Instigating change in the media world

VIDEO JOURNALISM: Let people tell their own stories

IN the ever fast-moving world of the media, changes and developments happen at a supersonic speed given the technology and know-how.

These vicissitudes also provoke ideas and thoughts on how best to use the media in a positive way. Although there are missing links here and there in the tapestry of the bigger picture, it is interesting to see how they can be addressed.

What better way than a meeting among academics, researchers and practitioners in the communication and media fields?

This exciting global get-together happened recently in Penang at a conference organised by the Communication Department of Universiti Utara Malaysia.

With the theme Revisiting Communication For Organisational And Social Change: Exploring The Missing Link, it inspired creative ideas and promised countless opportunities for these professionals to share their opinions.

When I found out that the 3rd International Conference On Communication And Media was being held in Penang, I was determined to be part of it as the body of knowledge would be massive.

Firstly, it would enhance my academic portfolio; secondly, there is the experience of making a presentation to a different crowd of academics and researchers; and thirdly, I love the island, so rustic with good food and friendly people.

My co-writer Badrul Hassan and I produced a paper on how a single person -- a woman -- could instigate change through the media. For a shift to happen, you must be prepared for the consequences.

And if you use the social networking sites to highlight ideas, they can go viral very wide and fast.

On the second day of the conference, I presented our paper Indrani Kopal: A Case Study Of Video Journalism As Women Leadership. Indrani is a Malaysian journalist, without a high position or abbreviations in front of her name but she is instigating change to help the disenfranchised subjectives.

I figured if I couldn't attract the attention of the audience with the title, at least my Prezi slides would.

The conference committee slotted the paper under the sub-theme of Political Economy Of Media And Change. It was spot on. To a certain degree, narratives of gendered leadership in a post-colonial nation such as Malaysia have not always been accessible to the members of this multi-ethnic society.

If a leadership quality may be signified by the breaking of one's silence in the face of injustice, we contend that Indrani's leadership lies in her praxis of agency.

The praxis of agency is an important political action or informed resistance by the subject to subvert the forces that construct and define their subjectivity in the first place.

It is not a coincidence that Indrani decided to cast her net rather wide.

During one interview, she made the important assertion of connecting people with politics, arguing that "politics shouldn't belong to a certain group of people and activists shouldn't own politics".

Being a video journalist, she is aware of her capacity to exercise or stretch her agency to maximise the discursive impact of her coverage on communal and national issues.

However, she insists that she is more comfortable as "a storyteller", which requires her to make adjustments to how she approaches the subjects of her stories without losing the impact factor.

Storytelling is indeed a critical form of articulation through strategic narrative acts into which Indrani deftly embeds her sense of agency, with full self-realisation of her position and what she can do.

Her optimistic sense of agency has increased her opportunity as a video journalist with a mission to engage the establishment in the disenchanted affairs of the disenfranchised.

In her works, she has captured various periods of transition, which were fracturing the already desperate lives of the ethnic Indian-Hindu community for the last two decades on sensitive issues such as land rights.

Certain contemporary social issues have also attracted her attention, including psychologically and sexually deviant manifestations by certain members of the society such as suicide, trans-sexuality or even a rare case of "mistaken identity".

Indrani is also sensitive to the media subjectivity of the Penan indigenous community in Sarawak, which is no longer a local issue but one that is well-exposed and discussed nationally and internationally.

She has arguably built her leadership talent by immersing herself in these spaces of conflicts, armed with strong professional principles, techniques and an insight into what her subjects really want say to the authorities. Indeed, her central and ethical practice as a video journalist is always to "let people tell their own story".

"Speak to them and let them tell their own story, in their own voice." This, she has learnt, is a practical and persuasive strategy over the years.

All in all, the three-day event offered an array of topics, including communication for social and organisational change, international communication and culture, cultural sensitivities, sustainable development communication, communication policy, new media and culture.

These topics stimulated minds and provoked continuous dialogues which, hopefully, will eventually generate understanding as well as scholarly and insightful findings for academicians and media practitioners alike. 

The writer is a Broadcasting and Journalism senior lecturer at Taylor’s University

Read more: PERSPECTIVE: Instigating change in the media world - Sunday Life & Times - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/life-times/sunday-life-times/perspective-instigating-change-in-the-media-world-1.276954#ixzz2TDpu8IvD