Citizen Journalism Blog

I am going to rant on my citizen journalism activities. I don’t give a damn because it is better I rant than to back-stab, bad mouth, gossip, whine and then, pretend to put on a smiling face. My character is such. If I like you, you know it. If you pissed me, I will tell you off.

So, here goes…

ON TEAMWORK
I am a very efficient, fast worker and I cannot stand working working in groups where I need to wait for things. I also do not like to be like a bunch of school kids where we need a bunch giggly girls and boys to do something. I prefer to be a lone ranger. Or have only one reliable partner who gets what I am thinking of doing.

ON FILMING TECHNIQUE
I have a very hyperactive imagination and even as we are filming, I know what I am going to do with the story, what sort of scenes I want and what I am going to include in my editing. So, I can’t stand people who are so worked up over getting beautiful shots and such flowery stuffs. For me, it is just do the farking job of getting the news we want. We are not movie production who needs to produce fantastic, creative, artsy, fartsy stuffs.

ON WHO GETS THE ‘MEATY’ STORIES
It is my understanding that since I work the fastest and has most-est time, I take up most of the chores of editing. So, when people said, ‘when one or two get to edit’, I surely feel pissed because I felt like I am being accused of grabbing all the meaty parts. Doh…I don’t get paid for doing the chores. I am doing it to prove that our GROUP (not me, myself, I, darn it!) is productive.

ON COMMITMENT
I asked one person to help with getting out more stories. He said he doesn’t have the clips. My other coursemate burned a CD for him. He forgot. And he went back to the excuse of ‘I don’t have the clips’. Where is the commitment?

ON WHAT GOES INTO OUR CAMERA
Still on the ‘I have no clips’, all three of us have the same amount of 8GB in our camera. We only need to produce mere minutes of video. Youtube only allows 10 minutes. The 8GB can takes at least 2 hours of filming. Yet, how the fark can one come up with the excuse that his camera recorded nothing worth making into a documentary? No even a single 2 minute video?

ON GETTING FEATURED
This is one I super pissed off. As far as I am concerned, I no longer care if my video contribution gets accepted. I have now matured to the level where I do something because I think it is worth sharing. But people still have ideas that unless your video is going to be featured, it is not worth his time. Doh…There are plenty of places to upload my videos and getting views.

ON GETTING CREDITS
I have been tripled pissed being featured in The Making because if any one of my friends or blog readers knew there are such videos around, they will think that I am seeking credits, glory and were doing all the video filming so that I can make my own show of ‘See what a big heart person I am, I work so hard’. Those videos featuring me going out on citizen journalism ventures left a bad taste in my mouth. It could possibly robbed off my real intention, i.e. to help people.

ON NOT CALLING THE WHOLE VILLAGE
So, yeah, I have quietly went off to some event without telling the others. I went to the candlelight vigil because I had been a hardcore vigiler and the last thing I need is to have a noobie cameraman with me. It is a potential risk and true indeed, the police did arrest someone.

And the conclusion I made is…..the day I began doing things on my own without feeling bad about not shouting to tell all my comrades or screaming for attention by making a video of myself doing the video, I know I have graduated as a citizen journalist. I don’t need my mommy’s boobies anymore. I can walk, I can talk and I can run already.