RECAP: Day 5 of N3Con

AAJA-Asia’s 11th edition of the New.Now.Next Media Conference (N3Con) concluded its fifth day on Friday with over 385 registered participants gathered online, reimagining news over a full week of programming from August 2 – 7.

We have been sending a daily newsletter with some conference highlights and tips to make the most out of the event. In this issue, we are pleased to feature recaps on tips from Facebook on social media monetization, a discussion on the problem with parachute journalism, and links to further reading in N3Magazine. With the conference coming to a close today, a week’s north of recorded sessions can be viewed in the link in your inbox.

We wish you a good read and a great final conference day ahead. Please let us know what you think through a survey e-mailed to you!

— AAJA-Asia Team

From top to bottom and left to right: Regina Hing, Head of Business News, Cignal; Clare Baldwin, Special Correspondent, Reuters News Agency; Dake Kang, Journalist, The Associated Press; Kirsten Han, Independent journalist

Revisiting Parachute Journalism Panel

By Marie Bröckling

The coverage of the Myanmar coup by CNN’s chief international correspondent has triggered heated controversy. In this session moderated by Regina Hing, head of business news at Cignal, three journalists discussed the role of parachute journalists and reflected on their own experiences reporting on communities that they are outsiders to.

Panelists agreed that it can put interviewees in danger when journalists do not know enough context to inform their sources about possible repercussions. However, media organizations and especially visual media like broadcasters may feel they need to send their “star reporters” because the audience knows them.

Parachute journalism is commonly used to refer to journalists coming in from outside international borders. But can also be applied to communities that a reporter is not part of. Kirsten Han, freelance reporter based in Singapore, shared how she tries to stay humble and know her limitations when reporting on migrant domestic workers in her own country whose language she does not speak.

Dake Kang, staff reporter with AP in Beijing, said that he tries to always keep in mind the domestic audience for his reports and to speak to as many people on the ground as possible. Especially in China, where there are heavy media restrictions from the grassroots up, foreign outlets can be an important source of information.

Clare Baldwin, special correspondent at Reuters, advised aspiring foreign correspondents to team up with local journalists and find a theme that is big enough to produce for multiple publications and enables them to become an expert on their topic.

From top to bottom and left to right: Mike Raomanachai, Media Consultant, Da Mike & Co.; Chiman Ng, News Partnerships Lead, Greater China Region, Facebook; Yu Yu Din, Strategic Partner Manager, Facebook; Petch Pacharapun, Strategic Partner Manager, News Partnerships Thailand, Facebook.

Lunchtime Session with Facebook: News Video Content Publishing and Monetization

By Jiaquan Lu

Media professionals from the social media giant share their thoughts on news content publishing, as well as their career journeys.

In the lunchtime session with a virtual office tour, Petch Pacharapun, Strategic Partner Manager, News Partnerships Thailand, Facebook said that news publishers and content creators must understand what their audiences want to see, otherwise the video content will have low viewership.

“Three factors: headline, hook, summary — they have to find a way to get the retention of the target audiences,” said Petch, who is focused on forging partnerships with local and global AdTech partners to drive Facebook advertisers’ success.

“Whenever social media content is being posted, one fundamental basic for content creators or news publishers is to go into the comments section and start conversing with their audiences, From these engagements, they will look out for any interesting or newest trends stories they can pick up,” advised Chiman Ng, News Partnerships Lead, Greater China Region, Facebook.

When asked during this session moderated by Mike Raomanachai, Media Consultant, Da Mike & Co., Chiman described Facebook as a tech-centric company strongly encouraging content creators and publishers to use some of their tools on the published content performance and video metrics; and that different kinds of products help publishers to monetize their content, depending on which type of product will work best for the publisher.

The session participants also discussed some aspects of their career journeys, particularly during their time before joining Facebook, the professional highlights of Yu Yu Din, Strategic Partner Manager, Facebook was recognised. “I was a 16-years old filmmaker in New York City, and got myself into an independent production house, and was first mentored by Danny Schechter — a pioneering producer with CNN. They instilled a value in me that journalism needed to be independent and have that activist streak to it,” shared Yu Yu Din.

From top to bottom and left to right: Zela Chin Principal Reporter, TVB; Michala Sabnani Director of Branded Content, South China Morning Post; Rishad Patel Co-Founder, Splice Media; Jenny Hsu Senior consultant, angel investor.

Life Beyond the Newsroom

By Rebecca Isjwara

To kick off N3Con’s fifth day, speakers on this session moderated by Zela Chin, principal reporter at TVB, shared about their respective lives beyond working in the newsrooms – an area that every panelist truly cherished and benefitted from in their subsequent career journeys.

Michala Sabnani, director of branded content at South China Morning Post, shared that her team’s responsibility encompasses creating editorial-facing content in conjunction with brands. She said that this role is more on the advertising, involving creating a story and following how it does in the distribution network and receiving feedback from the client and audience. It’s both rewarding and challenging to have a more business lens for the content the team creates, she said.

Jenny Hsu, senior consultant and angel investor, shared that she has had multiple roles after her correspondent role – such as PR – but noted that telling a story from the bottom of her heart has been the single constant skill that has helped her thrive. She said that storytelling is more prevalent than it seems, as she is constantly asking journalist-esque questions to her stakeholders in order to deliver the correct message.

Rishad Patel, co-founder at Splice Media, has always been in journalism-adjacent roles, albeit moreso on the product side. At Splice Media, he helps cultivate the media startup community in Asia by showcasing media startups, profile the entrepreneurs, and also train them on business, product, and audience strategy as well as funding them. His core passion is in media businesses, and to help the media firms grow viably.

Related reading from N3Magazine, the official publication of N3Conference:

• Careful, it’s a jungle out there: how social media can distort political dialogue online
• Tips for aspiring and job-hunting journalists
• An uncertain future for Philippine press
• Taiwan: Tycoon media owners, sensationalism, and political polarisation

Podcast 

Tom White, freelance photojournalist and instructor at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, discusses:

• How to tackle misinformation online
• What we can do as a society to be more informed and media literate
• How we might transform into a society that is more open to discourse

Listen to the podcast here.