Visual Stories Asia: Envision a region connected by visual journalism
Working as an educator in a campus newspaper, I faced a real problem.
Though there was great visual journalism work coming from Asia, there was no clear one-stop resource where my students could learn the ‘how’ and the ‘why’ from these visual professionals (photojournalists, infographic journalists or illustrators).
Often, some of these resources were scoped to just photographers excluding other visual professionals. Or it was often scoped to simply within a country. And if I used examples from media outside Asia, it lacked the local context needed to tell an authentic story.
Also, could there be a pan-Asia initiative that facilitate learning opportunities and networking between visual professionals from Colombo and Guangzhou? Could photographers learn from infographic journalists and find similar ground in their visual methods or ways of working?
Visual Stories Asia was created with that goal in January 2020. But soon I felt stuck because there was no clear mission, direction and ways to keep it sustainable.
Fortunately, being selected for the CUNY’s Journalism Creators Program was the best thing that happened to me and this editorial project I was struggling to build.
From just a potpourri of links, and with no images – ironic for a newsletter on visual journalism – it soon became clear what I needed to do.
Building better for the user
The 100 days was spent learning, thinking and developing ideas on how best to provide the most value for the users.
Through surveys and feedback, I realised that it was important to create editorial sections (or future products) that addressed the gain creators and pain relievers of visual professionals in Asia.
Little did I know that simply asking your audience would lead to insights to help you build better. And the future steps would include having many touch points for feedback and also building a community where readers can learn from each other instead of just from the products we ship.
Building a mission
More importantly, from this program, it taught me the value of having a central mission and key tenets to answer the why of building this. The ‘why’ will give us a direction, no matter how slow we go.
What is our mission? Helping readers understand the why behind visuals created and improving how society engages with media. And our tenets:
- To convene and create meaningful conversations on visual journalism in diverse Asia
- Discover and champion the people driving important work in lesser known parts of the region
- Elevate visual literacy and how society engages with media in an age of disinformation
We hope this is something visual professionals working in Asia can rally around.
Don’t overthink. Just do it.
The journey will not be easy as I face my fears in asking for help, building a small team and asking people to join me in my mission. But as one instructor said, be open and human, and people will be willing to help.
Also, don’t overthink, just do it. Often we spend too much time agonising instead of doing. Measure what you have done, and what success means to you. Then continue building.
Ultimately, what we are trying to achieve, is to help visual professionals in Asia make stories better – improving any aspect in their professional journey. That would mean a lot to me.
About the author: Zakaria Zainal is the editor of Visual Stories Asia, a space for Asia’s diverse visual journalism, and the people driving it in a weekly newsletter. From projects on the Singapore Gurkhas to a multimedia documentary on living histories of displaced islanders south of Singapore, he is focused on telling stories about Asia. As a self-taught photographer, his images have appeared in MIT Technology Review, the Chronicle of Higher Education, Financial Times, Anadolu Images, South China Morning Post and Malaysiakini. He was born and raised in Singapore where he lives with his wife. He studied communications and briefly taught journalism to undergraduates at his alma mater, Nanyang Technological University.
