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!

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!