I’m sure most of you probably know that I was part of an anime blog before, and during that time I received a copy of a book from our guest for this episode. It’s called “Otaku Journalism: A Guide to Geek Reporting in the Digital Age,” and I have kept it in my Kindle ever since.

It’s been almost 10 years since she started to write the book in 2012 as the “new media guide for aspiring journalists and bloggers with geek inclinations.”

After this, she wrote other books such as her second self-published book, “Build Your Anime Blog” and “Cosplay: The Fantasy World of Role Play” published by Carlton Books.

She also co-founded the website Gunpla 101. Most importantly, she has stories published on Forbes, The Washington Post, the Anime News Network, Crunchyroll News, Anime Feminist, The Daily Dot, ReadWrite, among others. She’s been doing this for more than a decade now.

Otaku Journalist Lauren Orsini join us in this episode.

Watch and Listen

Show Notes

  • Google Reader decommissioned, leading to other third-parties like The Old Reader being built as an alternative
  • Chrome phasing out RSS support, leading to other browsers following suit (except Safari)
  • Chrome on Android introduced the Web Feed flag so mobile users can follow their sites which can be seen on a new “Following” tab in the start page.
  • “Have you looked at the Facebook papers?”
  • Reading, a town in the United Kingdom, got its hashtag swarmed by anime fans because of Red Data Girl. Also, the rabidity of some fans’ tweets featured in the story, leading to the town’s local newspaper asking for help on what would be its next Twitter hashtag.
  • Sellers in Japan has a strategy to make sure Gundam RG Hi-Nu stocks gets only to the hands of the fans who know how to pronounce it.

Timestamps

  • 00:00:00 – Highlight
  • 00:00:33 – Program START
  • 00:01:59 – Start of Interview
  • 00:04:55 – Otaku Journalism: The Book and its relevance today
  • 00:08:37 – Internet before vs after
  • 00:18:38 – Most memorable feedback from “Otaku Journalism”
  • 00:20:31 – Have you seen more Otaku Journalists over time?
  • 00:24:14 – The role of Otaku Journaslists especially today
  • 00:32:01 – Does gatekeeping help us Otaku Journalists?
  • 00:36:42 – “Fans make great reporters.” Does this idea stand still up to this day?
  • 00:47:18 – Capping off
  • 00:49:20 – Episode END

Afterthought

I look up to Lauren as one of my inspirations in the community, and it is a privilege to have her on the show. I never knew I will have the courage to invite her.

This is an interesting conversation that you should listen or watch. I hope this episode inspires the likes of me who report on culture, pop culture or subculture to continue despite all odds.

Keep this with you as you eat lunch.

Read the Book!

If you have reached the end of the episode, chances are you want to know what’s inside “Otaku Journalism.” If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free (limited time only). After that, you can buy the book on Amazon and keep it with you.

Last but not the least…

Lauren’s Otaku Journalist website is now 12 years old, and I would like to take a snippet off her milestone blog post talking about this episode:

I wrote Otaku Journalism 7 years ago, and started writing it 10 years ago. Jay gave me the perfect reason to reread my own book: such a weird experience to revisit the person I was nearly a decade ago.

I am often hard on myself about this book because I wrote it before the internet morphed into the horrible form it has today, but amidst some outdated references to the “new Homestuck fandom,” a lot of the advice still stands up.

After the podcast went live, 20 new readers downloaded the book, which feels like a lot to me. 

Otaku Journalist is 12 years old!

Happy to know that people are knowing the book through this episode. Thank you very much!