Bloggers, MISrepresent!

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 12th, 2007

It is such a sad experience to have a blogger misrepresent the Philippine blogosphere for his or her own merit. Recently, a huge conference was held and some industry folk mentioned a particular blogger who gave such a compelling presentation about the Philippine blogosphere. It was so compelling because it was the first BIG time that the local industry’s eyes were opened to the spectacle that is the Philippine blogosphere.

The phenomenon known as the Philippine Blogosphere is a treasure that is owned by all the bloggers. It is true that there are those who stand out with their ways either because of kapal ng mukha, good content, remarkable personalities and other such things. Any blogger in the community may have a handful to say, if asked by companies, on what the local blogosphere is like.

But it is very different case when one uses the blogosphere for personal merit.
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Jayvee’s Quentin Tarantino Experience

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 12th, 2007

So I shuffled over Gateway Mall to meet Quentin Tarantino at the Cinemalaya FIlm Festival. The press had a “meet and greet” session after he gave a four hour seminar on film. Luckily a friend from one of the ABS-CBN magazines needed a photographer so she dragged me along, to my delight. I’d do anything to meet the pulp in the fiction.

Quentin Tarantino has always fascinated me because of his deep appreciation for Asian Cinema. Based on the comments of many of those who attended the four hour talk, they were all fascinated with Tarantino’s familiarity with the development of Filipino cinema, even from the era of the 60′s. Tarantino also stressed how he hates questions like “how was it like working with Uma in Kill Bill” which are things he usually gets in Hollywood. Filipino film students and industry folk were more intelligent throughout the four hour discourse, gladly

I will say it now that I had a totally different experience!
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On giving up certain “rights” as a writer

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 12th, 2007

I was flipping through a popular technology magazine with local content recently and I couldn’t believe my eyes as I almost skipped through one of the gadget review pages. I had to double check the product review written by “writer x” because from what I know about this person’s professional background, he (or she) is currently affiliated with the same company that produces that particular device. The person in question also happens to be a writer as I’ve seen the name frequent technology publications.

But a line has to be drawn somewhere – and this is what you get when the editorial staff of the said publication is not very critical about who writes the review. The review was fair – but I do have to admit, would you, as an editor allow a product manager (or someone in a similar status) write a product review of devices manufactured by the company he or she works for?

The answer is obviously … Nope. This is a sad day in the local tech media.

I’m not sure if the editorial staff knows about this current affiliation. I obviously withheld names out of prudence to this particular magazine, the writer and staff because I don’t want this to become a huge controversy. It’s just … sad.

I don’t have a problem with the writer contributing for a technology magazine. I take issue on the position this person is in to write such a review. There are just certain rights you have to give up. Be careful next time