Monday, August 19, 2013

Media Ninja - are you one of them?

By Chester B Cabalza

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic (Copyright @ 2013 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).

For the past few years, Brazilian-Japanese or Brapanese models have been invading Manila. Perhaps their Catholic values and Latin-Asian cultural fusion keep on charming scores of local Filipinos, alike. 
Maybe this is our simple imaginings about Brazil – the land of most vibrant economy in South America today representing the gigantic economic bloc of BRICS (including Russia, India, China, and South Africa), perceived as the new drivers of global economy.

This Portuguese speaking, carnival-crazy, samba dancing, and football superpower is the biggest country in South America and in the Latin American region.  It is the sixth largest economy by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and seventh largest in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) in the world. Brazil stands tall today as a leading financial center in the Americas.

Despite the vibrancy of its inward-oriented economy, an estimated one million protesters and anti-government demonstrators rallied in the streets of Rio de Janeiro and across the country as they clashed with law enforcers in June primarily due to lackadaisical economic performance over the last two years.

Increasing unemployment rate, government spending, and credit crunch have slowly crippled the region’s largest financial system. Brazil’s magic wand is diminishing as it tries to aspire for transformational changes in its humungous society. It was hailed in the past decade by the international community for successfully alleviating about 35 million poor people to the middle class that has reshaped the country’s political economy framework.

However the same middle class uprooted from poverty are putting more pressure to the Brazilian government bringing political unrest and societal divide as powerhouse Brazil hosts the World Cup next year.

Birth of the Mídia Ninja

In an enticing teaser presented by http://socialbarrel.com/how-to-become-a-social-media-ninja-in-6-easy-steps/52390/, it offers a motivating question of who would not want to become a ninja? Ninjas are perceived to be strategic, smart, and sneaky and get to wear those strong black clothes.

However, all of the media ninja around are not required to wear the black ninja uniform. Obviously, in this technologically driven and globalized world, who would not want to become a discreet social media ninja? It's free for all concerned global citizens.  

In my mind, there are (un)written rules that must be obeyed like in planning, choosing strategic battles, changing the game, experimentation, and realizing that you are not alone! If one becomes a real media ninja, he can certainly appoint himself as a media agent and independent journalist. 

In fact, one of the pilot test areas which gave birth to the success of citizen journalism began when pockets of mídia ninjas boldly covered Brazil’s recent political turmoil in the purview to offer an alternative to major media outlets. The name of the organization certainly originated in Portuguese but when translated in English it promotes independent journalism and action. 

The http://www.csmonitor.com/ reports during the recent visit of Pope Francis – Brazil’s newest ambassador of goodwill that the Mídia Ninja are perceptibly claimed today as the best known group to emerge and has used social media to plan, broadcast, and report on major happenings.

Be a media ninja

Certainly there are perils to becoming media ninjas, notwithstanding, the risk of covering major news events and street protests to write and broadcast blow-by-blow accounts in the purview of balanced social media.

The Philippines can learn from Brazil’s Mídia Ninja as an emerging form of citizen journalism. As our global village decongests, there is now increased interactions among people from all continents of the world to create, share, and exchange rapid information and ideas in virtual communities and networks.

As myriads Filipino netizens of today have the power to enter the realm of cyberspace, we have become more critical to social commentaries of national, regional, and global importance. Certainly, these potentials and empowerment will definitely aid us to converge together and present real stories in the information superhighway. It is our mission to foster citizen journalism in our deterritorialized world.


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