Social Media + Journalism = New School

Your need to write something for your journalism classes but running out of story ideas.

You scroll down your Facebook wall to see what’s going on in your friend circle. Some of them have just read some online article from news outlets.

Still stuck, you turn to your smartphone, reading what is trending on Twitter.

As the invasion of social media and the needs of information are continuing to grow, news providers have to transform the ways news is delivered.

Triggered by the global economy crisis in 2008, some news corporations decided to shut down their print production and focused on delivering news online.

As journalism students, we are left with tons of opportunities to shape the future of new-school journalism. Hence, the more versatilities we have, the more chances we can survive as the new era of journalism is not just about reporting stories in print but also empowering multimedia: pictures, slideshows, videos, animations, crowdsourcing.

You recalled your instructor suggesting using social media for your reporting medium. But what can you do with them? On the other side, what should you do to maintain your professional reputation?

Almost all do’s apply to your online reporting. Maintain your independent stand as the fourth estate. Displaying all the groups you join might give the sense of your political or religious positions. Posting too many personal stuffs (oh-I-was-drunk-in-a-party-last-weekend posts) might hurt your professional reputation.

However, don’t act too distant. Interacting with your readers through comments or retweeting is a must. You don’t want the readers think they are reading a computer-generated news outlet, especially if you are using blog or Twitter as the medium.

Be critical in gathering information. Don’t just take the information right away. Any body can say anything online! Check if it comes from credible sources. Go to the original webpage to double check.

Another good feature of social media is transparency. Be sure to be open on the sources. You don't want to be like Gailen David, a former flight attendant sued by American Airlines. American Airlines sued him on revealing confidential information. He revealed in his parody videos some confidential information but refused to tell his sources.

Last but not least, use the social media as your reporting tools but always be skeptical as a journalist.

Happy reporting!

A Day with The Seattle Times

I had a rewarding opportunity to do a job shadow with Mike Siegel, photographer at The Seattle Times last Friday.

It was all started from my search for internship opportunity as part of the scholarship program.

I am a journalism student at Everett Community College and thought it might be a good learning experience to be able to intern in a big news company like The Seattle Times. So, I tried my luck.

Apparently, there was no internship position at the time I applied. But in return, Jim Simons, one of the editors, offered me a one-day job shadow with their photographer.

I took it. At least, there would be something I could learn. I made the right decision.

So, Friday morning, I was at Seattle. The bus was surprisingly fast that I reached the place far earlier than I thought it would be.

I was supposed to meet Mike at 8 p.m. but apparently he had an assignment to cover a house fire at Mountlake Terrace happened the previous night.

While waiting, I was given a tour to the newsroom, which was so big. I should say that was my first experience being inside the real newsroom.

The staffs were friendly. There I learned how they update online stories and photos.

Then Mike came and I had a chance to see the process of a breaking-news photo went online. In real time.

Again, I was given another tour. This time, we went to all departments in the newspaper. It was so great to witness how people work in newsroom, how newspaper was produced.

At 10 a.m. I was invited to join Fred Nelson, photo editor, to editor meeting. It was not much different with my story idea meeting with the Clipper, only this was more serious and hi-tech.

There were two editor meetings in a day (10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m.) in a room called fishbowl (because it was a room with glass wall).

The meeting was started with the presentation of readership of yesterday issue. Then, story ideas from each department for Saturday and Sunday edition. Everybody seems to have lots of stories running.

After that Fred explained to me about his job mediating the photographers and writers. Good stories should go with good photos and good photos deserve publication.

There was a breaking news: a Navy jet hit apartments in Virginia Beach, VA. Everybody was busy looking for more information and photos. Again, I witnessed another breaking news in process.

Soon, the news hit the top of a screen showing traffic of online readership.

We were supposed to have a photo session with Kenny G (yes, the saxophonist and he was from Seattle) but it was canceled.

My second press pass

However, we got another assignment to cover Sakura-Con 2012 at Washington State Convention and Trade Center at Downtown Seattle.

Mike contacted the event organizer, asking permission and press pass.  When everything was okay, we geared up. Shooting time!

It was another learning experience to observe how a professional photojournalist worked on the field. We shoot, took notes. I wish I had a camera with voice memo like the one Mike used. But never mind, I learned another way of recording information from him.

When we were done, I observed Mike working on his assignment: selection, editing, captioning.  Photos were sent and ready to publish.

That was pretty much the day.

Back to Everett, I had to work on my own photos and stories for the Clipper.

Haiku: A New Toy

Five – seven – five.

That’s the rule for haiku, a short form of Japanese poetry. Originally written in Japanese and following the language’s on (or morae) - a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, haiku has been modified and transferred to other language such as English.

One haiku consists of 17 on (or similar to syllables in English) and three lines. The first line has five on, the second line has seven on and the third line has five on. It can tell about anything, from kitchen utensils to political issues.

My Media Writing instructor first introduced haiku to me. Although she had discussed haiku in her previous quarter newswriting class, I’m more involved in haiku today because she assigned us to create haikus.

At the beginning, I found it hard to describe a thing in just three lines. It seemed to me that an object has many things to describe and three line wouldn’t be enough.

However, as I try to play with words and narrow down the descriptions, I’m addicted (literally).

My mind can’t stop thinking in five-seven-five until now, two hours after I finished writing my haiku.

Here are examples of my haiku:

Move from key to key

E – A – D – G – B and E

Pick the strings and sing

Let your pasta swim

Boiled water and olive oil

Add sauce, salt and cheese

Final penalty

Baggio failed scoring goal

Brazil got fourth cup

Slices, chunk or dice

Potatoes, tomatoes, meat


Cut them as you like

Haiku is so fun

Keep thinking five-seven-five

Why don't you write too?

Segede Bagong Tingkat Dewa

Yeehaa….

Akhirnya, setelah sekian lama, aku memutuskan untuk menulis dalam bahasa keduaku, bahasa Indonesia tercinta (bahasa pertama, tentu saja Hokkian, sebagai keturunan Tionghua yang tinggal di Medan). Setelah melihat-lihat blogku, aku terhenyak karena hampir tidak ada tulisan dalam bahasa Indonesia. (What a shame! - abaikan)

Okay, Indonesian fellas (Haduh, otakkku, stop thinking in English!, - English brain: Ay, ay, Captain!)

Pagi ini, status (dan komentar-komentar di bawahnya) seorang teman di BukuWajah memberi ide untuk mulai menulis. Selagi masih pagi dan belum ada teman sekamar yang bangun, aku pun menulis (lebay!)

Oke (baca: baiklah). Statusnya berbunyi kurang lebih sebagai berikut :

“baru mengerti mengapa ibuku menyuruhku membawa tas segede bagong. Ternyata dia mau menitip barang yang lebih gede dari bagong.”

Temannya  bertanya, “bagong itu apa?”

Teman yang lain berkomentar, “bagong itu pig”

Teman pertama membalas, “loh, bukannya kodok ya?”

Haduh…. Tiba-tiba muncul pemikiran, seberapa sering kita pakai istilah gaul tanpa memahami asal-usul istilah tersebut (atau paling tidak memahami alasan kata-kata tertentu dipakai dalam bahasa gaul). Meskipun aku bukan pakar bahasa gaul (apalagi bahasa tak gaul), tapi aku berusaha mencari tahu supaya tidak terjadi salah pemakaian (pada konteks yang salah, atau penjelasan yang salah)

Oke (baca: baiklah). Mari kita tilik istilah “segede bagong” atau “segede gaban” (ini juga lumayan populer).

Gede = besar (dalam bahasa Betawi/Jawa) dan itu sudah lazim dipakai.

Mari kita tilik kata Bagong. Bagong bukan babi ataupun kodok, melainkan tokoh wayang. Ingat Petruk dan Gareng? Atau ingat acara Aneka Ria setiap hari Minggu di TVRI? (kalau ingat, sadar umur). Yep, Bagong adalah salah satu tokoh punakawan dalam wayang. Ciri fisiknya digambarkan sebagai bertubuh bulat dan besar. Bandingkan dengan Petruk yang cungkring. Mungkin ukuran tubuh yang hampir sama adalah Semar.  

Sementara itu, Gaban merupakan tokoh polisi robot dalam film “Space Cop Gavan/Gaban” (sedikit penjelasan, bahasa Jepang punya bunyi pengucapan terntentu yang tidak terpenuhi dalam pengucapan bahasa lain. Contohnya: vegetarian akan dibaca [bejitarian] atau Luffy dalam komik One Piece akan tertulis [Ruffy] dalam komik aslinya). Bagi mereka yang berusia remaja pada era 80’an 90’an, film Gaban sangat populer. Sekali lagi, Gaban digambarkan sebagai robot yang bisa menjadi raksasa (semoga aku masih ingat filmnya…)

Jadi, istilah “segede bagong/gaban” merupakan hiperbola, bahwa objek yang dimaksud memiliki ukuran yang besar luar biasa seperti ukuran Bagong atau Gaban. Mungkin lain kali, kita bisa menggunakan istilah “segede Monas” atau “segede Power Rangers” atau supaya terkesan lebih gaul: “segede Hagrid”.

Istilah lain yang juga sempat populer di dunia per-BukuWajah-an atau Pengicau (baca: Twitter) atau juga KurirBeriHitam adalah  “…. tingkat dewa.” (isi titik-titik dengan segala kata sifat yang terpikir).

Karena biasanya situs sosial berfungsi sebagai pelampiasan emosi negatif, maka status-status yang bertaburan juga biasanya menggunakan kata sifat negatif. Seperti: lapar/marah/sebel/bingung/emosi/kecewa/… tingkat dewa. Kemudian, seorang teman (ya, jangan tanya berapa banyak teman yang aku punya) berkomentar seperti ini: “capek aku lihat semua yang berakhiran tingkat dewa. Kalau dewa bisa marah, ga disebut dewa lagi.” Ups!

Oke (baca: baiklah). Mari kita tilik. Semua orang percaya bahwa dewa memiliki kemampuan lebih di atas manusia. Mungkin hampir semua manusia (yang mengenal kata dewa) ingin menjadi dewa. Namun, apakah dewa itu sesuatu yang sempurna? Tentu tidak (baca dengan gaya iklan obat cacing). Dewa-dewa dalam cerita Yunani kuno juga memiliki keburukan seperti manusia. Bahkan dewa-dewa dalam cerita di ktiab suci juga tidak sempurna (Lucifer, dkk). Dewa-dewa dalam cerita Tiongkok kuno juga tidak sempurna (lihat saja Panglima Tian Feng alias Ti Pat Kay). Namun, mereka semua memiliki persamaan : lebih hebat dari manusia.

Jadi, istilah tingkat dewa merupakan hiperbola bahwa tingkatan kata sifat yang dipakai melebihi tingkatan yang bisa ditahan oleh manusia. Tentu saja, istilah tersebut bisa dimodifikasi. Seorang teman menggunakan isitilah “tingkat nasional” yang lebih mudah dicerna. Lapar tingkat nasional berarti rasa laparnya tidak main-main lagi, sudah tingkat nasional.

Istilah berikut mungkin hanya diketahui segelintir orang karena setahuku istilah ini hanya digunakan dalam bahasa Hokkian dan ketika aku menggunakannya dalam bahasa Indonesia, teman dari daerah lain bertanya-tanya…. Mungkin percakapan berikut bisa menggambarkan situasi yang aku hadapi

Teman( sebut saja Tulang) : “Aduh, kepalaku sakit, nih.”

Aku : “Hah? Biasa aja kalee…”

Tulang: “Aduh, beneran aku ga bisa tahan lagi deh. Sakit bangeeeeetttt….”

Aku: “Walah, lebih sakit ga punya kepala tahu…”

Tulang: “Ih, apa sih???”

Oke (baca: baiklah). Tidak ada penjelasan asal usul kata di sini dan tidak ada hiperbola, melainkan sarkasme (lupa arti kata ini? Tanya guru bahasa Indonesia ya). Kadang-kadang orang mengeluh tentang sesuatu yang biasa saja. Sakit kepala. Yep. Seberapa sakit, sih? Kalau masih bisa jalan sana-sini, makan, masak dan kawan-kawan, ya masih bisa ditahan bukan. Daripada mengeluh terus, mending makan obat, istirahat, supaya sakitnya sembuh. Jadi, buat mereka yang suka mengeluh sakit kepala, misalnya, bayangkan mereka yang tidak punya kepala, tidak punya perut…. (amit-amit jabang orok – ada yang tau penjelasan istilah ini?)

Wah…. Ternyata saya lebih lancar berbacot dan mengetik dalam bahasa keduaku ini. Tiga halaman dalam waktu 50 menit! Beneran ukuran segede gaban tingkat dewa....

It's Dark And Stormy

“Do you guys want to go home? I can give you a ride if you want!” offered a friend, Mr. Smith, after attending a seminar at Seattle.

I wanted to say yes, but my friend, Mr.OCD had taken the chance to speak, “Thank you very much. But I think we’re going to walk around for a while.”

“Walk around in Seattle at this time?”

It was 10 p.m. on Tuesday.

“Why not?” (I went out from my house at that time in Medan)

“Nothing is wrong here. But, what can you see in weekday like this?”

“No idea.”

***

“I wonder where the people are?” Mr. Talented asked in one of our visits to Seattle.

“It’s now 10 p.m.”

“Yes, I know, but in Jakarta, you can see many people hang around 7-11”

“Who wants to hang around in this kind of cold weather?”

“Maybe you’re right. I’m freezing now.”

***

Several days ago, I read a note in F*cebook about Seasonal Affection Disorder written by a ‘cool’ psychologist. Weather and season can affect your mood and emotional state!

I tried to observe my own behavior in the past months to see how weather changed it.

When I was in Bremen, the first thing I checked when I woke up in the morning was the temperature. Weather forecast had become my breakfast. Why? You need to know what to wear if you plan to go outside.

You didn’t want to wear jacket if the sun shone or T-shirt when it was raining (actually, drizzling).

The thing got worse because the weather changed quite drastically throughout the day.

It might be cloudy and drizzling in the morning, sunny day in the noon, cloudy in the afternoon and freezing at night. Or the variation of those four.

So, if you plan to spend half a day outside, you have to prepare at least 2 kinds of clothes to save yourself (literally). You need to save yourself if weather get too chilly and save your face by not wearing thick jacket on sunny weather.

It was the end of spring. Restaurants and Biergarten (place you can buy beer and sit around) started setting chairs and tables outdoor, greeting the summer. My friend told me it’s typical summertime. People wanted to enjoy the sun. Nobody wants to sit outside, having a glass of beer during winter (or even spring time).

I was unlucky that this year’s summer was kind of late. I was entitled to enjoy ‘only’ 2-week sunny days. The first day I saw the forecast telling me it was 31-Celsius degree, I was so happy. I treasured the sun. That was the first time I really appreciated sunshine even it was 34-Celsius degree. I remembered how I avoid sunny day in Medan (even worse when I moved to Jakarta), which mostly ranged from 27 to 33-Celsius degree. But then, I really enjoyed being sweaty.

I’m now in Everett. A 120,000-population city. The weather is not much different from Bremen.

It was summer when I first arrived and of course the sun shone. However, we were warned that the weather would become worse and prepare for drizzling days.

Summer ended and here came fall.

A friend of mine once asked why a lot of people whine about September and why there was a song like “Wake Me Up When September Ends” by Green Day. Now, I did understand why.

September was the beginning of fall and marked the end of happy summer.

Weather changed dramatically from happy sunny day to gloomy cloudy day. Who wants to go out in a cloudy and windy day? Isn’t it nicer to enjoy the heater and a cup of coffee in front of your laptop? It’s like asking somebody who is playing game to go working on assignments.

(FYI, I think it’s only Indonesia has “September Ceria” (Cheerful September) as a song).

I remembered when I was taking Environmental Psychology class, we discussed about how environmental changed people’s behaviors. In this case, weather.

It’s believed that people who live in places with less daylight are more vulnerable to depression. Offices in Norway, for example, will have lights turn on the whole day to prevent the employees being depressed, especially during winter time when daylight is only 2 hours a day.

I grew up in a tropical country where daylight time is relatively the same in the whole year. I learnt how to read the time from the sun and the sky. I know the approximate time just looking at the sky.

But here (and also in Bremen)? I really need a watch. I was time disoriented. When I was in Bremen, daylight was longer (it could be 16 hours) during summer. I might think that it’s 5 p.m. because the sun was still there. But when I looked at my watch, it was 9 p.m. And here in Everett, the sky might look like 9 p.m. while it was actually 5  p.m. during fall. I couldn’t imagine how my skill would be ruined when winter came.

Weather also affects people’s activities. In cold area, people tend to do things indoor. It’s okay to hang around 7-11 at 11 p.m. in Jakarta. But here? You attempt suicide. Shops usually close at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. No point to open late because less people want to walk outside (like Mr. OCD and I did in Seattle). So, it’s less likely you can find 24-hour stores.

Does environment affect people?

Yes, definitely.

Now I learn one thing: you know how worse the weather by seeing what people wear.