So kids, what have we learned by now?

April 28, 2014: I honestly cannot believe the time to conclude this academic year has come. It is not only the end of the Spring 2014 semester, but is also the final day of my Multimedia Journalism class, which turned out to be a real journey for me.

I started off with the idea to develop a wordpress blog on the topic of politics, as it is one of my majors at the university, and to use this blog as a platform to interview people from different social backgrounds in order to “test” the extent of their knowledge on Bulgarian politics. But, as I said, that was just the initial intention.

The more I asked, the more questions kept arising, because I could not reach a definitive answer to W H A T is it exactly that people know about their country. I interviewed students, professors, retailers, librarians, and what I found out was that people have general information only on the things that concern them directly. Everything else is outside the realm of their interests.

During this semester, I am also taking a political course titled “Culture and Power.” It’s an upper level course of topics in politics, which traces the changes in people’s culture and behavior since the period of the Enlightenment until today. Our professor gives us a lot of material to read from, and most of the articles are related to certain psychological changes in people’s mentality that have led them think in a totally opposite way than their ancestors.

Why am I telling you this? Because the course helped me understand at least partially why were the people I interviewed so apathetic toward the events around them, such as mass protests, European Parliament elections, newly appointed ministers, changes in legislation, etc. In fact, what the “Culture and Power” course suggested was that this overarching detachment with reality was no longer called “apathy.” It had been already accepted as the normal social behavior, which appears difficult to grasp by some, but is absolutely conventional for those who have embraced the modern values of the 21^st century: satisfaction of immediate needs, ego gratification, emotional detachment toward others, while at the same time maintaining increased demand for their emphatic behavior.

Partially, this is due to the major influence of the medium that I’m writing from right now: the computer. I would not go about blaming technological advances, because I respect how much they have eased our lives. However, what I just admitted as their biggest contribution to mankind is also the reason why technology has had a detrimental influence on those whose life revolves entirely around it: it has just made life too darn easy for them. They no longer feel the need to go outside and “see” the news as it happens, because one click on the Internet will take them there, live from the scene of events. Social media, on the other hand, has decreased face-to-face communication, because you can now reach your friend on the other end of the world through the power of your keyboard.

Blogging is also part of online activities, but it also represents a portion of how journalism works: it is real reporting by professional or freelance journalists, who have actually gone out in the world, seen the events from up close, and then assumed the task to inform others. This is what I tried to do in my blog: find the answer for myself and inform my audience on whether Bulgarians know what is going on in their country (you can find a link to one of my previous posts, which tries to explain exactly this).

I also wanted to update those I interviewed on the issues they had missed out on. That is, to shed some light on what exactly it is that I’m trying to figure out, and to help them catch up with the facts.

And so, I found out that the answer to my question lies somewhere in the middle between “yes” and “no.” As I said, the awareness of what is happening depends on how much it affects people’s lives, and at what proximity it is to their daily activities.

Just as expected, the younger generation knew much less than their predecessors. Regardless of their standing, students gave me general answers, defining the political situation in Bulgaria as “unstable” and “complicated.” I agree, but I wanted to know how and why it was so. I did not need summaries, I needed specific scenes, which is actually what I got from the more experienced people I interviewed: my political science professor, the 38-year-old retailer on the street, and my cousin, who has lived in the US for four years, and is now a librarian at AUBG. They had the facts to substantiate their opinions and this is what I hoped to hear from at least some of the younger interviewees.

I wanted to talk to more students, but while I was doing my research, I could not find anyone interested enough in the political life in Bulgaria. I got reactions like “Ugh, I don’t know anything about politics,” or “I’m so not the person to ask; I don’t follow news.”

Though this blog is now in its end, I feel like starting a new one, where I could continue my search for those young people who are really interested. Regardless of the unsatisfactory findings, I am grateful for taking this class and for the things it taught me: MMJ is the perfect mixture of good old-fashioned written journalism and its more modern technological version of multimedia reporting. I encourage people to take it and develop their skills as “backpack journalists.”

Check out this video with the latest statements of students on campus:

Have a great summer and stay vigilant!

Undermined level of awareness

It has been a long time since I started asking people what they know about the current political situation in Bulgaria. I asked simple questions: do you know what the protests are about? which side do you support? how do you participate as a citizen?, etc. The more I asked, the more I found out that I might have been asking the wrong questions: I probably should have started with “Do you even know there are protests in your country?”

Fortunately for me, all the people I chose to interview had an idea of what was going on. Some other that I had listed as potential blog topics turned out to be unaware of the current situation in their country. I wrote about this in my midterm post, but I feel the need to restate it. This time, as an appeal to all the young Bulgarians out there: keep in touch with events, do not allow yourselves to be so ignorant about the things that affect you directly!

Yesterday, for example, I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine. He is a young Bulgarian, aspiring to become a computer programmer. So, the least one would expect is for that person to be much more technologically informed than the average student. You’d think… but no. I had to spend 10 priceless minutes of my time explaining that “smartphone” is not a brand of mobile phones, but an umbrella term for the type of mobile device, with more advanced computing capability and connectivity than basic feature phones.

This computer science student had developed the idea that the iPhone Smartphone was the full name of the popular Apple product, and all the other phones like Samsung Galaxy, HTC or Blackberry were nothing like a smartphone. By the way, this person owns a Samsung Galaxy.

This lead me thinking: if young people today don’t know about some of the most popular terms that are ingrained in their everyday life, why on earth would I expect them to know something as specific as Bulgarian politics? Moreover, understanding what goes on in your country requires research and a few minutes of reading – minutes, that young people usually spend accessing Facebook through their smartphones…

Nevertheless, I’m still not in complete despair. I will keep looking for those individuals (especially representatives of the youth) who will at least know what the difference between the functions of President Rosen Plevneliev and Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski is!

In the meantime, feel free to answer the poll below.

Invasion of privacy or restriction of creativity?

Ever since I started my blog, I really wanted to do a parallel post about how certain issues are tackled in Bulgaria and other countries. Of course, I did not think that the issue I’d be focusing on involves taking pictures in public.

I went to Lilly Drogerie in the city center, where I know all four shopping assistants, because I wanted to do an interview with them and learn more about their thoughts about Bulgarian politics, given that they had been complaining about the long working hours and the low paycheck at the end of the month. So I took some footage in front of the store, then around the new mall and the walking area, so that I have everything settled for my 5-shot-sequence. As I walked in, one of them, Maya, said “You can’t! It’s forbidden to take pictures of or at the store! We can get fired!” Although they were not very nervous about it, both Maya and her colleague, Ellie, shared some of their previous experience when a former salesperson got fired for letting someone snap a product with their camera.

The two girls told me that the neighboring stores had the same policy, so I went outside and openly took out my camera to make a video in front of Sport Vision. Nobody said anything. Then I thought about how major chains handle this issue? Is it even an issue for them, given how freely people behave in stores. I decided to test that theory by going to Kaufland, a major hypermarket, which sells practically everything. From the perspective of a frequent client there, I’ve been under the impression that Kaufland respects its policies toward the client and has good security mechanisms to prevent people from stealing or cheating at the cash desk. It was an assumption worth testing.

So I went inside, walked around the fruits and vegetables area, and then took out my cell phone. Five seconds later I had a video. Then I continued down the store, where a shop assistant was arranging the stock for tomorrow’s round of discounts. I stood right in front of her position and took a 5-second-long video. Again, my “transgression” remained unnoticed.

On my way back to the dormitory I thought that might be the perfect chance to make that parallel post after all. Since America is country well known for having a population that is absolutely obsessed with their cell phones (texting, taking “selfies,” sending videos and pictures through Snapchat, etc), I thought it would be the best opportunity to interview my roommate – in ISEP exchange student from the University in Montana. We were both surprised to see that according to the web sources, taking pictures inside stores is not allowed in the U.S., but only if the owner has put a clarification sign in front of the store.

In an age when everything goes viral at the very second it happens, and when the accessibility to popularize certain events through your digital devices has allowed so many people to unleash their creativity on spot,  we are restricted on how exactly to use that to our advantage. Think about how many crimes, natural disasters, and trivial daily transgressions have been uncovered thanks to eyewitnesses who had the right camera at the right time. Excuse me, dear 21st century, but you are in serious contradiction with your high-tech features right now.

Here is a video of my news report, including a short interview with my rommate, Katy Warner. Enjoy!

Storytelling on Storify

Today’s class got us acquainted with yet another technological phenomenon of the 21st century – Storify, or the portal where you can freely use other people’s online posts without being accused of plagiarism!

I had never heard about Storify before Melody introduced it today. For those of you who were as uninformed as me, Storify is a platform, which allows you to construct stories through people’s posts on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Google + and Instagram.

Since my blog is about Bulgarian politics, it was natural for me to compose a story about the latest political events in my country, which included only tweets of different people. Check the whole story here.

Since the whole world is going crazy about Putin’s extreme policies on all levels, I also created a storify post about his anti-gay propaganda, along with a bit of history on how homosexuality has been developing through the years. This post includes both news and educational videos and tweets. Check it out here:

The Many Troubles of the Bulgarian system

I’ve heard it many times: the Bulgarian educational system is rigid, outdated and requires a solid amount of reforms. I’ve said it as well, since I was a product of that system for 12 years. However, it never crossed my mind that a teacher can get fired for wearing jeans on the job, not looking like an adult, or for sitting on the desk while talking to students. This is exactly what happened to Maria Pencheva, a 35-year-old Bulgarian who now works at the Panitza library of the American University in Bulgaria where she enjoys not having anyone impose constraints on her personal style.

Maria has always been fond of everything related to America. After graduating with English Philology from the Southwest University in Blagoevgrad, she went on a work and travel program in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

“This is where I fell in love with the States,” Maria says.

In fact, she started to consider relocating her family there, and did not want to come back to Bulgaria at all.

Her main problem with the Balkan country was that she was perceived as different, unusual, even weird at times. In the States, Maria was just a human being, like one of the many others around her.

“I don’t mind it,” she says.“This is my personal style and I know there are people who will accept it without any trouble.”

One of those people is Vladislav, her husband, who is also the father of her 2-year old daughter, Lidiya.

After coming back to Bulgaria, Maria applied for a job as an English teacher in one of the local schools in Blagoevgrad. On a typical workday she wore jeans – a normal attire for a 26-year-old freshly graduated student. However, her principal was not as open-minded and decided to yell at her in the hallway while everyone else had class. Maria’s natural reaction was to suggest a better place for those sudden constructive critiques.

“So I got fired for being too opinionated.”

Reasons like that are why Maria calls the Bulgarian educational system “archaic”:

“The system is managed by narrow-minded people. The information that is included in the textbooks is too complicated for students to understand.” 

Her increasing discontent with how young children are being taught in Bulgarian schools lead Maria to doubt whether this type of education would help her daughter develop at all.

“I should take my daughter out of this [educational] system. They way to do that is to go abroad. I would like her to have this out-of-the-box way of thinking, which I don’t think she will manage to develop here in our country. So I think that for a brighter future for my daughter she should live abroad and study there.” 

Regardless of how morbid that sounds, this is how the majority of young people I’ve spoken to think. Myself included. I wanted to avoid in any way the possibility of attending a Bulgarian university exactly because of the outdated mode of teaching. Seems like me and Maria both found what we were looking for at AUBG: she found a place that reminded her of the US where she’d like to move for good, and I found my way of getting a quality non-Bulgarian education within the territory of my country.

Check out the video below to hear Maria talk about her struggles while working at the AUBG Library, plus a slideshow to get a closer look of her world.

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Bulgarian President Plevneliev urges for joint vote on May 25

Bulgarian President, Rosen Plevneliev, proposed to make May 25, 2014 the official day for voting on the elections for members of the European Parliament (MEPs), as well as on the national referendum on online voting. Thus, the President wants to ease the process and limit voter fatigue.

Plevneliev shared his view that the new system of voting will increase participation and would encourage involvement in politics. In order to provide an insight on audience reaction, I decided to ask a few people on campus about their thoughts about the outcomes of an online voting platform.

My first subject was Atanas Mihnev, a senior at AUBG who is known for his active involvement in Bulgarian politics as a member of the political party GERB. He mentioned something very true: Bulgaria’s future depends on the voice of the youth, but they are too apathetic toward anything political. Paradoxically, they are also the ones who spend the most time online and are technically savvy. His opinion is that online voting will stir up even their interest.

The second person I interviewed was Angelina Markova, a junior. She was sitting with her boyfriend at the cafe at the America for Bulgaria Student Center. While he said he didn’t want to talk, because he doesn’t vote at all, she was ready to step in. Angelina also gave an interesting insight on the topic. She focused on the new system’s impact on all the people outside of Bulgaria, whose voting process would be significantly facilitated.

In order to add the best footage, I used available coverages from TV channels on YouTube. All the credits are given to the respective networks while they show up on the screen. I used footage from Al Jazeera;
France 24; European University Institute, AUBG Talks, and RT Ruptly.

Here is the video I created for today’s Multimedia Journalism Class during the class period. Feel free to answer the poll below.

The Selfless Merchant

The Selfless Merchant

            My education at AUBG has made me a lot of friends and has given me many occasions to meet interesting people. The remarkable ones, however, are the local people I encounter every day on the streets of Blagoevgrad. One of them is Stanislav Damyanov, or as I named him, “The selfless merchant.”

Stanislav is 38. His daily routine is to get up, go out and sell mobile accessories on the town’s main street across Billa. We have all seen him. Oftentimes, he is the first one to start work early on the shopping street and the last one to leave. He does not own a shop, but a limited area on the road, given to him by the Municipality of Blagoevgrad. Stanislav’s main helpers are his brother and sister, who usually stay around him.

I stopped by to see him last week, because I enjoy my casual conversations with him, unburdened by the thought of whether or not I will bring him profit. We can speak for 2 or 22 minutes, during which he tells me about his biweekly trips to Istanbul from where he imports all the stock. This time, I decided to ask him about his stand on Bulgarian politics. How does he, the small-time businessman from Blagoevgrad, meet his daily expenses? It turned out he has in interesting story.

Stanislav went to primary school, where he studied Russian, which was mandatory at the time. “I have an excellent knowledge of Russian,” said Damyanov in Bulgarian. Although his trips take him to Turkey, he does not understand a bit of the language. After primary school, Stanislav attended the professional school for civil construction in Blagoevgrad where he spent only two years. At the time, he was young and fatigue-proof, so he started selling bananas imported from Turkey. I don’t know how many readers would recall, but during Socialism in Bulgaria and a few years after that, bananas, oranges and all fruits that Bulgarians couldn’t grow domestically were of real shortage. Thus, Stanislav’s idea was innovative at the time.

In 1996, he changed bananas with cell phone accessories. “They [phones] had just come out and were slowly, but surely entering the Bulgarian market,” said Stanislav [in Bulgarian]. First, he started selling on the central market, which he jokes, “was not that dead as it is today.” Then, again, one step ahead of his competitors, he took the spot on the main shopping street, exposing his business to the hundreds of people passing by.

So, I ask, “Do you feel that your job is being undervalued in Bulgaria?” Stanislav, although not the least critical, answered that even though things are difficult for him economically, leaving Bulgaria is a solution of last resort. “I would only move to Israel, because of their well-constructed social system,” said Stanislav [in Bulgarian]. “I support the anti-governmental protests, because those politicians are corrupt and lie to us. I didn’t get the chance to participate in one, because, well, someone has to work and earn the living,” he said.

If someone asks me how would I describe Stanislav, there are two words that pop in my mind: good and selfless. Even before we became close, I noticed that the products he sells have the lowest prices in town, and are extremely cheap in comparison with bigger cities. He has adjusted his business to the standards of living in Blagoevgrad, while his competitors sell with 30% increase in pricing. So I ask again, “Why?” Isn’t business’ main goal to earn profit for the owner? Apparently not if that owner is Stanislav. “I realize people cannot afford expensive goods, so I lower my prices. Do you think anyone would buy this (points at a leather iPhone case) if it was 30 lv?” he said.

That is why I call him “selfless.” He is genuinely good and diverts from the image of the typical businessman, whose sole goal is to make a profit. Oftentimes when I walk by, he calls me up and gives me small gifts; whenever I buy something, he gives me a discount. I want to pay, but he refuses. “It’s a gift,” he says and smiles.

This is Stanislav: a man with no higher education, but still technically savvy. Although his small business does not bring him fortunes, he could easily be called an entrepreneur. At a time when the private sector was just beginning to develop in Bulgaria, Stanislav was already in it. He foresaw the advent of mobile phones and quickly reoriented his work. He proudly shows his “GERB” membership card, but doesn’t try to advertise it in your face. In the 21^st century, he is an honest man with an honest business and no desire to trick the clients. Every day he works on the street, regardless of the burning sun or the freezing wind. I recall his words: “Someone has to earn the living.”

The street. This is where Bulgaria would put its honest men.

Here is a video where you can see what Stanislav’s typical workday is.

The Chaotic Politics of the World

While I may be enjoying my spring break in surprisingly windy Varna, others around the globe are far from thinking about holidays. Ukraine, Uganda, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Syria… Many more can be added to the list. However, for the sake of time and space, I chose to focus on the first two.

Today, March 3, is Bulgaria’s biggest and most joyful national holiday – it is 136 years since the liberation from the Ottoman presence in 1878. Today, we celebrate freedom, independence and long-awaited peace. At the same time, about 500km east by sea, people in Ukraine are fighting for their lives and future. They have been suffering for over three months because of the clashes in government where officials could not reach common ground about a possible EU membership. And who took the hit in the battle between political interests? – the innocent citizens, who did not have any opportunity to say what they actually want.

At first, we all started pointing fingers at Ukraine’s politicians for allowing personal interests to interfere in public affairs. However, later on, the world began to guess the real reason for the mishaps: Ukraine’s dependency on Russia, and more specifically, on its President, Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian ex-president, Viktor Yanukovych has always tried maintaining close ties with the powerful neighbor. He went as far as changing the constitution to give more authority to his presidential position and thus, be able to closely control the country’s internal and external affairs. Some say that the whole reason lies within the natural gas trade coming from Russia, to which Putin can put an immediate halt if Ukraine does not follow his demands. What baffles me with this point of view is how can one man influence a whole nation? A nation that is not even within his jurisdiction. Will Ukrainians continue to suffer because of Putin’s need for reinforcement? Moreover, is it fair to let this continue?

Others take an opposite stand, saying that what happens now in Ukraine is an aftermath of the Russian-American race for power. Unfortunately, this question is not even close to getting answered by world powers, so I will conclude my analysis with a paraphrase of what US Secretary of State, John Kerry, said last night on CNN news: it’s a shame for Russia after all the efforts and almost $60 billion they threw on the Olympics to create a positive image before the world.

The second country that recently blew the minds of people is Uganda. President, Yoweri Museveni, approved and passed one of the most controversial anti-humanitarian laws in the 21^st century: an anti-gay law, that includes the death penalty as a punishment for any display of or engagement in gay behavior, thus interfering even in intimate sex relations. It didn’t take much time for the UN, the US, and many other countries that recently allowed same-sex marriages to stand against Museveni’s controversial law. Much was written and said about his policy: analysts say that the president wants to maintain his influence on the African continent, whose countries are primarily anti-homosexual. Museveni has been in power since 1986 and is running for office in the upcoming 2016 elections. It may be the presidential spot that he would have to sacrifice should he had rejected the legislation, but now he’s risking the lives of his own constituents. Museveni was multilaterally warned about the possible financial consequences that Uganda might face when major donors like the US and the UK withdraw their funding toward the African country. His reaction was to ask national and American scientists to research whether homosexuality was inborn or acquired in time, and since results testified for the former, the law passed. And now the World Bank is delaying $90 million for a project for the improvement of Uganda’s health sector, which aims at decreasing the number of deaths during birth. Again, I have the same question: is it worth risking the lives of the many for the interests of one?

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that politics are generally chaotic. Nevertheless, they’re worth following and talking about, because we see in time that what has happened in the past deeply affects our future, regardless if it tackles with international relations or personal interests.

So far, so great: check what I made!

  Dear readers,

So far, my blogging experience has been an incredible journey: I talked to people with very different backgrounds, and I got to dive into the world of immediate multimedia technology. For this, I “blame” my professor, Melody Gilbert, whose dynamic work style made me jump from uploading pictures to editing sound files with multilayer audio to putting together a 5-shot-sequence video in less than an hour. SIGH!

Now that I write this, I realize how much I’ve come to learn in such a short period of time, and I cannot help but wonder what more would I become familiar with until the end of the semester.

Of course, apart from the practical jump I’ve made, I am also beginning to form an idea about the prevailing opinions of Bulgarians about the politics in their country. So far, I’ve interviewed a senior, who has more or less witnessed a few significant events during the mature part of his life; a professor, who gave me substantiated arguments for analysis, and a freshman, whose journey through real-life situations has just begun. Unexpectedly, I found a crucial similarity between the senior and the freshman: they both had very positive outlook about the future of Bulgarian politics. This made me think: how informed is the young generation, really?

Though I am part of that young generation in Bulgaria, I rarely find peers who are as interested in the political situation as I am. Whenever I open up the topic of a current issue or start complaining about social inequality, my friends would say “Oh well, what can you do,” or they would just change the topic. In fact, there is something we can all do as citizens: make good use of our rights in this allegedly democratic Republic of Bulgaria.

If our grandparents, uncles and aunts are already tired of complaining and prefer to stick to the status quo, it only means that we, the youth, have the responsibility to act. Students from the Sofia University tried it for three months, but unfortunately failed, because of the lack of vision on the whole “occupy something” movement. Citizens did it for over six months on the streets of Sofia, but even they eventually gave up and went from being on the news back to watching the news at home.

So yes, there have been attempts for revolution, but none of them succeeded. In my opinion, this is all due to the lack of personal communication between the representatives and their constituency, as well as to the prevailing ignorance among Bulgarians. Many of them were asked, “Why are you protesting?” at the demonstrations in Sofia’s central square, and the answers varied from “we want the government to resign,” to “a friend of mine told me there would be a march downtown.”

As a result, all the protests failed. Not because the government was oppressive and used police force to get the people out of the streets; not because the protests became too violent and someone had to put a halt to them, but because the activists themselves had no idea what they were protesting against. In that case, they have no one else to blame but themselves.

In my opinion, taking action just for the sake of it is not beneficial to anyone. If the past is marked by bloody revolutions, the present relies on T A L K S.  If you want to be heard, you have to voice your demand, which does not necessarily mean to shout. Shouting is a sign of weakness and despair, so the right action is to back up your demands while discussing.

Perhaps this is all too idealistic and sounds like utopia. I’ve been told I tend to think like that, but it is so because I see this kind of communicative success happening in many other areas of life: at work, in relationships, among friends. However, I do acknowledge that there are not many people who share my views, which is why in the upcoming weeks I will try to explore as many diverse opinions as possible to be able to draw a more thorough picture on the influences of Bulgarian politics on its citizens.

As part of this beautiful Balkan country, we are all responsible to take care of its preservation. Check the video below and find one more thing to appreciate about Bulgaria!

Stay tuned and keep reading about the colorful individuals from my blog after I get back from Spring Break on March 10, 2014! If you’re interested in how I will be spending it, check out my blog next Monday!

My 5-shot new skill!

Today was one of the most amazing and intense classes from my 3-year education at AUBG! We learned about shooting, uploading, editing AND then absolutely falling in love with our videos!

The video I shot has nothing to do with my blog topic, but I think it’s a nice short deviation from the seriousness of Politics. This is Prof. Wien in his natural habitat, aka his office. He was kind enough to show how he prepares for class 25 minutes before that.

Anyway, what I learned today will really help me in the future when it comes to all types of multimedia journalism.

So, thank you, Melody Gilbert!