Restricted Area: Non-Journalists not allowed

A very interesting discussion ensued from Day 1 of the Panos South Asia multimedia workshop and that concerned blogging. Many from mainstream media opposed blogs as an "inferior form of journalism". This is a completely expected reaction. There is a real and present threat to mainstream media from so-called "wanna-be journalists" aka bloggers.

This resulted in some animated exchanges from those with non-traditional media backgrounds. Question is, are blogs a part of media? Should views have to be vetted by an editoral process in order to be credible? Are bloggers rabble rousers? Are journalists the only source of authentic news and information? And what constitutes a "journalist"? Someone with a degress in mass comm?

This discussion was interesting enough to be continued long after the close of the day's session. It fact, it was debated at the local fast-food outlet.

Ironically, the writing on the wall read: "Please do not write anything on the wall" Surrounding this plea was a wall full of graffitti. Isn't that what this debate all about? Keep off you "non-journalists". But we just won't go away will we! That's the power of free speech and true voices from the grassroots.

Panos South Asia Multimedia workshop: Day 1

Turbulence at 35,000 feet high reflects the same down below

Too long has there been a one-way, top-down flow of information - from the north to south, rich to poor, haves to have-nots. It is important to redress this imbalance with a reverse flow - from the bottom-up. This is the zone grassroots media or local content will have to fill, to ensure a truly democratic media.

The trip here was pleasant - a chance to reflect on the turbulence in our world, while flying 35,000 feet in the sky. Yesterday we tried the local fast food called "Mo Mo" from the street stall. Its a little ball made of cornflower with chicken stuffed inside and served in some kind of sauce. It's delicious!

Today, Sep 21, we began the first session of the 9-day multimedia local content development workshop organised by Panos South Asia in Kathmandu, Nepal. There are participants from all over south asia - Pakistan, Bangladesh, Buthan, Sri Lanka, India and Nepal.

ICT - information and communciation technology, is not an end in itself we were told. Rather, it is a means to an end which is - raising and mainstreaming marginalised voices to effect development (ICT4D).

This definition assumes significance, as too often, mainstream media lays claim to using ICT as part of their strategies. But this generally means merely using new technologies to tell the same old, slanted stories. Instead of a means to empowerment of the marginalised or as a tool to bring forth voices from the grassroots it is the same old story of one-way traffic from the haves to the have-nots. Old wine in a new high-tech bottle.

Once it is clear what is ICT4D, it becomes immediately apparent there are a number of challenges we face. Be it lack of technology penetration to the grassroots and marginalised or basic infrastructure issues.

It was also interesting to hear experiences of how digital storytelling, something we do at GoCreat, is used by a couple of organisations in Bangladesh and in Nepal, currently at the workshop. In the former case, DST is used for peace and environment awareness. In Nepal, a rural village library project aims to collect lived experiences and re-told as digital stories. These stories are collected in a local content library for access by anyone. Stories collected range from enterprise/entrepreuner experiences, alternative energy experiences or environmental experiences such as garbage disposal techniques.

Language itself is a major issue in local content development and audience plays a major role in deciding the use of language. Panos, for instance, uses English for most of its local online radio content as the audience is global stakeholders in development policies. So, it becomes very important in creation of local content, who that content is meant for. If it is local, it is important that the content must be accessible in the local language.

It was also interesting to be part of a conversation with a journalist from Kashmir and journalists from Pakistan. We are not as different as our politicians and even mainstream media would like us to believe.

Over the next 8 days we will together focus on the methods used in creating multimedia content - from writing for the web, building visual literacy in stills and video and using web technologies for making the local content accessable to a global audience. We will be working on an actual story from scripting to storyboard to shooting video, editing and uploading to to web.

This should be hectic but fun, so stay tuned!

Seismic changes in photojournalism

The road ahead | S Gasper D'Souza

The seismic changes in photojournalism that have been expected for some time now, seem to be upon us in a big way. After Nikon announced its D90, capable of shooting HD video, Canon today announced the EOS 5D Mark II capable of shooting HD and SD video and, what's more, it take stereo audio inputs (Nikon failed on the audio front).

According to the Canon USA press note (http://www.usa.canon.com/templatedata/pressrelease/20080917_5dmkii.html)

Answering the question of where SLR technology is going next, the EOS 5D Mark II features 16:9 Full HD video capture at 1920 x 1080 pixels and 30 fps as well as 4:3 standard TV quality (SD) video capture at 640 x 480 pixels and 30 fps, both capabilities appearing for the first time in a Canon SLR camera.

The new camera features an input terminal for external stereo microphones as well as a built-in monaural microphone for convenience.

This proves that integrated visual solutions are here to stay. Photojournalists can now look to shooting stills and video with the same camera and more importantly, use the same SLR lenses for creative control - wide, tele, shallow depth of field...the works.

...including everything from ultra-wide-angle and fish-eye to macro and super-telephoto, including many large-aperture L-series professional lenses that can keep the main subject in razor-sharp focus while blurring the background beyond recognition.

With both the majors having seen the need to merge stills with video, there's no excuse for stalling any more.

The revolution is on!

Beyond Walls and Lessons Learnt

I was invited to photograph the mural work of a friend and artist Milan at a day care center opened at the Goa University. Milan and Priya spent 6 days creating some facinating work on the walls of the center.

Of course, given I'm now dabbling in multimedia, I do not lose any opportunity to hone in on my new skills and so decided to do an impromptu interview with Milan and Priya after the shoot.

A key lesson I learnt today is keep the recorder handy even after the interview.

Before the interview, both were pretty edgy, not being too accustomed to talking into the mic. I tried to talk to them while I got the recorder and mic set up, just to ease them up. During the interview I found them to open up as we moved along, becoming more and more spontaneous. I spent about 5 minutes talking to them and then made a cardinal mistake - I packed up.

Soon after that, Priya and Milan began telling me about how they get along together, how they managed to paint the walls - each in her own style and yet, the resulting whole blended so well together. As they spoke, I realised I did not have my recorded out! And to stop them to bring it out would have killed the mood. So, I let it pass, vowing to never put away my tools until the very end and then, keep them out a little longer.

A good lesson learnt.

View the Slideshow: Beyond Walls

Indian Media: Sinking to new lows, by the day

The Indian media (tv) has done it again. Today, we were all aghast at the news of the serial blasts in New Delhi that happened between 6:15pm and 7pm.

I switched between CNN-IBN, Times Now and NDTV and kept getting looped images of scattered glass, blood on the streets, strewn slippers etc. And all the while the correspondents were chattering away non-stop.

Then at around 8.30pm we were treated to some "Breaking news" with all channels claiming a child was found with a live bomb. Of course this is news, but what turned me completely off were images of cameramen jostling with each other as the cops took the boy in for questioning. Now the boy was just 12, and to see the way the reporters were almost on top of him, trying to get his visual was disgusting.

And then they got even lower. All of the channels managed to get hold of the boy for "exclusive interviews."

I ask the Indian media, is it right to be showing visuals of a boy, supposedly a witness at a horrific blast scene? What about his safety? Or in the race for TRP ratings is that to be thrown out of the window?

It would have been funny if it were not so serious, but Bharka Dutt, that so-called icon of frontline reporting in Indian media, informed us: "Now, this is an NDTV exclusive. I have here a boy who was on the scene of the blast." She then went on to bring a little fellow, who looked all scared and bewildered. She asked him in Hindi: "Were you on the scene when the blast took place?" To which the poor chap answered: "No". Not to be done in by an under-aged "witness", Bharka then put him back and turning to us said: "He may not have been on the scene but we are told that a 12 year old boy who was selling balloons in the market was found with a live bomb and police are talking to him..."

Talk about decency in reporting the news. God help the 12 year old if the terrorists, who are at large, get their hands on him, having now seen his face on all channels.

Long live Indian media!

De-constructing Goa Nara

I was recently a part of the Goa-Nara one day cross-cultural interaction (cum digital storytelling workshop) in Goa. I used the event to further my dabblings in multimedia by covering the proceedings with still images and audio.

The result can be viewed on my website.

Here I will try to de-construct the audio presentation:

I realised just how much of a hassle it can be, specially for beginners like myself, to balance between audio and photography. Both require just as much thought and attention! For each scene, I made sure I got my images first. I then put down the camera and began recording the audio. But in many instances I found that I needed to capture audio and simultaneously also get a still image. Those were time when I had the mic in one hand and framed shots with the other. A good experience!

Following advice from great teachers like Cyndy Green and Angela Grant (if these are not already on your daily reading list, I strongly recommend you have them), I have begun my multimedia work with a strong emphasis on audio. So, besides making sure I got my shots as I normally would in photojournalism, I also ensured I had good audio for all scenes.

Back home, I edited my audio recordings (using Audacity) down to the clips I thought I could use. Then came the task of sequencing the audio. For this, I used the two interviews I did on location as a rough backbone to go through the timeline (I did mix the interviews around, taking portions from one spot and moving them to another - before or after).

Next, I selected the good live audio from the scenes and inserted them between the interview clips. Finally, I recorded my voiceover to tie together the various segments. I kept voiceover down to the minimum, using it only where absolutely required.

Reading Cyndy and Angela, I realised how important it is, for us photojournalists, to get the audio track right. My endeavour is to try and get an audio that could even go as a standalone piece - perhaps on radio a la NPR (any potential buyers :-) ?). Not sure how much I succeeded towards this end.

Anyway, I finally got down to picture selection and editing. (Note: I more or less had a pretty good idea about the images I had, before I began the production). I then sequenced them and got the images and audio into SoundSlides. Here I had to adjust the timings for each image to match audio and images and the result is what you see.

One key point is background music. I've used music by gurdonark, under the CC license from ccmixter.org/. This is a must have site on your list for production. Under the license, music is free to re-use and distribute with attribution to the creator.

View the Presentation

Keep creativity free of little boxes

September 5th is back once again and India celebrates yet another Teacher's Day, coinciding with the birth anniversary of the second President of India and academic philosopher, Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan.

My daughter, Chelsea, who is in the nursery class this year - the first year in her schooling life, loves school. I will post her own short film sometime later on this blog. But today, I got down and dirty with her as we made Teacher's Day cards for her 4 teachers. That's right, she wanted to create her own cards for each of her four teachers in school.

As the paints flowed and she got her fingers all messed up with some finger painting, the excitement in her face made me realise how much we adults stifle creativity in our kids. Free painting is all but shunned in schools. Children are taught to be "correct" - "Those legs are not proportionate to the rest of the body," they told us, or "How can that boy possibly be smaller than that tree," they chided.

But looking at my 3 and half year old, dabbling with colours, dragging her little fingers along the paper to create flowers and stems and leaves and excitedly using the old toothbrush to spray the sheet in front of her, I made a sincere plea to all the adults she will come across in her life - "Please leave my daughter alone! Give her space to develop her own innate creativity. Don't, for God's sake, stifle it with what you think is "correct", putting her in a little box for the rest of her life. Please!"

And yes, a happy Teacher's Day to all who care for our kids!