Surendra Phuyal

An unprecedented undergoing  

He was the best reason for me to be glad to be there. He is my media hero, someone who is everywhere and always, in Kathmandu post, in BBC and in other international websites and publications; whose radio reports I saved and listened to and tried to copy, whose article I archived and read and tried to follow the style .His experiences were more congenial because I work for radio too . It feels good to meet people who make reports and features for radio, but I don’t know why such people are rare to meet, those who really understand the grand feeling of working for radio and appreciate this medium. People tend to neglect this media terming it as something “very small”, but I appreciate this very “smallness” of radio because we want to reach to the narrow and dark corners waiting to be kindled-up and other mediums are too big to fit-in those corners. And it felt like home, when he advocated the usability and beauty of radio. It was interesting to know about the Flash Mike. Till date I was using Marantz and was in illusion that it was the latest and the most advanced form of recorder. This “Flash Mike” thing sounds something like a wand every radio reporter dreamed of. His other experiences as the AFPF fellow were not much different than Ghanshyam Ojha’s.  His sharing conformed my adherence to the longevity and depth of the story, as well as the stories of human suffering and success. But it was a bit disheartening to sense a “haughty and haste “aura in his presentation .It was actually an unprecedented undergoing for a ‘just-popped’ reporter like me, to be poised to learn what a successful and well-trained journalist has to share .But, the sharing did not go as good as it could, may be because I anticipated too much from him and may be because his presentation was sandwiched between two lofty pieces of bread. However, the taste of mayonnaise was unforgotable.Afterall, just two shits of bread never make a sandwich complete.

Deepak Adhikari

Convergence is the answer

If I have learnt something bad in life, I learnt it because of me. If I have learnt something good in life, I learnt it because of him .From my first blog to first job, he was always that beacon and he is normally in the habit of teaching me big big lessons of life. So, I have a great reverence for this man and feel myself lucky to be present in the presentation he was committed to present while writing the last essay as an AFPF fellow. His was the must insightful, practically implementable, technically possible and very glamorous idea. It was really another life-changing lesson. Content-wise, his presentation was the best. His idea of story telling was superb. His tech-idea seemed well -updated. His tech-savvies feed was generous. His slide-shows were beautiful and the content was unmatching. But his presentation could not escape some faux-pass as usual. The slide shows were too fleeting to imbibe in. He peppered the idea a tad bit insufficiently. But what made his presentation best were the hand out, the idea multimedia and the idea of convergence. Everything boils down to the convergence and Convergence is the answer.

The Multimedia

Marry good form with excellent content

Few Hand-outs and paper guidelines Deepakji disseminated are the answer of the whole workshop. The links and URLs and book list   will be very useful for me, for any one working with news. The example of the multimedia story “Oakland: A Plague of Killing” was the kernel point and the most suitably posed instance about what the workshop was all about. I am just obsessed by it, ever since I read it (though the idea was not clear in Deepakji’s presentation as it is clear in reading the print).I never thought this seriously about the implication of multimedia in story telling. Though I do browse many sites and have often found interesting telling through different media but never given a thought that I too, may practice it. It was a great feeling to know that the particular multimedia story “Oakland: A Plague of Killing” was the runner-up for the 2007 Casey Medal for multimedia .I have not  read/watched/listened to that story yet but I can imagine it’s richness, it’s richness of emotion,details,analysis,preciseness through the sketch and other qualities.

It just compelled me to say “I want to do that, I will do that”. I related it to my particular story, if I were to make a story about a woman whose life suffered a sea change from a scratch to a well-off because of the saving/microcredit/cooperatives et al… I would not make it a linear story. A captivating video of her talking about how life was before, the typical inciting event that compelled her to think for alternatives, showing her rooms, the way she spends a day and comparing that to the bygone days. A spellbinding audio of her song that she sings everyday while doing her chores, some choking voice full of emotion. Some pictures of her how she worked in community, some pictures of past. A vox-pop of people around her. A sketch presenting the ladder of her life, or some graphics of how other similar things have happened throughout the country. A detailed information about the history, emergence and implication of the idea of microcredit, how it has affected the world and Nepal and the typical village where she lives. Everything sounds so exciting. A multi-folded story telling. What an engaging story would that be .Converging the divergence. It really wows. Deepakji, I hope you imply this multimedia thing at your work, and I think there better be a formal Multimedia Community in Nepal to promote, train and encourage the journos to go multimedia .And if ever be such community formed and if it called for an multimedia story competition, I will definitely participate, for that, I will start learning from here and now.

The Web-glossary

“Jesus, what’s the world’s coming to”

The list of web-words was amazing, interesting to know. You can not dip the COOKIES in your tea anymore because they have become the files. You can not scratch your back with the LONG TAIL because they have become certain content of the website. You can not kill a SPIDER or an ANT because they have become some searching things. You can not expect a CLOUD to rain because it has added a tag called TAG in front of it and have become a grouping of keywords. The birds will no longer eat the BREADS CRUMBS because they have become some navigational links. A Mashup, Crowdsourcing, Sock puppetry, a troll……so many…a plethora of new web-words I was quite unfamiliar to. Now I am inspired to know more about these things.

A Dozen Online Writing Tips

A Dozen pearls and corals

Let me put some of the points (that touched me) here, firsthand (from the original content)

·        Think about what the best way is to convey that story, whether through audio, video, clickable graphics, text, links etc.

·        Print reporter tends to look for information. TV reporters look for emotion on camera, sound bites and pictures to go with words. Online journalists must constantly think in terms of different elements and how they complement and supplement each other. Look for words, to go with words, data that will lend itself to interactive, etc..

·        Remember that photos look better online when shot or cropped narrowly, and streaming video is easier to watch when backgrounds are plain and zooming minimal.

·        Always keep an eye out for information that can be conveyed more effectively using interactive tools

·        Write tighter than print, but more literate and detailed than broadcast writing. write actively, not passively.

·        Strive for lively prose, strong verbs and sharp nouns.

·        Use distinctive voice, use humor, try breezy style,attitude,conversational styles

·        Readers notice sloppy writing and they don’t forgive

·        Readers have option

·        “Model T” story structure, inverted pyramid, Just give someone a reason to read on.Then,jump from one idea to another

·        Roy Peter Clark has written a wonderful essay arguing that any story can be told in 800 words.

·        Readers will stick with longer stories online if there is a compelling reason

·        Writing should be snappy and fast to read

·        Try reading sentences aloud to see if they are too long. You should be able to read an entire sentence without pausing for a breath

·        It also helps to extract information into charts,tables,bulleted lists and interactive graphics

·        Stretch the boundaries of what can be done.

·        There are no rules, only Ideas. Take risks. Try something different.

·        Facts still have to be double-and-triple checked; writing still needs to be sharp, lively and to the point; stories should include context; and ethical practices must be followed.

·        Don’t let the 24/7 speed trap and the new tools distract you from these basics

·        Trust will keep people coming back for more

These are the points I just felt like underlining. Everything’s actually superb, infact every online media worker should browse through it. And I feel extremely grateful towards Deepakji for imparting such big idea (the idea is big for me because I like the idea) and the hand-outs.

Sourav Dhakal

The Streamliner

I liked this man in black, this man behind the event. Souravji, you are quite successful in making it happen. Everything was well-streamlined, up-to-date, timely and a perfect event to be proud of. Thanks for organizing it and selecting me for participation

The Observation Speeches

Stupidity revisited

I understand the limitation of the organizers but honestly I didn’t like those observational speeches. That again sounded stupid, again felt stupid. Rather, it would be better had we have meditated for a while.

Alfred Friendly and Daniel pearl fellowship

An ode to peace, justice, press-freedom and excellent reporting

Needless to say, this is an excellent idea. A great good for the journos of developing countries .No academic but practical, no interning but staffing, no flushing of money but flushing of learning opportunities and challenges, no discrimination among the English-friendly and non-friendly journos .The most important thing is that, this fellowship is provided under the condition of promoting peace, keeping in mind the messege of Alfred and Daniel who always reported war and condemned war. And the beautiful thing is that, this fellowship does not receive any grant from the US government, which grant only the quarter the money in causing peace as much as it spends in war. So fellows, lucky you narrate the story more humanely, analytically, go multimedia and promote peace and justice.

Nepal Infopark

 Good-emerging, Good-going

I like this “initiative to spread awareness and promote inspirational drive in ordinary people” and the tour of “indentifying such chnagemakers in the society” .Good luck with the film, it’s a great success to collaborate with Gazelle Films. It’s splendid .But, I want to say something about this “Mahabir Project” since you have said “We look forward to your valuable support, guidance, suggestions and encouragement in any form”. I have to tell something about Mahabir Pun .Here, I am not trying to preach or impose or dictate idea .I know it well that you are a team of Experts and you know what you are doing better than me ,but still, I feel like sharing my individual opinion , in my true modesty and humility.

 Since your objective is to “promote inspirational drive in ordinary people “I think ordinary people will not get any inspirational drive from the personality of Mahabir Pun as a” personality dedicated in giving sense of internet and technology, tracking global warming in the Himalayas, promoting income-generation among Background community “…And all. Basically because, Ordinary people know who Mahabir Pun is and what has he done, or lets say,Ordienry people mostly know almost every big thing, every big personality, Mahatma Gandhi,Einstien, People know everybody and know what they have done, they certainly have promoted some inspirational drive but the majority still lay unmotivated, uninspired because most of the personality sketch has focused in “big Things big people have done” and the ordinary people find it good to read and watch about them and forget.

If we really intend to inspire them to change, we should be focused on “small things of big people”, rather than focusing on “how better the big people are than the ordinary people”, it is better to focus on “how similar the big people are to the ordinary people”. In this world, people get impressed but they are too busy to change the “big things “of life, so we better show them a tiny difference in traits of the big people and ordinary people. And also, in case of big people, there should always be a clear distinction between luck and struggle. Many Nepali had to suffer exactly like Mahabir Pun while he spent his childhood at Nangi Village but not everyone was lucky enough to migrate down to chitwan for the sake of rice and schools. Many Nepali had to perform the fair duty of  taking care of siblings sacrificing his/her opportunities and all but not all are lucky enough to go to America after a 12 years of teaching. All I mean to say is this”luck factor” sometimes distracts and detaches the ordinary people from identifying the life of big people.

I was recently doing some research on Mahabir Pun for our radio/television/online program. Then I spent about some four hour interviewing and talking with him. The idea of featuring Mahabir Pun became actually a too much for me,; just surf the net, hundreds of information about him are available, all the who’s who of national and international media has interviewed him has featured him have written shown aired same things ..Blah blah…so story angle troubled me .Then I thought, my story angle would be “Mahabir Pun is not somebody big at all”.

 The media, online, print, tv, radio…all of them have celebrated him so much that his personality has been extremely mystified and has crossed the limitation of perfection. And this is taking him faraway from the ordinary people. About his life, his work, his projects…everything is there but if we really intend ordinary people to be inspired by him, the small things, small beliefs, small thinking patterns, small habits, small natural story in his life should be presented, so that ordinary people can identify themselves with him as someone similar and equal to them and then that will trigger the inspirational drive. Here, I am not meaning to look Mahabir as someone less important, I actually respect him from the core of my heart for his clarity of thinking and honesty of doing and simplicity of showing. But, while featuring him, it is not important how big Mahabir pun is or how big works he has done but the important thing is how better the targeted audience can get inspirational drive from his life on the basis of how we have shown him. The chances of ordinary people for getting inspired is more when they can identify big people with themselves, when they internalize that the big people are not big because they have done big things but because they have done the small things better. This also holds true for other “change makers in the society”, seek small thing in them which is practicably usable and inspirational in ordinary people’s life.Hope, I have been able to communicate my idea well.

Workshop-sum up

An event to remember and be grateful of

To sum-up, the workshop remained very interesting and fruitful for me. It has shown the possibility of what can be done and I am sure someday the practical implication of the knowledge I gained here will be seen in my work .Regarding question, I did not ask questions not because I was shy or nervous or anything, but because, I did not have any questions other than those I discussed with the fellows in lunch break. When you have just known A of the alphabet and just into learning B, you need not know the distance between L and T or why M looked like a wire .But it was indeed an appetizer and I am feeling extremely hungry for further edibles  was disappointed to see the number of female participants . The organizer should have taken care of this; many emerging and diligent lady journos who were in need of this kind of orientation were not there. Besides Binita and Anjana, there should have been more people who knew at least something of the media.

 As I left the Hall, I didn’t feel stupid at all; I was actually feeling wise, very wise.