I don’t know which is more mentally challenging, the competition or the interviews thereafter.  Fortunately, my mind was very much heightened with the essence of at least two chickens I took in the morning.  One reporter pulled me outside for an interview.  Well, I had no clue that when she asked me the first question, it was meant to be a warm up.  So after I poured my heart and soul in answering that first question, she pulled out her camera and said, “Let’s do the video recording now.”

Ah ha …

One reporter traveled from Malaysia and I have to be nice!  Besides, it is still my dream to have my band playing gigs in Kuala Lumpur.  Ha ha ha.

But seriously, all my answers are from the bottom of my heart.  Journalists are the smart, hardworking, and observant ones.  You really can’t trick them.

Many friends after sending in the congratulations (thank you!), they would ask what kind of questions I was being asked.  I won’t repeat what I have already covered in my previous post.  Will I blog about the event?  Sure.  And I told them that I had two versions in mind: Yes We Made It and No We Didn’t.  Will there be another blogger competition like this?  BRANDS should absolutely continue this effort.  I would if I was the CEO or MD of BRANDS.  BRANDS could easily own the mental competition branding as the pioneer of the event.

Why wouldn’t they?  No brainer really.

What do you get the most from this event?  It has to be the great opportunity of meeting the bloggers in person, both in Singapore and Malaysia.  Is it that big a deal to meet the bloggers?  Sure.  There is only that much you can know about someone from what you read.  The texture of the personality tends to be one dimensional.  Yes, face-to-face is still the best way to bond.

Blogging versus Journalism

Of all the questions thrown at me after that intensive mental experiment competition, the questions of when and why did I start blogging and my view of blogging versus journalism – new media versus traditional media of newspaper, magazine, radio, and television – are the most challenging ones.

If you take away the obvious, going back to the basic, these outcomes from different media channels are all stemmed from the passion to write, are they not?  The desire to observe and to share is imbued in all of us.  Some choose the path to transform thoughts and observations into words; some take pictures that speak to people’s heart; some paint; music is written because of this desire; and others choose to converse.

I consider myself a writer before a blogger.  Blogosphere is one of the by products of the big bang of the Internet era.  Technology changes the way we connect, the way we get our hands onto information.  Sharing information is king while keeping information may not in many instances.  In this era of virtual connectivity, suddenly all those who write and share online become bloggers.  But peeling away the label and going back to basic, both journalist and blogger have a passion to observe, to write, and to share.

It would be naïve to imagine that the landscape of journalism will be the same with the ever evolving, ever expanding blogosphere.  Many consumers these days are more knowledgeable than the salesmen inside the stores who may not even use the products they sell (trust me, that’s the very first question I ask).  Many travelers these days bypass the travel agencies, plan and book their own tour routes and means.  There will be more readers out there taping onto the Internet to look for what they wish to read, blurring the line of censorship and control.  Maybe the most up-to-the-second information, maybe independent views, maybe keeping constant touch with a personality admired is more intimate than reading the celebrity news.  I personally have stopped reading product reviews from the traditional media long time ago.  Whatever the reasons are to be, we only have 24 hours a day.  An hour spent touring the blogosphere is an hour less to do something else.

Future journalists will have to be a lot smarter, revealing insights that awe the audience.  The future of the blogosphere is bright and promising, as we are marching towards affordable mobile broadband access and the convergence of how small a computer can get and how rich in functionality a hand held device can be; and as we the bloggers gain enough critical mass to make a difference, to compliment the traditional media.

“Bonus” Materials

Enough of deep thoughts.  Here are extra photos taken during the event.  Big thanks again to my new friends at Burson-Marsteller – Selena, Genevieve, Matthew, and Ingmar.  Also, don’t miss a lovely article written by Deborah Choo at Youth.sg.  Those pictures crack me up big time!  Thanks Deborah.  And BRANDS has posted an article too!

Related Entry: Team Singapore Won BRANDS Blogger Challenge, And I Was There