Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a contributor for New America Media Ethnoblog, Chicagoistheworld.org, PacificCitizen.org and InCultureParent.com. As a person with such a busy online presence, she is excited for V3con as an opportunity to connect, engage and learn.
At Chicago is the World, Frances wrote about what V3con will offer, including details about upcoming plenary sessions and why she loves writing about AAPI issues. The following was excerpted and republished with permission.
The new and improved V3 Digital Media Conference, on August 24-25 in Los Angeles, goes way beyond the original scope of the Banana APA Bloggers Conferences to include all forms of digital media, including blogging, social media, YouTube/music/videos and the Asian American Journalists Association too. With themes of vision, visibility, voice, we are moving from virtual isolation into real-world community, on multiple digital platforms. Think leadership. Think future. Think change.
I am especially excited about the two opening plenary sessions. This is our time, together as a community, to examine where we are and where we are headed.
The first plenary session is “Asian Spotting in the Traditional Media,” moderated by David Ono of ABC7 and featuring Richard Lui of MSNBC, Jocelyn “Joz” Wang of 8Asians and Jeff Yang of the Wall Street Journal. Check out their bios, but trust me, there is no one better than these folks. Are you tired of continued race-bending, white-washing, yellow/brown face, stereotyped portrayals, and missing Asians in the mainstream media? They will look at how Asians and Asian Americans are beginning to be cast in more prominent roles on more shows and movies and commercials, but are still invisible in the mainstream news media, or hooked to “model minority” or gang-related stories. What does the future look like for AAPIs in mainstream media?
The second plenary is “Lights, Camera, Action: Asian Americans Are Naturals on YouTube,” moderated by Frank Buckley of KTLA5 and featuring musicians David Choi and Clara C, and Stephen Dypiangco of the National Film Society. Read their bios, but check out their videos if you really want to see how amazingly talented they are. AAPIs are known to have an incredible web and social media presence, but AAPIs totally rule on YouTube. The panelists will look at why video has been such a natural platform for AAPIs in spite of (supposed) traditional cultural values about not bringing attention to oneself.
I love writing about AAPI issues for the AAPI community because we do not have to stop and explain every last detail, but we can discuss issues at a much higher level and actually move forward. I am able to thrive within the community of AAPI writers, bloggers, activists, artists and friends that I have found here. They are my safe place to fall. They are my wealth of resources and connections. They are the people who understand what it means to dream in html, who defend me from trolls and who get my jokes. With this community behind me, I am able to be a much more effective writer and advocate for the wider AAPI community.
The other night, my daughter crawled into my bed in the middle of the night. Completely asleep, I apparently shouted out, “Go away, stalker!” and “Did you come out of the computer?” Clearly, I have been doing a little too much social media lately. It is time to go to V3con and recharge.
Read Frances’ full article here.
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