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The Khmer Chronicles / Issue Nr 8: About rats, squashed dogs and getting published
Now the squashed dogs. The French newspapers have a term for the 'Man Bites Dog' stories which reads: 'la rubrique des chiens écrasés' (the 'squashed dogs section'). These stories are always considered with some contempt by 'serious' news readers. Because well, according to the 'serious' news readers they are not important stories compared to the 'big' stories. You know the 'big' stories: the events you can see simultaneously on 80% of the television screens worldwide and towards which hundreds of journalist are flocking. Yes... But what is big for who? And who decides what is big? Is big 'big' because the majority says it is big? Or is big 'big' because the major media tell the majority what is big? Or is it a minority telling the media what is big? There are many moments when an individual doesn't care about the 'big' events. For example the owner of the dog squashed by a runaway truck is convinced that the big story of the moment is his dead dog. He doesn't care if the Dalai Lama will have a discussion about Tibet with China. He cares about the disappearance of his dog. So do his children, his wife. The neighbours also think it is big news because they won't be disturbed by the barking at night. Another example are the 200 families who lost all their belongings in a fire this week in Phnom Penh. Hardly an event which will draw a crowd of foreign correspondents... Cambodia is far away.
And yet: about 1000 people who were living on the edge are now facing even harder times. If it isn't big news for Poughkeepsie (NY), for Fox News or the BBC, it is for them, their family, their friends (and for the real estate speculators). That was it for the rats and the squashed dogs. Now you should ask: 'What has the getting published to do with squashed dogs and rats?' We all know that as things are today it is hard to get published in the press. Even with 'big' stories. No more space, many more good photographers, no more money. That has gone somewhere else nowadays. What was directly supporting the traditional way of story telling with photographs (juicy assignments, stock sales) is dissolving into thin air. Certainly for me. What to do if you feel that telling these big and small stories, about squashed dogs, about people to other people still makes sense? Simply because it is important to communicate in order to understand and accept the other. Some of us turn to new distribution circuits, the art market being one of the most lucrative (but it requires specific skills). Or some of us turn to teaching (which requires another set of skills). Some try the Internet which lets go of expensive intermediaries between the producer and the reader. I do. With three other journalists we have set up a website. It's live since ten days or so, despite power cuts 5 hours a day and ridiculously expensive bandwith. Nothing revolutionary about that... Nothing glamorous about that... But it serves a purpose. Ka-set (means newspaper in Khmer) is in French and in Khmer (and soon in English), tells stories about Cambodia and Cambodians abroad to Cambodians and Cambodians abroad, but also to anyone who might be interested in Cambodia. We're the only truly independent website in Khmer. We are free as birds. It is OUR website. WE decide what to talk about and how we do it. The whole staff signed a charter to that effect. No one is telling us what is big. We have CONTROL. I have control of my images all the way. And I go on telling stories, trying multimedia stories and having fun putting them together. Stories about squashed dogs, big stories for those we're writing for... And if I didn't goof on the budgetary side we might even make a decent cambodian living from it. That's why I need the year of the rat... It's time to do that sort of things... Downscaling. And hey: a minimal carbon footprint as a bonus... Links:
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First the rats: I wish you all a very happy New Year. A Khmer New Year that is... We're leaving the year of the pig for the year of the rat. I am a rat. 5th cycle. With some luck I 'll work my way through two more. It is one nice thing about Cambodia: if you forgot to celebrate Christian New Year, there is always the Chinese and the Khmer New Year to remind you that time passes by...
Reader comments (6)
oh John Vink you have just cheered me up a lot, good luck with the budgeting.
Comment posted by Amy de Wit on April 16, 2008
Well, John, what can I say, this website that's ...News I want to hear about!
Thanks, "going" there at this minute, no plane, no car, no bicycle, just a couple clicks! How about that? :-)
Comment posted by herve on April 17, 2008
I can`t wait to see the next Issue of The Khmer Chronicles
Comment posted by Andreas on April 20, 2008
wonderful! but i didn't see an option for english on your site. is there?
Comment posted by Katia Roberts on April 20, 2008
Katia: hopefully there will be... First we have to stabilise the budget for the Khmer (our main target) and the French versions, and then, with new funding (any suggestions?), we'll have an English version... Right now only the multimedia presentations in the K7Media section are in French and English (there aren't many words in them anyhow...).
Comment posted by John Vink on April 21, 2008
Amazing photo..
Comment posted by Barbora Beckova on April 25, 2008