Ateneo – La Salle Basketball Rivalry on the New York Times

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 24th, 2007

Raphael Bartholomew writes a piece on Philippine basketball culture for the New York Times. He talks about the rivalry between Ateneo and La Salle, the culture of college basketball, game fixing, and the obtuse difference between the players of each school:

Although Ateneo and La Salle have similar upper-class student bodies, their respective basketball teams are very different.

The Ateneo players have a squeaky-clean image. The team’s prize freshman, Kirk Long, came from Faith Academy, a high school in suburban Manila for the children of foreign missionaries. Guard Eric Salamat’s surname means thank you in Tagalog.

La Salle’s players have a menacing swagger, with tattoos, headbands, shaved heads and chin-strap beards. In 2005, La Salle revealed that two of its players had used phony high school equivalency results in their applications, and the team was suspended for the 2006 season. [Read]

So what do you think? Is this article accurate? I’m from neither school so I can’t really say anything. The part about the tattoos and squeaky clean image are a bit blunt though.

Bartholomew is a lecturer at the Ateneo.

Food bloggers as the new food critics

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 19th, 2007

I wrote a piece for the September issue of Rogue Magazine on “the new food critics,” revealing food and travel bloggers as authorities in the art and science of degustation.

In the 1950′s, the dawning of the food critic gave rise to a certain fear in the food and beverage industry. The New York Times, one of the pioneers in the food writing industry, released a weekly column that reviewed restaurants and hotspots. By the decade, the food critic wielded a powerful pen as reviews could literally make or break a restaurant. [buy the latest September 2007 issue with Cristina Garcia for the rest of the article]

Rogue sells for P180.00 and boasts an impressive lineup of contributors including Andy Maluche, Lourd de Veyra, Yvette Tan, Eggy Tioseco, Arnold Arre, and Quark Henares.

Biblioteca Fernandez and Book Stores

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 17th, 2007

That’s the library on the second floor of my home, where I spent 1/3 of my childhood waking hours (the other 1/3 of my 80′s was spent in front of the television and the remaining pie was dedicated to toys). Afternoons and weekends were usually spent getting lost in the piles of National Geographic, Reader’s Digest, and original copies of the very first Marvel and DC comics which my dad hard bound.

As I grew into my teens, the library was reduced to a fleeting memory and the books gathered dust at the same rate that the newly opened mall in Alabang gathered traffic. I opened the encyclopedia less, and opened my email more. Nonetheless, libraries still fascinate me: Whether it be the rustic smell of a leather bound tome, the whispering voices that provide an ambiance or the iconic librarian that I was attuned to as a child.

I guess the modern day library would be the “reinvented” book store – I can sit and finish a book in one session if I have to.

Which leads me to why I like events that are held in bookstores. If you have the time, do drop by the WeeWillDoodle event this Friday at Fully Booked, Bonifacio High Street. And grab a moleskine while you’re at it.

Blogger, remember your roots

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 15th, 2007

Every so often it would be good to reflect on your roots as a blogger and what got you started with writing in the first place. Doing this can help put some perspective in your overall goal of blogging whether it be for fun, for profit or for sharing things with others.

Remembering your roots can also help you avoid unnecessary conflict in the future as it puts a lot of things in perspective. I’d like to share you my roots:
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Yay, I made Technorati front page

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 15th, 2007

It was My Good Finds that informed me of this in the form of a comment. I actually do not know the repercussions of becoming a “featured blog” as I surmise that the lottery draw for this is completely random. Now, a front page Digg .. now that’s something. Nonetheless, it’s nice to get some attention from the guys at Technorati.

I think the true feat here is being informed that you were on the front page, since being able to catch someone you know on the featured blogs list is quite a one in a thousand thing.

How to increase the chance of getting a Press Release published

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 14th, 2007

In the communications industry, advertising in magazines is one effective means of getting your message across. Placing a one page advertisment on the right newspaper or magazine can most probably get the message to your target demographic. However, there is always a back door to getting published without having to pay a cent. Welcome to the strategy known as the press release – a means to get your message through without having to pay P100,000.00 for an ad space.

I was part of a panel last week at the “PR Rocks” PRSP Summit together with Ms. Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz of Sunday Inquirer Magazine and Jones Campos of Globe Corporate PR. We discussed the Malu Fernandez controversy from an editorial perspective, corporate transparency to consumers, and tips on how to pitch to the media. Ms. Pennie, an award winning editor, gave some tips on how to make the editor’s job easier in choosing which press release to place.

Are you a PR or marketing practitioner? Here are some effective ways to get your press released published. You have to bear in mind that dozens of press releases make it to the inbox of newspaper and magazine editors every day. How does the editor pick the really good ones to publish? How do you make your piece of paper stand out from the rest of the stack? Here is a compiled list from Ms. Penny with some of my notes:

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Blogs as Tools for Nation Building

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 13th, 2007

Although the term is widely used, I must give credit to Joey Climaco for lobbying the term nation building whenever we dialogue about advocacy campaigns.

Back in June, I volunteered my time with the Coca Cola Foundation for a project that made use of blogs as tools for documenting effective ways to help save the environment. This project is currently running as part of a contest for Coke Barkada, which involves the participation of 100+ college organizations across Metro Manila. Meaningful blogging is but one of the measures for this contest outcome as the students have to undergo tasks ala Amazing Race to determine the winners. Here is one of the examples of the blog of the UP Sandigan Organization maintained by Efriel Hazel Leynes:
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What I have written, I have written

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at September 9th, 2007

The following events take place within the last six months.

A public relations agency called me up after I posted a review of their client’s product x. The account executive was a little careful with the words coming out of her mouth and she was asking if I could “improve on what I wrote.” I stopped dead on my tracks (actually I didn’t really stop because I remember clearly that I was on an escalator at Rockwell) and asked her,

“What do you mean by … improve?”

It may be true that bloggers are now being tapped by PR agencies to test consumer products and services. Because of the nature of our content management system, we can edit our entries anytime. But I highly doubt that bloggers are becoming tools of PR. I think it is quite the opposite. Yesterday, I gave a short presentation to marketing and communications students at the PR Rocks Conference sponsored by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines. I told them that bloggers, though they may not be journalists are passionate individuals who hang on to their credibility. They, I would like to believe, do not sell out.

Out of politeness and still bearing the shock of not knowing what to say, I told this person, “Let me see what I can do…”

I texted her immediately after putting the phone down and told her that I was greatly disturbed by that request. She understood deeply as I have been in touch with this person since my editor / writer days at Hinge-Inquirer – as the request was truly odd. I read my review once more and it was no different in style to the dozens of reviews I have written since 2003. I am always fair and want to give products a fighting chance in the market. I didn’t see why I had to “improve” on it. What I have written, I have written.

Take everything away from me, but please don’t take away my credibility. I understand that the PR fellow was just doing her job but it is also our duty to educate remind PR practitioners that we need to set criteria. Sometimes they get too engrossed in their work.

On bad products
I have a personal opinion about REALLY bad products – I never review products that don’t make sense to consumers (VERY iffy market / VERY sub par features / VERY horrendous pricing scheme) because I know that such types of products will die a natural death. Giving a bad product a bad review is like kicking someone when he’s already down. In the case of this scenario I just outlined, the product was not bad. I gave a fair perspective on the strengths and weaknesses.

So what is the purpose of this post? Because of this incident, I would like to reveal the 8th characteristic of Blog and Soul (only 7 are posted), something which I never really wanted to talk about because I felt that it was unnecessary. The 8th pointer of the Blog and Soul Movement is to protect bloggers from sacrificing their credibility to PR. This does not happen intentionally, but I tell you that it does happen. I have dealt with several PR and ad agencies in the past – Ogilvy, GMCI, Strategic Edge, Bridges, Dominguez, Stratworks, etc and know that they are all composed of very good and upright people whom I respect and love. But we, as bloggers, must always be on guard just in case. Just in case.

The last thing you want to happen is to realize that you’ve sold out without knowing it.

Going Rogue

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 8th, 2007

There’s a new men’s magazine in town. From the guys who created Manifesto (Jose Mari Ugarte, Miguel Mari, and pals) under the C! group, Rogue is their new brainchild under a different publishing group. Here’s the Press Release and photo from Jim Ayson’s Philmusic:

ROGUE’s long-term mission is to accurately tell the story of our times, our people, and our culture one month at a time; and to capture the people, places, and ideas that define our modern culture. if anything, ROGUE will make a strong statement about who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

I wasn’t able to go to the grand launch at the Fort a few weeks back because I was sick. I’m sure it was a blast.

I used to love reading Manifesto as it was the closest we could get to a local version of GQ. Other magazines also came close, such as MANUAL when it was being handled by Adel Gabot a couple of years back – thus showing how an editor in chief is the true lifeblood of a magazine. MANUAL’s current EIC is RJ Ledesma, who bring a lot of his Men’s Room antics into the magazine. If Rogue is anything like Manifesto – and it should be – this is one good men’s title I’m looking forward to.

I have a piece in the upcoming issue of Rogue. Check the current issue in magazine stalls now.

Disclosure: I also contribute on occasion for MANUAL Magazine of MMPI.

Butch Dalisay’s Anti-Rant Rant

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 6th, 2007

“Poetry, after all, is the opposite of suicide.”
- Anne Sexton

Butch Dalisay, better known as penmanila to the writing community in the Philippines has written a magnificent piece on the ranting culture on the Internet. A professed geek as most of us are at PhilMUG, he raises salient points on the rant culture we have today because of the Internet and many more factors:

Forgive me if I suspect that these are people—many of them in their surly mid-twenties—who’ve never been truly whacked by life over the head, who’ve never laid their lives on the line for a cause larger than themselves, who’ve never stared into the barrel of a gun, who’ve never spent a day in jail, and whose daily crises consist of having to choose between the mocha latte and the cappuccino. [full article here]

The discussion of the article can be found over at the PhilMUG forums.

Shedding Some Light on Disclosures

Posted by Jayvee Fernandez at August 5th, 2007

Before we start to get “disclosure happy,” here is a very good piece written by Read Write Web on when bloggers should disclose information. This was pointed out by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger. The article actually illustrates journalism ethics as well as the ethics behind the business models of traditional publishers (it is sometimes tricky to balance business with ethics especially in the realm of journalism).

Nothing new really, but the piece is a helpful all in one guide to how to treat our disclosures as well as see what level we are in to becoming more professional about our blogging.

You’ll notice that I don’t include a rule about disclosing when you were paid to write about a specific topic or company. The reason is that any blogger who wants to be taken seriously as a journalist cannot and will not accept money or gifts from a source (or vice versa). That said, it should also be noted that there is a big difference between accepting gifts in exchange for writing a story and accepting review copies of goods for free. [full article here]

In summary, the article says that disclosure should happen when in these situations:

• Financial association (investment, ownership etc)
• Employment with the company being written about
• Writng about the Competition
• Personal involvement