Social Journalism: The use of the New Media

Humans have the social instinct to interact.

Humans are social in nature and through time we have to develop brighter ways to supply that kind of behavior.

The love for accessing information had been a fad a long time ago. Things have to be shared ’cause its a thing of the social world: to know and to be known.

We learn things not only through a thinking process of our own but by also filtering out necessary information we collect anywhere and anytime.

From telegraphs and Grahambell’s first “Ahoy!” on his telephone, media has evolved widely. Now that we are going through an era where computer exists, E-mails and SMS are not the only possible ways to know things. The presence of a wide number of social media sprouted elsewhere in the spinning virtual web.

Journalists were able to use such medium to communicate with their sources. They can contact their sources not just through E-mail but also through Facebook accounts where people are always online. They can basically gather information that might not be visible in the actual world, when information can only be accessed through a web of deeper secrets in the social media.  Journalists can give out necessary, interesting information the public needs to know right away. Through the social media, people can interact with journalists to serve as civilian streamers of relevant news that journalists might have overlooked.

On the contrary, failure to use the social media properly had been a problem to journalists. It had become a lot harder to verify what is real and what is not. What virtually exists may not actually exist in the real world. What may be in the real world can be masked through the use of the powerful medium.

Incidents of celebrity deaths spread through twitter everyday and always had a lot of people freak out for a matter of seconds until a verification through the same medium will be done to stop or to confirm the matter. The thing’s much worse than a bomb threat in a public area. People are induced to panic and create actions with no skeptical analysis of the matter.

National security might be at risk if one throws a lethal stone that will cause chaos in the virtual world.

A simple information can spread worldwide in a few seconds. They can create fire in the next minute. A chain reaction would follow in the next hour. Information overload will definitely exist and it shall develop a set of humans who are either to dumb to identify the whole matter or a bright creature able to distinguish the hidden reality out of a partial reality. The social media can produce certain behaviors of humans that has no longer become useful in evolution or could actually be the reason for the death of such distinct human actions.

Journalism in itself started in paper and mouths and now developed by the fingers and the machines. Of typing an important information, the future of the profession can further increase. I may be positive about this take but I guess a great sense of filtering and verification can be taken out from the vast and fast pace of details made in existence. Faster thinking capacities might develop and just like the machines we make to promote better information processing, humans can as well adapt the nature of the computer, joined together with the ethical virtue of the mind, heart and soul.

Jump to Express: Juan Great Leap Experience

Typical movies have I seen with such setting that I had been given the chance to witness last Saturday.

Juan Great Leap’s open coffee became a success for the month of July. New and experienced entrepreneurs were able to interact and share their insights on successful entrepreneurship.

Pitching in within the whole duration of the event was the key to promote (bear in mind, promote and not sell something in front) and get your idea recognize as well as your problems get solved.

Unique topics pushed the discussions into greater heights as more ideas have been popping out the room. In general, participants of the pitching in session are as much as possible promoting the Filipino culture. From digital arts to travel, the essence of a Filipino vibe is always present.

From numerous participants of the event, I got the chance to ask a few questions from persons who pitched in their ideas during the session.

One is the detailed map application for all kinds of phones. It comprises of a map and important transit details that can be gathered through crowdsourcing or collecting shared information and consolidating it into a useful data.

Consolidated data comprise of traffic updates, ways to go to a place either through a car or public transportation. These things are not really emphasized on existing travel apps.

This application’s been planned to be coordinated with the MMDA, DPWH, LTFRB and public transportation organizations to promote the app and synchronize the info with such helpful agencies too.

The app helps the general commuting public in finding the best way in terms of time and money to go to their destination.

People who are willing to share information to this app even without an access of the internet can go to municipal or city offices of coordinated government agencies and submit a printout of a shared commuting guide which promotes manual corwdsourcing.

The app can also be accessible through sms updates so that even without a smartphone, other phone users can still find the program useful and accessible to their needs at any given time.

Since the map challenge will be during the time of July until October, the development time for them to make this successful is within the months of August up until October and the program launch will be during November.

More of these were introduced throughout the program. As what Peter wanted, who had initially gave out this kind of idea, he would like to go forth into teaching financial literacy and deeming the people towards the bright concept of entrepreneurship and self-emplyment to bring out one’s capacity to be independent.

A blogpost started the fire that can actually lit up many entrepreneurial hearts in the country. We just do hope that the fire can also be spread out to the initially independent youth. In return they can be molded very early and appreciate their independence today.