Friday, April 17, 2009

Technology and Food Journalism

Last Friday on 17th of April 2009,
Niki Cheong, who was the Star's Assistant Editor
for Youth Desk, came to our college
and gave a speech on "Technology & Reporting".

Since this blog is focus on food,
I have asked him two questions
regarding food journalism in relation with technology:-

Alicia: What do you think about the future of
food journalism?
Niki: It's all about the picture. The picture has to be
good to attract people. There are many blogs
on food already. Unless your picture is attractive,
people won't go for what you write.

Alicia: How do you think we can use technology
to improve food journalism?
Niki: Maybe we can invent a tool to smell the food.
It is not impossible. Hologram is created as well.

In my opinion, what I can conclude from these two answers is,
in order for food journalism to thrive,
we got to use "silver plate and golden apple" principle.
An attractive food is the substance
of food journalism just like a "golden apple".
However, we need to present it with "silver plate" as well.
Here, technology comes handy in presenting the food.
If there is a tool to help the audience to "taste"
the food using their 5 senses,
presenting the food with such tool
will surely attract a lot of people.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Korean Udon with Paper Mushroom and Beijing Cabbage


Ingredients:-
(1) Few slice of Beijing Cabbage
(Trust me, it's sweeter ^^)
(2) 1 small bowl of Paper Mushroom
(It's not really a paper. It's just its name.)
(3) 1 pinch of salt
(4) 1 packet of Korean Udon
(Sorry, I can't remember the brand >.<)

Steps:-
(1) Cut off the stems of the Paper Mushrooms
to remove the sand beneath them.
(2) Soak them with water for half an hour.
(3) Meanwhile, wash the Beijing Cabbage.
(4) Then, throw both Paper Mushrooms
and the Beijing Cabbage into boiling water.
(5) Put a pinch of salt.
(6) Then put in the Korean Udon's seasoning
(according to your preference of taste
and how salty you like the soup to be).
(7) Then the soup is ready.
(8) Boil another pot of water to cook the Korean Udon.
(9) Transfer the Korean Udon into the soup
once the Udon is soft enough.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Al-Jazeera Talk: Two Biggest Fundamental Problems Faced by Local Media


"We are not afraid because we report nothing but the truth!" said Mr. Jayaganesh Sabapathy, who is the Head of Operations in Asia Pacific for Al-Jazeera English.

He continued, "Besides, it's Pak Lah who invited us here - promising us that they will not interfere us - and we will take no side."

His sharing was astounding and it captured my attention, especially when he shared on the two 'biggest fundamental problems' our local media face.

First is on the chase after technology. It is impossible for our media company to keep updating their digital system as it costs a lot financially. Furthermore, the public is not ready to use such High Definition technology.

Secondly, the local journalists are lack of journalistic instinct. They have not enough exposure and they cannot do journalism without free hand.

For example, during Lee Kuan Yew's talk, the local journalists dare not to ask "difficult" question. It's the foreign journalists who dare to ask, "Are you building Lee Kuan Yew's empire?" It seems that the local journalists have become a mouthpiece of the government instead of reporting the fact due to the psychological boundary set by themselves.