SAJAforum

CONV: SAJA @ 15 in Pictures

Here are highlights of the 2009 Convention (click on the full screen button in the lower right):

SAJA Convention 2009 (Highlights) - Images by Preston Merchant

Click here to see the individual images in the slide show.

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CONV: Q&A with Dr. Reza Aslan

Dr. Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, was the keynote speaker at the SAJA 15th Anniversary Scholarship and Awards Dinner on Saturday.
The  author of "How to Win a Cosmic War: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror," shared his views on the events unfolding in Iran, media, and President Obama in a conversation with SAJA blogger Sweta Vohra.

What is the role of South Asian and Middle Eastern voices in Western media?

In the 21st century we are going to be a multi-polar world, and what’s going to shape the Western World is going to come out of Middle East and South Asia, even Southeast Asia. We can’t have outsiders speak. The key is to have people within the diaspora bridge that divide, those who have their foot in both cultures and who can speak to their indigenous culture, customs, etc. And they can do it with the confidence that American media requires.

Can you speak briefly about the recent events in Iran and what this means for the future of the country?

Iran is at a precipice. Iran is going to look different and its either going to be more militaristic and isolationist or it could nationalistic and democratic. Whatever it is, its going to be a very long process. This is a war of attrition and it’s going to happen in the back holes of power. We should try to shy away from the media narrative that the uprising is over because its really just beginning. What we do know is we’re on a path to greater openness that can be slowed but not stopped; this is a population largely under 30 that is politically sophisticated and highly educated. This is a generation in change.

Is there a bias here in America towards the Middle East, or the muslim world in general?

I do think there is definitely a bias towards the Middle East – a narrow focus. The Middle East does not represent the muslim world. In fact, the muslim world exists outside of that and that term should not even be used. Communities of muslims around the world is the term to be used.

You have spoken about how the younger generation in America encompasses a much more globalized point of view of the world. 

I call this generation the "under 45s.” The formative experience of America up until now was WWII which for many generations defined American values and in many ways, America’s place in the world. But “under 45s”, thanks to Obama, have more of a role in defining these same values. They grew up in an Internet and globalized world where the world is a single space. Yes, they are nationalistic but have a whole different idea of patriotism.

So what is the responsibility of young journalists in the American media?

Well, they know what their responsibility is – it’s to inform people about global events. But the challenge is to do it in interesting ways and to convince people that what happens there matters here. There is still a majority of people who use “ink to paper” to get their news but for “under 45s,” the news is synonymous with opinion. The challenge to young people is to combine the reliability and responsibility of mainstream media with the immediacy and accessibility of new media technology.

You’ve already spoken a lot about the change under Obama – is this a more positive change?

Yes. It is different because he’s member of the generation that I’m talking about. And, he is the most powerful man in the world. He shares values that we have. He’s globalized, and he looks at world through the lens of decades not weeks. Obama said he is a “citizen of world” while someone like Newt Gingrich says “I’m not a citizen of the world.” You know what, Newt? That’s why you are irrelevant. That is why your thinking is irrelevant. Having Obama is having someone who gets it.

Photo by Preston Merchant

CONV: Sree's Top 10 Social Networking Tips

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Conducting a social networking workshop in just an hour can be tough, but what's even tougher is using social networking sites effectively as a journalist.

To figure out how to do that, SAJAforum is looking to its resident Internet guru and co-founder Sree Sreenivasan (he's @sreenet on Twitter).

Here are the top ten tips we picked up from him at a convention panel Saturday.

10. Give a little extra when you send friend requests. Standard greetings are impersonal and not effective to build connections.

9. Organize your friends using the lists option provided on Facebook. It's worth the time.

8. Monitor your wall postings on Facebook. If it's not relevant, delete it.

7. Friend suggestions are a waste of time.

6. Be very careful what groups you join. Joining and listening is great, but it may bring credibility questions.

5. Use the "like" button on Facebook. It's a great way to build those connections with your sources.

4. Twitterer? Think about your audience before you tweet, and check out www.muckrack.com, a community for journalists on Twitter. You can sort the updates by beats and sources.

3. Post no more than three Twitter updates a day.

2. The power of Twitter is not necessarily the first tweet but in the RT (re-tweet). It's a great way to keep your followers informed.

1. In Sree's words: "what is common sense in real life is common sense in social networking."

-- By Suvro Banerji, Missouri School of Journalism student.

Photo by Preston Merchant

CONV: Reporters In Global Hotspots Face Unique Challenges

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With terror attacks regularly sending shock waves around the globe, a reporter’s job has never been so important or dangerous. But how safe is the community of reporters working in conflict-torn hot spots?

Convention panelists Sadia Zaman, Bob Dietz, Naheed Mustafa and Steven L. Herman, on Saturday shared their thoughts about reporting in places where even mundane acts like grocery shopping can be life-threatening experiences.

The range of concerns working in such areas varies with every journalist, they said as audience members posed questions including the ultimate one: when is a story worth risking your life?

For Mustafa, an award- winning journalist, the biggest challenge was trusting the people with whom she worked.

-- By Riya Anandwala, Indiana University graduate student.

CONV: Ethnic Media Weathers the Economic Storm

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Local communities feeling underrepresented in American mainstream media flock toward ethnic media to follow the news, Majeed Babar, executive editor of Weekly Asia Tribute told convention attendees Saturday.

Babar started the Weekly Asia Tribune in 2006 to keep South Asians in the U.S. up to date on news from tribal areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “It’s our role to bridge the gap between communities – we’re the ones who can do translation,” he said. 

Editors joining Babar for a panel discussion talked about factors keeping them better afloat while some of their purely domestic counterparts flounder.

“Mass media outlets are dependent on shareholders and non-profit media outlets are supported by founders and foundations,” said Lisa Vives, executive director Global Information Network. “Ethnic media is not beholden to any of those. We didn’t have founders that pulled out and that’s one of the reasons we’re surviving.”

Some outlets are keeping afloat by adopting different strategies to court advertisers.  “We’re almost 5 years old now but we’re not making enough to cover costs,” said Navdeep Kathuria,  editor-in-chief of ABCDLady, a South Asian magazine similar to Essence. “We tried to get local South Asian businesses interested but not much luck. So instead, we targeted businesses that try to target South Asian audiences – matrimonial services or companies that sell beauty products for South Asian skin and we had better luck with that.”

-- By Sindhu Sundar, New York University graduate student.

CONV: Job Seeking Journalists Keep The Hope Alive

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Economic turbulence has hit most everyone hard, but journalists have had to deal with a double whammy - the financial crisis and a technologically-driven revamp of the media industry.

Jobs are in short supply. A survey by online job website CareerBuilder.com revealed that only 43 percent of employers intended to hire new graduate this year, down from 56 percent in 2008 and 79 percent in 2007.

Everyone around seems to be doing unpaid internships – some while waiting tables on the side - while others blog about their woes.  A slightly luckier crew is making some money through freelance work. Still, at the SAJA job fair there still was a glimmer of hope.

Pracheta Sharma who is finishing up her main project for television at the Columbia Journalism School came with a teammate to pitch media outlets a story on South Asian maids in the NYC.

Charlotte Purin made the trek from Los Angeles. Having worked in Hollywood as a location scout manager for movies and commercials, she was unfettered by the dismal job market as she makes a mid-career change to journalism. “Everything is under the water as you might as well pick what you love,” she said.

A benefit for Purin: the concept of evolving media is not foreign to her. “We used 35 mm film and then we had to digitize the whole thing,” she said about her time in Hollywood.  “You just adapt and ingest.”

Purin also was at the job fair to pitch a story on the festival known as Kumbhmela(http://www.divinerevelation.org/KumbhMela.html). “This is a place to plant seeds,” she said unfazed by the mixed reception her idea received. “You never know where it’s going to lead.

-- By Betwa Sharma, a recent graduate from Columbia University.

 

CONV: Freelancing In South Asia Isn't A Breeze, VOA Bureau Chief Warns

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South Asia has become something of a freelancers' paradise, but working on one's own there still is full of challenges, Voice of America South Asia bureau chief Steven L. Herman told journalists Saturday.

The keys for reporters willing to risk it all abroad are “fire in the belly” and “raw talent,” he said.

Of course, having a strategy to support yourself while getting going is also a necessity.

“Making a living out of it is difficult,” he said of freelancing in South Asia.  “Make sure you have a financial plan.”

Wire services can be hardest to find work with he explained, while print and broadcast assignments - for journalists possessing the right assignments and skills - can be easier to land.

Still, no organization is "a closed shop,” he said.  This is true especially if you are located in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kathmandu, Colombo or Dhaka, where stringers with “AP-style” language skills can be hard to come by. 

Organizations hiring freelancers include in the region include Radio Nederland, Al Jazeera English, VOA and others.  Most outlets, however, do not accept pitches from inexperienced journalists, Herman cautioned.

He recommended old fashioned networking to get on editors' radars as well as Twittering and working through such organizations as the Foreign Correspondent’s Bureau of South Asia.

 -- By Gayathri Vaidyanathan, recent graduate of Columbia University.

CONV: Peter Bhatia Says Web Opens Up Options For Print Media

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EDITOR'S NOTE: In celebration of SAJA's 15th anniversary, we talked to senior journalists who have been with the organization since its early days. In these profiles, they share a bit of themselves and their association with SAJA. 

Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian, was always a journalist. As a 12-year old, he published his own neighborhood paper with stories about what kids in the neighborhood were upto. Bhatia worked at student papers while in school and college.

“The public service aspect of [journalism] really appealed to me,” he said. 

And this he says doesn't change. Bhatia sees a role for newspaper even in the face of increasing pessimism about the fate of print media.

“We now have the opportunity to do different things, infinite space to display work on the Web,” he said. “It expands the portfolio of what we can offer. A well-written story on print still has currency and audience.”

Bhatia has been with SAJA since the organization's inception.

“SAJA opens up a broad world of really interesting and talented people,” he said. “It’s made it possible to have broader discussions rooted in some common heritage and allowed me to interact with some very smart people and expanded my view of what journalism can be.”

CONV: On Navigating New and Old Media

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Speakers at various workshops discussed the wide span of media available today from thick paperbacks to Twitter.

Brian Stelter, the New York Times’ “poster boy for Twitter,” extolled the virtues of the micro-blogging site. Stelter cited the example of the outrage American viewers expressed against NBC last August when it scheduled the 2008 Olympics ceremony, 12 hours after the actual event in Beijing, to coincide with local prime-time programming hours.

“Through comments on Twitter from angry viewers here [at 8 am Eastern Time], I was able to see a story emerging and by blogging it, I was able to get comments,” he said. “By 4 p.m., I was a pitching a story about people’s outrage over NBC’s decision and it was a front page story the next day."

Just few rooms away, journalists-turned-authors Tom Zoellner and Minal Hajratwala (above) gave aspiring authors, tips on a more traditional medium. Hajratwalla, the author of "Leaving India", released by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt this year, spoke about what makes a successful narrative. “Character plus event plus theme equals narrative,” she said.

Zoellner, author of "Uranium" and "The Heartless Stone," outlined what goes into a book proposal.

“This is not the place for modesty,” he said.

Photo by Preston Merchant

CONV: Panelists Detail Challenges Of Documentary Production

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Whether working independently or as part of an established organization, documentary work is full of challenges, a trio of filmmakers said while sharing their experiences with convention attendees Saturday.

The Doc Maker’s panel featured a married couple reporting for Current TV -- Mariana Van Zeller and Darren Foster  -- and the independent Sarah Singh.

Van Zeller and Foster produce half hour documentaries on international affairs while Singh recently finished a feature on the partition of India and Pakistan called "The Sky Below" – a film she pulled off with no crew and very little funding.

Singh detailed the struggles of independence from a well-known and well-funded channel or production company. An artist by background, Singh described her a film as a challenging process of discovery.

She and Van Zeller and Foster detailed the struggle to reach the eyeballs of audiences, especially those in U.S.

Working for Current TV means that Van Zeller’s and Foster's content has an audience. Singh however has had to work harder to get her film in front of people. She currently has been promoting the film at festivals across North America. Van Zeller and Foster have a somewhat easier path toward viewers, but because their content isn't heavily reliant or closely tracking ratings, it is hard for them to decipher exactly what films of their viewers flock toward.

Van Zeller and Foster, however, have a complex challenge to tackle even with their exposure through current TV: how to get Americans to shift their gaze from the stories of Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Jessica Simpson to those of unrest, conflict and the human experience around the world.

Still, the pair is hopeful, believing that the interest is international news is there but remains an unfulfilled void within the news industry.

Singh, however, is perhaps more realistic, saying that as the large media corporations in America are driven by ratings that international coverage would like  take a back seat to more entertainment-based news.

-- By Sweta Vohra, University of California at Berkeley graduate student.