ON JOURNALISM: A good read: End of the world as we know it

Following a journalist’s twitter account (@codybrown), I stumbled upon this commentary by Robert Thomson on what it is to be a ‘professional’ journalist in this digital age.

Quoting him – “Journalists have to be flexible, they have to understand that readers' lives have changed and that unless we are responsive to those changes, and tailor content for these new templates, journalists will have made themselves redundant.”

The advent of the so-called ‘citizen journalist’ and real time’ information sharing through online social networks like facebook, twitter challenges conventional journalists on speed of information sharing and on establishing a valuable (and real-time) dialogue to the audiences. So now that everyone can become the transmitter of news, and can be faster than how newspapers (even their online versions) publish their news, does this signal the end of the professional journalist?

It does not. – Robert Thomson says why and how we can make ourselves stand-out.

He explains that today’s journalists have the advantage, which is our knowledge of fundamentals: proper reporting & writing, copyediting, beat specialization & ethics. Though he emphasizes that practitioners should adapt to the digital age. And this is where, he mentions, journalists of today & tomorrow should invest. We need to be in a state of continuous learning – starting with the basics such as knowing how to do your own multimedia presentation, learning how to maximize tools such as facebook, twitter & linkedin, opening ourselves to new online trends and trying it out.

The technology is here (and ever growing) and it’s up to today’s journalist to maximize the use of these online tools.

Anyway, be sure to check out his article. A must read.

The next big thing

Blogging About Rome

You might not know but I'm also keeping a blog solely for my travel notes. Here's a recent entry about my trip to Rome last June. Be sure to also check out my other entries particularly on my big trip to Morocco.





Cheers!

Film Français et la musique

Since I moved here in Belgium, I developed this tendency to like and enjoy movies and songs that are in French. I guess it's part of integration to the Belgian society. Though, it will still be a long shot before I start understanding what they mean and I at the moment I still have to rely on subtitles and translation.

We watched the movie La Vie En Rose (La Mome) earlier in a French channel. It was in French so I didn't understand the movie but I will definitely watch it soon. It's a story about Edith Piaf, a famous French singer in the 40s-50s. It was the first time I heard of her name but she's particularly gained worldwide acclaim from her song La Vie En Rose.

Here's a youtube link of her video, s'amuser et à toute à l'heure!

Jerick Travels to Essaouira

I manage to quickly do a blog entry on Essaouira from our trip to Morocco last June. Click on the link below to check it out.



After a day in the hot and steaming desert, what better way to cool off than to go to the beach. So, of course, we thought and did something about it. READ MORE.

Fall in Brussels

After almost 25 days of having no heating, we finally manage to have someone fix our heating problem and as of yesterday, we won't be freezing anymore!

Well, it's November, signalling mid-Autumn. Temperatures are back to something like 10C and rainclouds  continue to hover over the sky. It's my second fall in Brussels and generally apart from the nice brownish leaves, I don't like the cold season.

Though, it does not mean that I have to be gloomy. For this time of the year, I think, it's a good time to chill-out inside the house and enjoy the night with a cup of tea. Of course, Friday and Saturday night are still for parties, but for the rest, it's going to be more into chill-out!

Jerick Travels to the Sahara Desert

Check out my new travel post on the Sahara Desert!

We went there on June but it took me until November to finally finish the blog entry. Do check it out.



After a day and a half of travelling, we reached the Sahara. From afar, the Erg Chebbi sand dunes towers the skyline like a mountain without the brown and green color. It was glimmering in light orange. And the road to it was “ deserted” apart from the camel herds.... READ MORE

Do your AIESEC internship in the Philippines

Hey guys,

I haven't blogged in a while, even though I promised that I will blog regularly. Anyway, but here I am.

Here's a cool video telling you more about the Philippines and why you should do your next internship there. Kudos to AIESEC Philippines for this cool vid!

My Oxford Photo on Schmap.com

Cool news Thursday: I got an e-mail today on my flickr that one of the images that I uploaded before was selected to be part of an online map in Schmap.com.

http://www.schmap.com/oxford/sights_jericho/#p=128450&i=128450_76.jpg

It’s a photo that I took of Oxford University when we went there last April. It’s not a photo for the Time Magazine nor for the BBC. But at least, it’s something.

Reviving Le Blog

I decided to update my blog again, which after 5 years is still running though not as frequent as before.

 I have two blogs. This one - http://jerick.blogspot.com... is basically will be on short microblogs about my life in Brussels in general (and mostly random musings) and my  nomadlife blog - Jerick's Travel Notes - http://jerick.nomadlife.org will be more on my travels.

Peace out, Tuesday is work day.