Are Asian American Bloggers the New Journalism Frontier? (No.)

If you’re a regular reader of the Asian-American blogs, surely you have read Evelina Giang’s article on Asian-American Bloggers for UCLA’s Pacific Ties magazine. It’s got the typical round-up of blogs focusing on Asian American issues: Angry Asian Man, Disgrasian, Slant Eye for the Round Eye, and The Ch!cktionary.

In a way, I feel kinda like a dumb-ass because the one quote I used the words Tila Tequila and boobies, but it is what it is. And like Slanty’s post where he included his full e-mail dialogue with the author, I’m going to include my conversation as well, because I talk a little bit about how 8Asians was formed, what I think about Asianweek going down, and the fact that I CAN say other things like boobies. (I also use the phrase “killer pandas.” I, for one, am disappointed that didn’t get in the article.)

The full Q&A, after the jump.

What is the goal of 8Asians.com? Did you have any specific intentions in starting the blog?
The goal of 8Asians.com is to have a bunch of random Asian Americans blogging about anything they find relevant in their life: Pop culture, stuff in the news, activism issues. The original vision of the site was to have Asian Americans of all types: liberal to conservative, activists to pop culture junkies, gay rights activists to conservative Christians. We may not be as diverse as I originally hoped, but we’re still trying. 😉

To be completely honest on intentions: the original intention of 8Asians.com was to be a way for me to try my hand at blogging for an income; I had been a personal blogger for seven years with its fair share of traffic, and I’ve always had issues putting advertisements on my website even though I probably would have made a decent project; people have no problem with it now, but new media and personal publishing was at a different place then. 8Asians.com was my way of experimenting with that. That said, somewhere along the way I kinda figured out that writing about Asian American issues weren’t as profitable as, say, items on Amazon or purses or DVRs, but I’ve kept with it because it’s fun and I’ve met some great people. It’s been interesting being an “accidental” Asian activist, and I think I’m a better person now than when I started.

When a reader comes to 8Asians.com, what should they get out of it?
Hopefully it’s something to the point of, “why was that really angry political post sandwiched between a blog post about Tila Tequila and a discussion about boobies?”

What role do you think blogs now have in journalism?
Blogs augment mainstream journalism, but I don’t see it as a replacement. Not yet, anyway. Blogs have a lower overhead factor in terms of effort and cost, sure. Newspapers and magazine have a higher standard as far as writing content and research, and I think that’s just as important. The shitty economy just plays to the fact that blogs are easier to maintain right now.

How important is it that Asians blog? What addition do they add to the Internet?
Pretty important, because it gets our voice out there. Pacific Times is in LA and I’m based out of San Francisco; there are a LOT of Asians. I went to High School and college with a healthy amount of Asians and I’ve never felt like, “gee, I’m the only Asian in a four state radius.” But Asians make up an extraordinarily small percentage of Americans and there are a lot of Asian Americans out there where they feel like they’re alienated and have no voice. There’s power in visibility.

Asian Week, the largest, most circulated newspaper serving the AAPI community, ceased newspaper printing last December. With the “the voice of Asian Americans” quieting in print journalism, what added responsibility do blogs have in speaking for the Asian American community? Do you think your blog has that responsibility?
Oooh. Hmmm… I don’t think it’s just Asian Week, to be honest with you. Newspapers EVERYWHERE are having issues with circulation; you know something is up when the New York Times starts serving ads on their front page. That said, what makes blogs interesting is that it serves a new generation of Internet savvy users (read: Asians) well in finding the information they want to read, and there’s MUCH less overheard than an actual newspaper. So surprise! Blogs are already speaking for the Asian American community, much more so than in print media. I think so, anyway. I honestly think Asian Week, if done well, has the potential of being much more successful than its print counterpart.

Now, whether or not 8Asians has a responsibility for being the voice of Asian America… I don’t. I don’t because the Internet is powerful enough to know that there will be hundreds of ways Asian Americans can express themselves; not just through blogs, but through YouTube clips, podcasts, other types of social media. For every blog that talks about the struggle for empowerment — which I FULLY support, let it be known — I’m okay with the bloggers augmenting that dialog with other things like boobies or killer pandas.

How has your blog been received by the AAPI community [and by the Internet]?
It’s been mixed. I’m obviously pretty cognizant about being Asian American, and I have my Angry Asian Man (heh) moments like the next guy. But that said, I’ve never considered myself an activist, and 8Asians — to me anyways — is not about being 100% activist all the time. And for that we’ve gotten our share of criticism; a commenter on a popular Asian American activist blog has called us “ineffectual, liberal tools.” My good friend who is an activist calls 8Asians “pedestrian.” But you know what? I think that’s okay, because not 100% of all Asian Americans are hard core activists, and there are plenty of blogs on the Internet that do serve the needs of articulating the Asian American diaspore, and they do it well. I can only speak for myself, but I write about pop culture, because that’s what I know and what I’m most passionate about. And if I were angry all the time, my ulcer would kick in, and managing 8A would stop being fun for me.

As for the rest of the Internet, it depends on the post. Blog entries on controversial subjects definitely bring out a lively debate along with its share of internet trolls. On the plus side, we were nominated for “Best Group Weblog” in the 2009 Weblog Awards, which is an honor.

Who are your readers? If known, are they mostly from the AAPI community?
From what I understand, most readers for 8Asians skews male, ages 18-49. Most of our regular readers are Asian, although we get a variety of different people through Google searches.

What section would readers find 8Asians in the newspaper?
You know the “man on the street” section where someone asks a question and four different people give completely different answers? Yeah. That. 🙂

Do you have any additional comments?
I think that when most people see eight photographs of bloggers at the top of the page, they assume that we’re not looking for bloggers. Not true — as the editor, I’m always looking for bloggers that represent walks of Asian-American life that just isn’t covered by the other writers on the website: conservatives, bloggers of South Asian decent, born again Christians, etc. I’m just looking for people who have something to say and can articulate themselves well. And if there are people who are interested in blogging for 8Asians, they’re always welcome. Contact me for more details. 😉