SOME people don’t get new media, and think that’s new media’s fault. But the fault, dear brontosaurus, is not in new media, but in yourselves.

I’m not saying that new media is perfect. It has warts and all, and kinks that will be ironed out in time, just as any other medium when it was new. What I find laughable, however, is when people don’t even try it out for themselves, before passing judgment on it. Like people who don’t even watch YouTube, yet claim to be experts on online video. People who dismiss blogging, or think they know all there is to know about it, without having tried blogging themselves.

People who try to make everything fit in their outmoded structures and obsolete world views, not realizing that everything is changing around them. You don’t just have to worry about being incompetent. The real danger is in becoming irrelevant. After all, the dinosaurs were pretty competent and successful, brain size notwithstanding… until something happened, and they failed to adapt.

Anyway, here’s a video taken by INQUIRER.net technology reporter Erwin Oliva of Janet Steele, author and associate professor in journalism at George Washington University, sharing her insights on narrative reporting and its role in the new media age.

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WE live in a world where often too much information is available, yet people have too little time. So increasingly we want our content in small yet constant doses. And we want it now. On demand. All the time.

It could be micro-blogging via Twitter, like what INQUIRER.net executive editor Leo Magno, tech reporter Erwin Oliva and multimedia reporter Izah Morales are doing, bringing updates from Cagayan de Oro using their mobile phones at twitter.com/talesofthenomad.

It could be the bunnies of Angry Alien Productions, who give 30-second reenactments of movies such as “Alien,” “Kill Bill,” “Die Hard” and “Borat.” In fact, the site’s bunny version of “Brokeback Mountain” won two Webby awards this year. I’ve been watching the bunnies for years now, and my favorite is still one of the very first ones I saw, “Jaws.” You have to watch it heh

It could be flash fiction, also known by different names such as short short story or microfiction. I remember Sacha Chua being a flash fiction enthusiast when we first met online years ago, when she contributed some literary pieces to our YOU site. Check out some samples of Sacha’s flash fiction.

Another site you can visit for flash fiction is Flash Fiction Online. Let me know if you have other sites you can recommend.

Now go have a bite.

IF you haven’t seen it yet, here’s a copy of “Don’t be too CNN,” the music video that’s criticizing Western media such as CNN for allegedly demonizing China and coming out with distorted reports on the unrest in Tibet.

And here’s a Reuters video report on the “Don’t be too CNN” video.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of the Chinese government, though I find a lot to admire about China and its culture. Frankly, however, I can understand the frustration of some Chinese citizens over how Western media portrays their country. For all its claims of being objective, it’s hard not to think of media outlets such as CNN as being biased in presenting the Western viewpoint or version of events. Yup, I know there’s no such thing as complete objectivity, but Western media, intentionally or not, views everything through its own eyes and set of values, which it then tries to apply to the non-Western world.

This seeming bias has become even more pronounced in a post-9/11 world and the neverending “War on Terror,” almost as if it were unpatriotic for any mainstream media outlet in the US to criticize the American government or offer dissenting opinions on the war against terrorists. How many years did George W. Bush get a free ride from US media? Which prompted people to look for alternative news sources such as blogs and media outlets such as Al Jazeera. Whether you agree with what’s on Al Jazeera or not, it owes its success to the perception of people that they can find stories and viewpoints here that you probably weren’t going to see on CNN.

It’s almost taken for granted by Western media that the Chinese people are not free and are unhappy, and I suppose with the way the Internet is regulated in China, many foreigners just assume that the Chinese netizens who speak out against the Western media’s alleged distortions are brainwashed, coerced, or paid by the government. Because they just assume that’s the way it must be, yet who speaks for the Chinese, if not themselves? The reality is probably quite complicated — certainly more so than the West’s penchant for painting things in black and white and designating one Evil Empire after another.

“Quid est veritas?” Pilate once asked. “What is truth?” Now that question is being asked in cyberspace.

Then, as now, there are no easy answers.

SOME people just pay lip service to the youth, but I’m a big believer in evolution and revolution. That’s what we’re seeing now in media, and while I’m hardly young anymore, I’ve done my best to keep learning, reinventing myself and embracing and instigating change. The alternative is to become a living fossil, which unfortunately is what some of the (usually older) people in media are.

Two events reminded me of the need to continue reaching out to the youth, and to always be ahead of the pack. Last week, I was asked by my friend Grace Cuenca of PR firm Strategic Edge to give a talk to her class. Grace teaches an introduction to PR class at Mapua, and my audience consisted of young business administration students. Nope, I wasn’t there to talk about PR — in fact, I hate people who think of blogging and online media as a PR tool, and who confuse journalism with writing nothing but positive stuff about company. Instead, Grace wanted me to talk about new media and share my experiences as the multimedia editor of the number one Philippine online news site.

Well, I don’t know if her students were just being polite when they were laughing at my jokes, but I hope somehow I was able to impart some knowledge. You see, I believe in very casual presentations and talking the language of the audience I’m addressing. In this case, it helped that my message was basically that the blogs, podcasts and online video that these young people are very much familiar with and which they are already taking for granted, are being embraced by mainstream media. Yup, the old fogeys are finally getting it!

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UPDATE: Added comment on auto-play.

HERE’S a cool Philippine video site that shows how TV networks can make the transition to the Web. Visit ProbeTV.com. (Well, OK, except it seems the videos are on auto-play, which can be pretty annoying, hmm.)

Check out these clips.

Kudos to Probe TV. And thanks to Karen Borbon for the heads up