I wish I had the guts to be like Christiane Amanpour. Her whole career has been a fascinating ride, beginning at the very core of her identity (she's half Moslem, half Catholic) to her day to day life in the middle of conflict zones. I'd love to know her world view, how she experienced it forming, how she sees the future, how she sees people in the context of her position as one who carries the information first hand; and as a necessary catalyst of forming society's opinions.
"There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing."
I think that's one of the best explanations of objectivity I've ever read.
I content myself with the fact that I'm in good company though: she's deathly afraid of heights.
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I attended a brainstorming and board of trustees meeting for Probe yesterday. We all met at Cheche's house.
The whole exercise has made me reflect on the values I live as a media practitioner. It made me wonder just how far I was willing to go to make my efforts a success. Do I go and join the bandwagon of sensational and gory television? Do I go and pretend television and broadcast media can still be an instrument of education, a messenger of values and morals? Do I continue to believe that I can effect a small change -- for the better -- in the world?
Or is television obsolete? Is new media the way to go?
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I think people need to learn how to separate just the internet -- it's technicalities, and all the notions of it being an instrument of the devil, designed to invade our lives and control us -- from the good it has actually done to connect people all over the world. The internet has done so on an even deeper level than even television has.
Social media, largely activated on the internet, has become a phenomenon not to be taken lightly. Anyone with a Friendster, Multiply, Facebook or Blogger account know this for a fact. The sheer power of interaction among peers, as well as experts now made accessible, has created networks upon networks of individuals who exchange information based on their own personal experiences. And really, the best way to learn anything for sure is through experience.
So in a sense everyone can be an expert at something, based on one's experience. It could be about the best route to get to Batangas, the best coffee place in Boracay, or where to get great bargains on curtains. As indivuduals share and react, provide feedback in the form of messages, photos or video, information is made richer. It's bound to be useful to someone; and acting on that information so creates knowledge.
That knowledge becomes the basis for more exchanges and in turn the creation of more experiences. This is in fact what companies like Google and Yahoo invest in: the richness of knowledge. They pay to know how often the knowledge is accessed and used. They invest how well the it is supported -- mostly by communities on line, or networks.
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Regular people have just as much to share as "experts" do. These days people trust others just like them than those proclaimed by the media as "experts".
Connecting with others "like me" is a testimony to people's cynicism of media's king making. People trust regular folks be
cause there is no polish, no bright lights, no preambles on how well s/he is learned on just one topic and can apply it to everyone else's situations.
People know off the bat that that's not true.
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I have to really do my thesis now.
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I want to take a break from work. I think I'm starting to feel really tired of what I'm doing. I'd love to do something different for a change.
I want to travel.
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