Backpack journalists

They wander form place to place, travelling to remote parts of the world, work alone, doing everything from writing, photography, video editing, to website construction themselves and then publish on the internet.

Meet the backpack journalists.

Often armed with lightweight laptops, satellite phones, inexpensive editing software and digital cameras, they are often up against the heavyweights of established organisations. But these people who can do it all — shoot video, write stories, and do radio on the side — are the journalists of the future, said John Schidlovsky, director of the Washington-based Pew Fellowship in International Journalism in an article in USA Today.

Read the account of a backpack journalist here.

The Straits Times vs The Online Citizen

The following is a feature I did with my classmate Jane, and is posted as part of an assignment for my Journalism Reimagined course.

Alternative media in Singapore

How “alternative” is The Online Citizen, really? What makes it tick, and how does it work? Jane and I will also look at the areas in which it has succeeded and also failed.  To get a fuller picture, we will talk to both its supporters and critics.

after FYP

The following is posted as part of a class assignment for Journalism Reimagined.

Photos of Jane

The following photos of my friend Jane are posted as part of a class assignment.

Win-a-trip with a foreign correspondent

New York Times’ columnist Nicholas Kristol first announced in January this year that he was holding a contest to take a university student with him on a reporting trip to Africa.

He explained his reason in a column then: “I’m doing this for two reasons. First, I want to engage young people about global issues that I’m passionate about. Second, it’s good journalism, for you’ll bring a tool to reporting from Africa that I no longer have: a fresh eye.”

And the winner was recently revealed. Paul Bowers, a second-year student at the University of South Carolina had submitted both a video and an essay. In them, he talked about how “cold statistics can almost never get things done”. Rather, he wanted to tell true stories.

The duo will travel to West Africa, where they’ll explore maternal and child mortality, and also the degree to which the economic crisis is hitting poor countries.

As Kristol explained, the contest is a win-win situation for both. The experienced journalist gets a fresh eye, the student gets real-life guidance on foreign reporting. Ultimately, journalism is the real winner. Now, if only there were such contests in Singapore too.

Beneath the beauty of Bukit Batok Park

The following is posted as part of my course Journalism Reimagined.

See my Tabblo>

Off-the-beaten-track foreign reporting

The Straits Times’ US Bureau chief Chua Chin Hon has won a special mention at US-based Pictures of the Year International contest. In a ST article on Saturday, Chua revealed that his entry, a 40-picture set titled “Time and Tide: Five Years Behind the Three Gorges’ Dam”, was a work accomplished between 2003 and 2008, when he was based in China.

In the same article, he said: “Day to day work at the Beijing Bureau is often about the news of the moment and you often lose track of the bigger story and changes gripping China.” The pictures for this entry had been taken when he was on leave, he added.

Chua’s work has often struck me, because they are normally off the beaten path. Rather than only focusing on reporting daily news which news wires can easily duplicate, he also takes note of the bigger picture and tie it back to the effect on the people on the ground. This, I think, will be what distinguishes foreign reporting in the future as news of the moment reach people more and more easily regardless of geographic distances.

If interested, you can see more of his work here.

Facebook group for Robert Fisk

Continuing on the earlier post on reporting from Iran and Iraq, none can claim to be a more established correspondent in the Middle East than Robert Fisk. Praised by New York Times as “probably the most famous foreign correspondent in Britain”, he even has a Facebook group of his own.

The Middle East correspondent for UK newspaper The Independent, Fisk has spent more than 30 years reporting from the region. He speaks vernacular Arabic, and is one of the few Western journalists to have interviewed Osama bin Laden – three times between 1994 and 1997. Not only does he find favour with his sources, his readers like him too: there are 2,896 members in his Facebook group.

The introduction to the group promises that you can find links to Fisk’s articles as soon as they are published online. It also serves as a gathering point for many interested in the conflicts in Middle East; members hold debates on the wall.

Such Facebook groups could be a valuable asset for journalists who want to get a feel of the reactions to their articles. Like Twitter, it could also be a barometer of what people are talking about, particularly in the Middle East.

Unfortunately, Fisk doesn’t seem to be in the group himself, or maybe even on Facebook. A quick search turned up many Robert Fisks, but not the famous journalist. Maybe he’s too busy tracking down terrorists in mountain caves.

the first vlog

The following is an assignment posted as part of my course Journalism Reimagined.