Welcoming 2013 Online

2013 was welcomed not by fireworks or partying but by viewing celebration in the city and elsewhere in the world on cable TV and online.

This was encouraged by the aggressive awareness campaign mounted by the Department of Health on the dangers to life by explosives.

It was jump-started when the Twitter I sent to field reports Ryan Chua and Bam Alegre who were reporting new year preparations and situationers in their respective field assignments for their TV news networks were retweeted back with positive comments.

Covering the Divisoria beat on 31 December, I sent Bam a message giving feedback on his report on prices and fruit sourcing that "price fluctuates because of change in source cost" to which he sent quickly an appreciative reply.

Extensively covering the PNP’s confiscation of illegal explosives to welcome the New Year in GMA and nearly province I asked, “paano nadedestroy ang confiscated firecrackers?” which was not mentioned in the field report, I got an immediate reply “binabasa.” When I commented on the manner he answered to the probe of news anchor Howie Severino if “Luneta was a no smoking area,” he acknowledged “oo nga di ko nasagot ng maayos” and mentioned the constraints why smokers violate.

Doing the anchor for “The World Tonight” end-to-end and at times nervously and in some segments probing questions to fire officials, I tweeted Ryan Chua “My 1^st time to see you anchor end-to-end. You held on.” He replied back positively with “Thank you. Hope to do better next time.”
Close to midnight on the eve, through online I found myself in all the crowded places in GMA, in Luneta with thousands of crowds through Bam Alegre and Ces Drillon, in the GMA at the Mall of Asia celebration through Mark Salazar, in Eastwood for the more elitist crowd. Earlier on I was in Sydney, Australia. Later on that day I was in Japan, Taiwan, London, China and in the Times Square in US.
With the advent of faster communications and superior sound and sights system, it is difficult to discern the live from the technically sourced.

But what was real is online brings you to places and more information quickly. Nothing beats though the intimacy of face-to-face engagement.

Here is to an exciting and fresh start this 2013.

Fotos from BBC News