A couple of weeks ago I got an email from fellow aniblogger Justin of Organization Anti-Social Geniuses basically amounting to, “Whatever happened to that vlog of yours?”
Well, after I made the first and second vlogs in quick succession and then kind of let the project lull, I felt like I needed to create something more meaningful than “here’s what I’m into right now” if I was going to bring it back.
Luckily, at Otakon I was reunited with two of my favorite journalists and I had an idea. Why not give my readers the chance to listen to some other otaku journalists for a change? My way isn’t the only way to practice fandom reporting, and Aja Romano and Mike Fenn have some really awesome stories under their belts.
Since it’s three of us yammering instead of just the usual one, this is my longest vlog yet at a little over 15 minutes. So to hold your attention, here are some timestamps:
1:50 — I ask Aja and Mike about their reporting angles for Otakon.
4:30 — We discuss why non-anime news outlets report on cons.
7:00 — Mike and Aja’s essential reporting tools for live events.
9:15 — Everyone’s favorite note-taking techniques for panels.
9:30 — Some guy walks past us and I’m too lazy to edit it out.
10:00 — Mike talks about “pre-reporting” to practice for live coverage.
11:45 — How we balance reporting with enjoying the convention as fans.
Since it’s a week after Otakon, Mike and Aja have already published some of their convention coverage. Here’s Aja’s story on Lucky Cats and Mike’s on awesomely bad Japanese music videos, both reported from the con. (And if you didn’t read my coverage yet, be sure to check it out here and here!)
4 Comments.
I really enjoyed watching this vlog in the shared format of interviewing two fellow journalist and learning about how the three of you work and the tools you use. Also how useful it is to be reporting and interviewing people when you know your subject as all three of you did.
I’m not a journalist and don’t see myself aspiring to be one. But I still love learning how people work and how they approach the focus of their work. I find I still learn things that are useful and learn about crafts I’m not familiar with.
Mine are programming and writing (basically a hack creative writer and a moderately skilled technical writer.)
Side bar: Lauren, I want those ears! Odds are low I’ll do any cosplaying at Geek Girl Con, but I’m thinking cat ears could be cool (I think I’d wear black ones.) :)
I think Yaya Han sells that style of ears on her website.
Yeah, sorry, they’re Yaya Han ears. I forgot to respond here since I wrote to Zoe on Facebook about where to find them. This is the exact ear model: http://yayahan.bigcartel.com/product/yayas-original-cat-ears-plain
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