me, a travel enthusiast.

i was talking to another friend of mine who flies off to other parts of europe at least once a week, and she has developed a dislike to traveling too. there is the packing, unpacking, late nights with colleagues, early starts to catch up on e-mails. business travel is a modern day malaise.

my fiance, quoting a german magazine article, says ‘the ‘eroticization of the job, and objectification of relationships’ is ‘the’ modern day malaise. that’s the subject of an entirely different article. or book.

as i write, i’m sitting in one of the conference rooms of a hotel near frankfurt where our firm is holding an event. this morning i flew in here from munich, of course. and tomorrow evening, i will fly back home. such is life of a corporate drone.

storytelling

so after lots of reading and some thinking, i’ve come to the conclusion that journalism is good storytelling, based on facts and truth. that’s it basically. and with good stories, there’s at least one lesson to be learned at the end of it.

the facts and truth are gathered from different sources – authorities/pundits, reference material, ordinary people. the web is then spun and out comes a journalistic piece.

so i’ve thought of a couple of stories for my final project. neither of them really ‘weltbewegend’, or earth shaking as they would say in english, but interesting to me personally.

one is the impact the financial crisis is having on business travel – and how that in turn affects the lives of employees of multinational corporations.

another is the impact it’s having on the lives of employees in munich, in particular employees of bmw and siemens – german multinationals who have their headquarters in the bavarian capital and are also two of the largest employers in the city. i’ve connections to both, as i used to work at siemens, and have contacts there, and my fiance works at bmw and i also independently have some contacts there.

don’t know which one i’ll chose yet. just hope that i can devote enough time and energy to do the story justice.