Grammar of editing

1. Pictures should tell a story just like words do, so that even with no audio you could more or less tell what is going on. Would the story make sense if the sound was turned down? There should be a logic to the sequence of the pictures.
2. Continuity editing is still the dominant style in the UK TV including news. This comes from the film tradition and involves creating edits that are as seamless as possible, giving the illusion of more than one camera filming at any time.
3. Keep the editing simple. We shouldn’t ‘see’ the editing. The editing is there to help make the story clear.
4. Start with your best shot. Look for action. Avoid static shots. A picture that establishes what the story is about. Usually not a pan or a zoom unless for a special reason.
5. Avoid cutting on a move. Let a pan start and finish. They same with a zoom. Avid two moves one after the other, especially two zooms, or two pans together.
6. Use a variety of shots. Wides, followed by close ups, followed by a move – that sort of thing.
7. Use ‘cutaways’ to shorten action to the length you want. You’re not showing everything, but giving a sense of a particular activity.
8. Try and let movements/actions finish. Have people walking out of shot, especially in a ‘set-up’ before an interview. Avoid ‘jump cuts’.
9. Just as you start well, you should leave the viewer with a strong shot too, preferably one that sums up the story. It may be the reporter summing up on location in a piece to camera.
10. If it’s not a good shot, don’t use it. That’s the point of editing. Only use your best material. So, wobbly camera work, the shot where someone does something distracting in the background should be left on the cutting room floor. No one ever sees what you left out. Sometimes you may have to leave good material on the cutting room floor because you shouldn’t cram in everything, only what you need.

Westminster newsroom hosue style

All news organisations have a house style. It doesn’t really matter what the style is as long as everyone sticks to it. we are issuing this brief style guide for all your work so that WNOL and any news blogs you write will retain a consistency.

Writing to a style is a very good habit to nurture. Ours contains style points common to major news organisations in the UK.

1. Use Oxford English Dictionary spellings. Use the first example where there is an alternative.
2. Use the Times Altas for geographic spellings.
3. Keep capitals to a minimum.
4. Use upper and lower case in headlines just as you would in a sentence.
5. Use upper and lower case for acronyms where you can say them like a word eg. Nasa, but all upper case where you can’t say them eg. UNHCR.
6. Use –ise endings for words like capitalise, organise etc.
   (There is an exception in bodies like the World Health Organization where that is the way they spell their name).
7. Take care not to use American spellings with words like colour (color in the US), humour, etc. Also note that words like vest, slated and suspenders all mean different things in the US.
8. Spell out numbers one to nine, then digits for 10, 11, 12 etc.
9. Never start a sentence with digits.
10. Try to use short words that are easy to understand.
11. We use a colon and then double quote marks for speech. Remember that punctuation comes inside a quote unless it’s an incomplete sentence.
    eg. The man said: “It was a really difficult experience.”
    He told me it was a “really difficult”. Don’t use contractions, except in a quote eg. Is not, cannot, do not etc.
12. Take care not to use trade names when you want a generic word. Common mistakes are Hoover, Portakabin, Kleenex, Biro.
13. Ellipses. Use three dots and a space… like this…
14. Hyphens. If you don’t use them correctly you can change the meaning.
    eg. A little used car is different to a little-used car.
15. Companies, governments and other bodies are singular. The exceptions are the police and sporting teams.
16. Try to close up and abbreviate units eg. 13m, 24km, £35m, 3C.
17. Dates. If you use the figure first it avoids comma eg. 27 November 2008.
18. If you are publishing online then you have a potential global audience where today and yesterday are confusing. Try to use the actual day instead.
19. Make every effort to avoid commas in intros – they slow down your copy.
20. Learn the rules on use of apostrophes and comma. They are commonly misused.

Westminster University Journalism School, Autumn 2008

Laptop in 3 years time

Check out the draft graph of laptop in three years time. It might look so for the purpose of multi-task management screen and 3D mouse operation.

Compared with present laptops, the future version will have a much bigger screen composed of one big screen and two small ones on both sides in order to perform multi-tasks better. If the small screens are not needed, they can be folded to the back of the main screen or slided into the main screen. Where the smalle ones hide is not a problem. The real challenge is how to make seamless connection between the three screens.

For easy control, there will be a stick mouse, with buttons on the stick, just like the controlling stick you use to fly a helicopter. This is necessay because the future system will be 3D, and a stick mouse will make 3D feel more real.

Of course, there will also be a touch screen pen. (Needless to say, the screen is touchable, right?)

I include an alternative touch pad design which is supposed to be hand sensitive, meaning you can move your hand or finger above the touchpad without actually touching it.

Belgian 3D newspaper, Europe’s first?

According to a BBC report, “a belgian french-language daily has issued what is thought to be Europe’s first 3D newspaper – complete with cardboard viewing glasses.”

Following 3D movie, 3D game, 3D TV, now comes 3D newspaper. How cool is it?

Take a minute or 2 to read through the BBC short article and then come back.

Now let’s talk about something interesting.

THOUGHT TO BE, THE FIRST?

Nothing wrong with this piece except for that “thought to be Europe’s first 3D newspaper”.

Can you use “though to be” in news reporting? Isn’t it your job to check facts in your piece? What do you expect me to get reading your “thought to be”?

Well, I’m sorry, but your “thought-to-be” is wrong.

3Dvison-blog.com says that Polish newspaper Dziennik Baltycki (The Baltic Daily) has done this on 19 May 2005, long before this Belgian newspaper La Dernier Heure did the same thing.

Draftclound put up a lot of photocopies of the Polish newspaper published in 2005. Below is one of them.

Courtesy: Henryk Jursz from DraftClound

The bigger, the better, or the worse?

Another media organization who made the same mistake as BBC is ABC News. They are even bolder than BBC.

A Belgian media group has published Europe’s first 3D newspaper, complete with flip-out cardboard viewing glasses.

Not even BBC’s “thought to be”.

Is everybody wrong on this?

Not newvine.com, for god’s sake. They didn’t say it’s Europe’s first 3D newspaper, or thought to be the first. And their article source is Central Queensland News.

Are media giants like BBC and ABC too big to notice minor aspects in their reporting of minor stuff?

Now I understand why newspaper targeting niched readers can still survive in spite of the austere industry environment.

Too many good things around birthday

I know a blog is better not talk about oneself all the time. I know there are certain rules to follow writing online. But I just want to jot down what I want to say right now.

My wife showed me a video. That’s a gift for my birthday. Guess what? She filmed my daughter babbling “papa, papa”. I was so happy that I cried watching that short video clip.

I miss them so much. Two months later, I’m going back and bring them over here with me for the rest of my study here.

Just now I checked email. A teacher wrote me. Guess what again? He found my 4GB memory disk that I lost in radio class last semester. It’s already nearly 3 months, and I offically gave up getting it back. Now it magically appeared.

I’m not a birthday guy. I even didn’t think about celebrating it this year at all. Well, I didn’t do so back at home, either. But this birthday I’m celebrating with my friend Valetina, because we have birthday on the same day!

Rock n roll. What a beautiful day and year!

Short film: what do you hate the most

I started making a short film today.

I copied the idea from “50 people, one question”. Basically, you ask one question, like “what do you hate the most” I asked today, then you edit all the answers together.

I’m planning to ask “what do you love the most” as well.

The interesting part is that people will smile happily in front of the camera when waiting for the question. Few people really appear angry when talking about what they hate the most.

Well, maybe because most of them are my classmates.

I’ll try some other people tomorrow.

What I’m concerned is that the sound quality might not be good because I’m using the on-camera microphone. This is what I got from university for my TV course. Using connected microphone will be too complicated because I’m working alone. I don’t want to set the camera on a tripod.

One good thing I found today is that I’m having a steady hand now. I tried last semester, but it didn’t work out well.

Last week David was filming in class when some guest speakers gave us lectures. I looked at how he was holding his small camera, and I learned his way.

Observe, and learn quickly.

My short film might not be so good as expected, but anyway, I’ll finish it.

Wrong: Haitians in rubbles from BBC gallery

One picture is worth 1,000 words. The cliché says. However, BBC’s selection of pictures about Haiti earthquake seem quite inappropriate.     

BBC news site picture of Haiti earthquake

 

This picture has strong visual impact, isn’t it?  

Click on it or go to BBC website to see it in enlarged size. Look at it very carefully. Now tell me how you feel.  

Don’t you think that BBC is actually ‘playing’ with people’s miserable life, even if just slightly?  

The women with a dust face got her body below chest stuck in ruins, together with another two who were almost unidentifiable, one of whom had his/her head and body in red blood.  

Is it appropriate that BBC published this photo?  

Pictures in other media

BBC didn’t take this photo. It was from AFP.  

In fact, none of the 17 photos in its gallery was credited to BBC. Most of them were from AFP, several from AP and Getty Image, and one from the Red Cross.  

This explains why you can see the same images in other media such as The Times or The Telegraph.  

The Times Haiti story

 

The Telegraph Haiti Story

 

However, neither Times nor Telegraph selected that photo that BBC used. If you go through all the photos, you’ll see they are more reserved than BBC in using photos that feature seriously injured people.  

Who makes the decision?

The answer to this question is simple. It’s the editor on duty who decides which photos get published.  

However, the question might actually not so simple as it looks. Behind the simple ‘go’ or ‘down’ decision is the style, or principle of each media institution.  

BBC saw that picture, so did the Times and the Telegraph, most probably. But they made different choices.  

BBC knew well that some of its photos including the one we talked just now might offend some people, so they put up a warning on the first page saying “This gallery contains pictures some readers might find disturbing”.  

But does that justify its ‘playing with people’s miserable life’?  

I’m not a person who gets easily disturbed, but this picture really makes me feel bad about those Haitians hit by the earthquake, especially how their catastrophic lives were depicted by BBC. 

Paper books’ bleak future in E-era

After one or two generations, will books disappear and replaced by hi-tech E-reader?

Photo by Yong Wang

British people are book lovers. They read a lot at schools, in the trains, and on the benches in parks. WikiHow even gives instructions on how to read while walking.

Louis Brown, 91, has been identified as the most avid reader in Britain. She borrowed 25,000 books from libraries, according to a Telegraph report.

I met an old couple this afternoon, and they told me they also read a lot. Well, printed books.

When I asked them if they believe paper books would disappear because of high technologies, they said: “Yes, maybe after our generation and the next, paper books will disappear.”

E-reader

From Amazon’s Kindle, the best-selling e-reader, to the first pocket e-reader Readius, then to the extremely thin and bendable Skiff Reader, more and more companies are now entering this emerging E-reader industry.

Pix from e-reader manufactures' websites and edited by Yong

Technologizer gives details of some key e-reader brands including prices, configurations, user-experiences, etc.

• Amazon Kindle
• Barnes & Nobel Nook
• iRexDR800SG
• Plastic Logic Que
• Sony Reader Daily/Pocket/Touch Edition
• Spring Design Alex
• Foxit Software eSlick

According to a PCworld report, e-reader sales doubled last year, and will continue to double in 2010.

Its huge capacity, portability, easy-bookmarking, searchability, and reasonable price nowadays are some of the reasons for their popularity.

E-era

E-reader is just part of the E-reading era we are entering into.

Google Library has been there for years, with its book volume increasing at bullet speed.

Bookseller.com did a survey in October 2009, and found that 4% of the British have read an e-book in the past month.

Many newspapers have their online version; some even stopped publishing print version like Christian Science Monitor.

Magazines are also being digitalized. This YouTube video illustrates a new generation of e-magazine platform co-developed by the Wonderfactory and Times Inc.

Courtesy of thewonderfactoryny: Sports Illustrated – Tablet Demo 1.5

Paper books

Except for the feeling of flipping pages, I can’t think of any other advantages enjoyed by paper books over e-reader.

However, the younger generations have been growing up with computers. They are used to reading on computer screens, and the page-flipping feeling might not appeal to them at all.

Paper books won’t disappear, but they will most probably end up in libraries only as reference, and in the longer future, rest in museums like the lambskin or parchment scripts we “appreciate” now.

The bleak winter in newspapers industry won’t be far away for paper books.

As defenders of the printed faith, you may disagree with my prediction, but looking into 50 years time, are you sure you’ll still be confident that paper books won’t give way to e-books?

The Times story:G-spot is a myth

Frontpage news on The Sunday Times: What an anti-climax: G-spot is a myth. What qualities does this story have that earned itself a place on the frontpage?  

The Sunday Times Frontpage

A new research reveals that the universally believed G-spot in women’s vagina doesn’t exist at all. It’s imaginary in the first place, then reinforced by media reporting and experts’ talking. 

As you can see, this piece of news takes the lower left space, accompanied by stories of failed terror attack, public pay and MP staying above law stories on the front page. 

The G-spot myth is not the topic of this post, but its news value triggers some thinking. 

What makes news?

It’s boring to talk about ‘criteria’ without looking at real stories. So let’s see what values this G-spot story has got. 

I’ll go through the list of news values I learned from school and tick where it fits: 

1. immediacy.
2. conflict. √
   Some say there isn’t; some insist there is. Both sides argue in the story.
3. proximity.√
   Except for those too young or too old, people are sort of related to the news, married or unmarried.
4. threat to public safety.
   Well, maybe yes, maybe no. Hard to tell.
5. public interest.
   Not this one but the next one.
6. human interest. √
7. entertaining. √
   Absolutely. Full stop.
8. Big name involvement.
   This is where the journalist can improvement on the story. LoL~
9. unusual. Half √
   It’s not usual, at least.
10. impact. Half √ again.
    Don`t know what kind of impact there will be. Maybe positive for some, but negative for others.
11. breaking.
12. exclusive story.
13. topical. √
    You want to hear about it, but you might feel shy to talk about it.
14. scandal.
15. juicy. √
    A lot, isn’t it?

If a story has any one of these values, it could have become news worth publishing or broadcasting.

This G-spot story has 7 out of 15. Wow, didn’t realize that before. Nearly half !

Surely it is news, and a piece of good news. I have to agree with the editor to put it on the frontpage. 

Readers decide contents

Was I joking when talking about news values just now? Maybe. 

But the interesting thing is that this story has never been published on the front page of Times Online. There is nowhere to find it no matter how deep you scroll down the page. You have to search. 

Why? 

By my guess, Times Online readers don’t change much on weekends from weekdays. Almost the same group of people visit the site looking for the kinds of news they are familiar with. 

This G-spot story, as categorized on the site under ‘science’ channel, might not appeal to news readers. 

But for the print version delivered to home, people read it for relaxation. It’s weekend anyway. People need something soft, interesting, fun, surprising, or anything but serious. 

It is readers who decide what the contents should be. 

The Times did a good job in this sense, didn’t they?

PS: Do click G-spot is a myth on the Times site to see the picture they use. This is a good example where pictures say more than words.

Amazing technology – the sixth sense

Pranav Mistry at TED talking about computer interaction.

How NOT to attract traffic to your blog

Log in to your blog. Wait for the statistical figure to show. Fingers crossed—wish Total Views number surprisingly skyrocketed. “What the hell is wrong with people? Why don’t they read what I write?” You wonder.

 

Yong checking his blog view statistics

Almost all rookie bloggers fit into the profile I just described. Don’t feel ashamed if you are one of them, even if you are already a veteran blogger.

It is human nature to be noticed, cared, praised or criticized, and liked or hated. Your blog is part of you. It wants spotlight as well.

Basically, every blog is important to at least 5 people: your father, your mother, your husband/wife, your kid, and of course, yourself.

But you want more people to read what you write up there, make their comments, or just leave a smiling face like :-).

How to generate traffic

So you learn to write online, fighting some old habits of so-called “good writing” in the traditional sense.

Thanks to David and Paul, two funny lecturers who specialize in online journalism, I now have some golden rules for online writing, including blogging.

• Write for Google search engine (SEO).
  Over 40% of all traffic to a site comes from Google search. This doesn’t include those who first know your site through Google but later visit your site by typing the URL or clicking your URL address in their bookmark.
• Key words for headlines
  and less than 60 characters. Jacob Nielson acclaimed BBC News for having the best headlines
• Keep sentences short and simple.
• One idea per paragraph and keep paragraph short.
  Why? Because it’s easier for online readers to scan. (I know there are two ideas in the above line. No need to remind me.)
• Use sub-headings after 5-6 paragraphs.
• Use list or bulletin points.
• Cut, cut, cut and cut again.
  or, shall I say cut just once and cut the other three cuts?

Dailyblogtips gives 30 traffic generation tips. I would suggest Jacob Nielson’s Writing for the web before worrying about the number of your blog visitors.

How NOT to generate traffic

It’s always easier said than done. And persistence requires even stronger mind.

I could have finished piling up what I want to say in a lump within 15-20 minutes, but one hour later, I’m still here writing because I’m trying to follow those golden rules.

Back to the headline of this blog, how not to generate traffic, or how to lose traffic, the answer is very simple: Do not follow any online writing rules.

You can tell I’m kidding, right?

Well, I noticed some habits, or “mistakes” over the past few months that might cause bloggers to lose readers.

• Write about things of not much “value”
  You can write about your own life, but unless you are a celebrity like Opera Winfrey or Brad Pitt, you should not expect people to be interested in your blog.

  Jonathan Morrow from Coypblogger wrote a touching story On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas that best makes clear this point.

• “Force” readers to visit your site
  Many people now read in RSS readers such as Google Reader or Blogline. Some set their feed export to “abstract” or “headline” instead of “full text”.

  What makes you so confident that you write better headlines than BBC News or irresistible first paragraph (with a few more lines, usually considered “abstract”) so that people would click on the feed and go to your site?

  Most probably, they will just never bother checking your feed or simply cancel their subscription of your feed.

• Bolden sub-headings
  Sub-headings not only function as road signs all the way down your post, but also gives tags to Google search.

  If you just bolden the sub-headings, they are actually still body texts put in that <p> tag.

  You have to set them into Heading 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 according to your blog layout. Headline 1 is usually reserved for THE headline. This gives a <h> tag that Google spider catches.The Headline block usually is located in the style tool bar, next to other layout buttons such B (bold), I (italic), U(underline), etc.

• Update blogs irregularly
  “Sorry, I’ve been busy these days so I didn’t update.”People don’t care about your schedule.

  If they come to your site on day 1, and see no new blog, then on day 2, still nothing, then there is a slight chance they might still come on day 3, but if then they still see no updated blog, they might never come back.

  And on day 4, you feel like writing, and you publish 3 blog posts, or 4, or even 5, but sorry, the gone readers are gone. They are not coming back.

All in all, blogging is about quantity, but more about quality;
it’s about talking to yourself, but more about interacting with others;
it’s about following hot topics, but more about offering original idea; and
it’s about finishing assignment for the Online Journalism module, but more about polishing your writing and getting prepared for a journalism career.

Briton executed in China over drugs

A British man convicted of drug smuggling was executed in China today. BBC’s coverage of the story lacks balance, fairness, objectivity and impartiality.

Top story on BBC news front page on 29 Dec

The British man Akmal Shaikh was executed for smuggling 4 kgs of heroin into Urumqi, Xinjiang in the north-west of China.

UK government and Akmal’s families made repeated pleas for clemency and visited him in Urumqi this weekend.

BBC has been following the story heavily in the past few days, and the execution became its top story today.

The headline: good and/or bad

On its news front page, the headline is “China executes Briton over drugs”.

By criteria of headline writing, this is undoubtedly a good one. With just five words, it tells who did what and how and why. It even hinted where and when.

Besides, it uses an active verb. This is where the editor shows off his wisdom.

People who get killed usually become the subject in a headline, e.g. “Man killed in harbour car plunge in Cornwall”, and “Iran protesters killed, including Mousavi’s nephew”. However, the editor obviously wants to put the blame on China.

Let’s compare BBC headline and my headline for this post.

• China executes Briton over drugs
• Briton executed in China over drugs

Is “China” a specific person who did the execution? Which appeals to the British readers more, China or Briton? And does two letters longer really matter here?

Now let’s click to read the story. Oops, the headline changed. Now it reads “British man said to be mentally ill executed in China”. Interesting, hah?

Wait a minute. What is that “said to be”? If you are not sure of something, make sure of it, or don’t talk about it. How can you even put it in a headline?

EU national Vs. Briton

Let’s move on. Here comes the third paragraph:

The execution took place despite repeated calls from his family and the British government for clemency.

This sounds ridiculous to me, well, because of the structure of the sentence, especially the use of that “despite”. UK government and his family called for clemency, so what? Should China let the man go just because some guys made the plea?

The prime minister Gordon Brown also made fun of himself by saying “am appalled and disappointed that our persistent requests for clemency have not been granted”.

Okay, you are the almighty PM, so whatever you request, we have to grant. Is that what you mean?

However, this is not the worst part. One paragraph down, the following sentence stands out.

Mr Shaikh is the first EU national to be executed in China in 50 years.

If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that BBC used EU national referring to Mr. Akmal Shaikh. What’s the point, please? Is this impartial? What are you trying to “achieve” here, soliciting sympathy from other EU members so that they will join you condemning China? You wish.

Keep journalists code of conduct OUT of mind

Two paragraphs down, BBC brought up the man’s mental illness issue again. Let me give you some key points from the article:

• family said he suffered from bipolar disorder
• They said he had been delusional
• Mr Brown: particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken.

According to Richard Sambrook, Director of BBC World service and Global News Division, “Balance means arranging things in equal or correct proportions to one another. ”

If BBC is indeed balanced, where are the explanations from the Chinese side?

Don’t tell me you can’t get China’s officials to talk. They have explained this a long time ago. Besides, your Chinese correspondent should have told you about the procedure of asking for mental illness verification in court.

If you keep on reading, you’ll see all quotes are against China. Don’t you think this is biased?

The article also quotes legal charity Reprieve’s communication director saying that “he (Akmal) was frankly failed by China and by their legal system”.

An opinionated and false accusation. Can China sue for defamation? The quotation marks doesn’t prevent you from being sued.

Role of media

In the past few days, the Chinese media remained absolutely silent about the story. Equally oddly, the British media showed excessive enthusiasm while the public didn’t appear to be very much interested.

After all, it is a man who committed felony in China and was trialed and sentenced in accordance with China’s laws. It’s a criminal case, as simple as that.

What the UK government and Mr. Shaikh’s family were trying to do was to ask the Chinese government to overrule the court’s decision.

However, aren’t they used to criticise the Chinese government for their intervention into judicial independence?

What do they apply double systems when a British man is involved?

And what role have the British media played? Is it right for them to allocate so much space or air time for the drug smuggler story? Are they acting as the mouthpiece of the British government as they always accuse their Chinese counterparts for doing so?

All in all, can a public service broadcaster really stay independent, willingly or unwillingly?

Update at 10:00 am: The Telegrpaph also puts the story on its front page. Their reporting is much better in terms of following journalistic code of conducts.

Can they save the British man sentenced to death in China

UK government, media and families of a Briton sentenced to death in China are making their last effort to save his life, with only 24 hours left before his execution.

Akmal Shaikh was arrested for carrying 5-kg heroin in Xinjiang Airport. Under China’s zero-tolerance drug policy, he was sentenced to death months later.

His finally appeal was rejected and his execution will take place on 29 December 2009.

His families and some UK officials have flown to Urumqi on 27 December to visit Akmal, and will make a last plea for clemency from the Chinese government.

UK prime minister Gordon Brown has also written to Chinese officials including President Hu Jintao asking China to spare the British man’s life.

Chinese media Vs. British media

Almost all UK media report this story these few days, including BBC, Channel 4, Itv, The Times, The Telegraph, The Guardian, you name it.

Akmal was on the frontpage of newspaper or in the headlines of TV and radio programmes. The only competitor was the failed terrorist attack on a US plane by a Nigerian man.

On the contrary, the Chinese media kept silent about this story. Not a single word on the mainstream media.

This is quite different from over two months ago when Akmal making his second appeal to China’s Supreme Court.

A journalist back in China confirmed to me that no written notices from the central government were given, but there was an oral instruction, telling them to follow the Foreign Ministry. As the foreign ministry says nothing so far, there is no reporting at all.

Kill or not kill

The journalist also said that he didn’t believe the Englishman would be actually executed.

He said that the Chinese government “banned” reporting of this story was a proof. The government would let him go, but wanted to save face at the same time.

We don’t know if Akmal will be killed or not.

In China, shooting in the head is a normal execution method. If Akmal is indeed executed, I don’t believe this method will be used. Electric chair or injection seems to be more appropriate.

Kill or not kill, China is now facing a difficult choice.

Interview: ‘yes’ or ‘no’

A friend called me to speak on BBC Radio. The thought of giving an interview, especially one that would be broadcast live to thousands or even millions of listeners scared the shit out of me. Shall I say ‘yes’ or ‘no’?

Source: Jason Ralston

I was dreaming something when the call woke me up.

“Yong, what do you think of the Copenhagen Accord? Want to join our live talking tonight at 18:00 to 19:00?”

It was Jessica. She is doing one-week internship in BBC World Service, Chinese Service. She was trying to secure some interviewees for a BBC programme.

We discussed about the topic and I figured out what they wanted:

• opinions on the climate summit from a Chinese;
• how the summit was reported in the Chinese media; and
• what did the general Chinese people say about the outcome.

“Do I have that much information they need?”
“Is my English good enough to go live on BBC radio?”
“What kind of image shall I present about the Chinese media?”
And, “what if I said something wrong?”

Many questions flashed in my mind. I even thought of those people whom I contacted asking for interviews for my TV and radio assignments.

“Did they think about the same things as I had?” I wondered.

“Yes” or “no”

Jessica was waiting for my confirmation on the other side of the phone. There wasn’t much time for me to hesitate.

“Okay, as long as they don’t mind that I am a Chinese journalist.” I told her.

I said ”yes”, for the sake of myself and Jessica.

This would be my first live interview. No matter how scared I might feel, my consciousness told me that I had to do this. If I don’t take the first time, there will never be a second time.

I also thought about Jessica. I could even imagine how much she needed a “yes” answer after making so many calls to secure someone for the interview. Her editor might be whipping her to get things done. (I made myself seem noble, eh?)

How did the interview go?

Well, I couldn’t tell you how the interview was.

It never happened.

From 17:30 until 19:00, I checked my mobile phone 4 or 5 times to make sure it has signal. I thought about the interview and couldn’t focus on anything else.

I looked into the mirror and tried to speak as I was being interviewed. Then I wrote down some key points. And then, I just sat and waited.

After 19:00, my phone haven’t rung at all. At last, I was sure they wouldn’t call.

Why? Possible reasons included:

• mobile phone is never good for live interview
• other interviews went too long and squeezed out my time slot
• my identity as a Chinese journalist might be a concern
• they found someone else who went into their studio (as I was not physically available)

I’m proud of myself

I felt relieved and happy. You might understand why I felt relieved, but why happy?

Well, I was happy because I said “yes” in the first place. I felt proud of myself. I didn’t have to regret that I didn’t have the guts to go live on a BBC English programme.

True, this could be a small piece of cake for you, and some of you might even dream of having such an opportunity.

But for me, it was not. I dared myself, and the go-for-challenges me knocked over the shy me. It was a glorious battle I won.

I might despise myself if I said “no” in the first place, no matter whether the interview went as scheduled or not.

Something I neglected before

In fact, the aborted interview made me think about interview again.

When we approach people asking them to give an interview, do we ever think about their worries or concerns? Have we ever put ourselves in their shoes?

When I did my TV interviews, I contacted people from Harrow council, the NHS primary care trust, a hospital, and many other institutions. Why was it so difficult to get their “yes”? Some even looked frightened when they saw my video camera and tripod. Did I ever think of it, that people might be scared of speaking on TV?

After all, it’s not about what we need, but what they can or are willing to give.

TV talenet show exposes China’s race issue. Or, really?

CNN website published a story about a black Chinese girl causing controversies allegedly due to her skin color, and concluded that racism is a serious problem in China. Is this reporting objective?

Picture from: SMG

Lou Jing, 20 years old, was born in Shanghai to a Chinese mother and an African-american father. The only difference she has with other Chinese girls is her black skin.

Four months ago, she participated in a TV talent show in Shanghai called “Go Oriental Angel”, and was eliminated before the finale.

At the stage, she said she was raised in a single-parent family, and now wanted to find her father.

Off the show stage, Lou became the center of heated discussion. She was “attacked” on the Internet. Some Chinese netizens even made racial discriminative remarks such as “she shouldn’t have been born” and “get out of China”.

Did she lie?

This is basically the CNN version of the story. But, was it really her skin color that sparked those hostile remarks as CNN claimed?

Let’s hear the other side of the story.

With the help of “human flesh search engine”, some Chinese netizens claimed Lou was lying.

Lou’s mother was married to a Chinese man. When she left work to pursue further study in a Shanghai college, she had an affair with an African-american who also studied there. The man left before Lou was born.

The Chinese man was protective of both Lou and her mother. He said Lou’s black skin was because her mother ate a lot of Chinese herbal medicines when she was pregnant.

For three years, the Chinese man protected “his” family until he could no longer undertake the never-stopped finger-pointing. He gave up his career and left for Japan.

However, Lou said she had never had a father and was raised by her mother single-handedly.

Those who believed she was lying felt it was unfair for the Chinese man who sacrificed so much for three years to bring her up. They started to pour their anger over the web.

Has CNN been objective?

I’m not here to judge which side of the story is true; I can’t prove anything.

But I’m sure that CNN was absolutely wrong to say that it was Lou’s skin color that was the center of the disputes.

Totally disagree. The central issue of the disputes was honesty.

Besides, those racial discriminative remarks were made by just a few. They were not the main voice on the web.

In fact, I had some doubts about CNN’s reporting of this story.

• The story happened in late August and lasted until mid September. Since then, it has subsided. Why did CNN pick it up after three months later?
• Why didn’t CNN mention the real controversies about Lou Jing? For fear of defamation? Then why didn’t CNN ask Lou or her mother to clarify?
• Was it right to say that a few unreasonable people’s remarks stand for what most Chinese people think? Search “Lou Jing” in Chinese in google, there are only less than 600,000 results. If you can read Chinese, you’ll see nearly 80% talked about her story instead of racial problem.

These is nothing wrong to report a single case to address a general issue, but there must be a solid connection between these two; otherwise, it’s like you call a white cloth “black” when all you see is just a black dot on the cloth.

Jounalist’s code of conduct

When we talk about news reporting, there are four rules that journalists have to abide by:

• objectivity
• fairness
• balance
• impartiality

Richard Sambrook, Director of BBC World Service and Global News Division, had an article “Holding on to objectivity” in which he talked about the differences of these four principles.

Sadly, none of them is loyally implemented in the CNN story.

Movie review: Avatar

No dazzling stars. An expense worth $500mln. And a 3D wonderland never seen before. Based on a 5-star rating system, I give the 3D movie Avatar 6. Yes, you read me right. SIX.

Avatar is a story about an indigenous race called Na’vi fighting against humans who intruded their planet Pandora for minerals.

Director James Cameron imposed his ideology against war in this movie. You can hear the buzzwords in his movie such as “preemptive strike”, “shock and awe”, etc.

You can also hear the heroic declarations such as “they think they can take whatever they want; no, they can’t; this is our land” (not the exact quote).

One mind going into another body is not so much an original idea, but the beauty of the planet created with CGI, computer-generated imaging, is really breath-taking. It is a fluorescent world new to our visual entertainment. There is nothing to compare with, and my words are too limited and pale to describe it for you.

Huge investment

Mr. Cameron first came up with Avatar idea 15 years ago, but he had to put it on shelf for a while as the technology was not sophisticated enough to visualize his envisions.

When he finally started, the movie consumed an astonishing amount of money estimated to be $200-300mln. Plus the high-profile marketing, total expenses are expected to be close to $500mln.

However, the last movie Cameron directed, Titanic, brought in $1.8bln for the investors. They have enough reasons to believe that this movie will success as well.

Avatar fans

Avatar 3D is not a 3D movie in the traditional sense, by which I mean there is nothing suddenly flying to your face to beg for that “ah”.

It brings a new perspective of 3D movie production. The world created in the movie is like another Harry Potter magic world.

Less than a week after the movie is on, it has attracted many fans. Avatar movie fansite is an example.

Try to google “avatar movie”, as by now at 23:26 on 22 December, you’ll get 120,000,000 results. If you just google “avatar”, you’ll get 562,000,000 results, with all the top five among the first 10 results actually about the movie and only two about computer user representations.

I watched it in Vue cinema in Harrow last Friday, and I’m going to watch it again on the 26*20-meter screen in BFI IMX.

Brainstorming

Brainstorming sounds fascinating. Ideas come up like running water in a brainstorming session. Well, I know “like running water” is a cliché, but don’t criticise yet–this is Brainstorming Rule No. 1.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / Freedigitalphotos.net

Brainstorming is a relatively new word but the method itself has existed maybe since the beginning of human beings.

It is a method of problem-solving either by a group of people contributing ideas or by one single person generating a variety of possible solutions.

Basically, everyone can have or conduct a brainstorming session, but it requires one who is trained to do so to guarantee a satisfactory outcome.

A failed brainstorming

About eight years ago I was an Account Executive in a PR company with 20 or so employees.

One day I was asked to hold a brainstorming session about how to sell a brand of wine (one of our clients) in night clubs.

I didn’t know what to do except for repeating “what ideas do you have”.

After two or three people spoke up, the room submerged into silence.

It was really awkward. Some colleagues looked at each other while others played with their pencils or bended their heads down reading some papers.

“What the hell went wrong?” I panicked and stood still in front of the whiteboard before my supervisor took over.

I didn’t remember what exactly happened after that, but I did remember we “discussed” some ideas, both positively and negatively.

Brainstorming rules

Most of the time, we discuss instead of brainstorming. There is a huge difference between these two.

Discuss involves opinions and analyses of ideas while brainstorming is to generate ideas themselves. Based on experiences from my failed brainstorming and later on successful ones, I would suggest the following rules for brainstorming, with reference to a post by Dean Rieck titled “How to brainstorm brilliant ideas for your blog“:

• Don’t criticise ideas, even not discuss them;
• Define the problem clearly
• Clarify what ideas you expect;
• Prepared a few ideas beforehand if you are the conductor, in case no one speaks up after a while;
• Write down every idea and let everybody see them immediately;
• Allocate easy time during the session, e.g. one-minute joking or nonsense talking, but do drag everybody back to the table after that;

In fact, there are many sites talking about brainstorming if you are interested. I would like to say a few more words about rule No. 1.

People tend to criticise

To criticise an idea seems easier than coming up with an original one. Why? Maybe criticizing satisfies their self-esteem for making them feel better than others. It is hard to people to hold back the desire to criticise, and many even don’t realize it when they are criticizing others or their ideas.

To some degree, it is human nature to criticise. Let me explain.

When babies start to know things, they learn to refuse to do things they don’t want to. For example, you give them milk, they might push your hand away. “I’m not hungry,” they might say: “drinking milk now is a bad idea.” See?

However, criticising is not always a bad thing. In fact, constructive criticising is more valuable than compliments, especially those I-don’t-actually-mean-it compliments.

To expand this topic, we can discuss criticising as an art, both for those who criticise and those who are criticised. I’ll not go into details on this.

E-reading ushers into a new generation

An innovative platform for the next generation of E-magazines was revealed recently. If reading on screen is no longer different from, or even better than reading on paper, does it mean the end of paper era?

This platform is jointly developed by five newspaper and magazine publishers including Times Inc. and the News Corporation.

It is supposed to set up the standard for the industry. No name of the platform or the equipment is given. How much they have invested is not known either.

The companies will sell the new electronic versions of their contents through an online store like iTunes.

Features demonstrated in the video released by Times Inc. are just some of the sophistications of this new platform.

E-reading won’t kill paper reading

The media conveying messages have changed dramatically throughout the history: from stones to bamboos, from parchment to papyrus, and now from paper to electronic screens, such as Kindle of Amazon.

No medium has incurred so many controversies as the latest development of electronic screens. To many, this is brand new experience.

The benefits one could possible get from e-reading include:

• enormous materials in one “book”, the e-reader
• visual and audio entertaining compared with black-and-white of most books
• interactive with authors, writers, publishers, and even advertisers
• cheaper content, hopefully, at least after wide application of such an e-reader
• real-time multi-user sharing, with the incorporation of Internet access in the future

Younger generations have already accustomed to reading online. They would be more than happy to embrace a portable screen.

However, book lovers might stick to their old habit. You can touch the screen to read the next page, but you’ll lose the pleasure of actually feeling the books: its weight, its texture, its papers, etc.

Besides, your eyes might easily get tired after long-time reading on a screen. You will also not be able to send a good book as a gift.

Therefore, e-reading won’t take the place of paper reading, at least in the foreseeable future.