25 Years of Philippine Cosplay Series: The World of CosCom Media
Today, we will be discussing the media entities that cover all the activities within "CosCom."
Nowadays, major cosplay events are being covered by mainstream media, giving the outside world a glimpse of what's even going on in our own little space. That's not the case in the early days of our hobby.
Back in the day, people would rely on magazines like Questor, Culture Crash, and Otakuzine to peek at the current events in the cosplay scene. Then came websites like WeAreAnime to usher the community into the Internet age. The final evolution of "CosCom Media" would take place in the realm of social media.
With that short history lesson out of the way, let's take a look at what the people who cover cosplay events have to keep in mind when bringing the news from the event center to your screen.
1. Communications Between Organizer and Media
If there's anything that is considered the most important part of covering cosplay events, this is it. The mediapersons must have clear and concise communications with the events organizers. Major events organizers even have to filter those who wanted to cover their events through an application form.
Once selected, the media entities will have to coordinate with the organizers through various means of communications. Usually, this is done via email a month or so before the event happens. In some cases, organizers would ask the media personnel to do a little bit of promotion on their social media sites.
2. The Equipment They Use
Aside from themselves, the CosCom media personnel is also responsible for the equipment that they use. To set expectations here, you don't need to purchase the latest equipment to cover cosplay events. Some of the well known cosplay community mediamen and mediawomen only use their mobile phones to take pictures or record videos. Meanwhile, some of them would spend their money to get the best cameras, lighting, and microphones they can afford to get the best quality for their content.
3. Preparing Their Interviews
Interviews with some of the participants and the organizers are something that comes part and parcel with covering events. This provides an inside look as to what do the attendees think about the event as well as a peek at the mindset of the convention's showrunners.
With that said, they prepare these interviews before the day of the event. This is done to ensure that the flow of the interview goes smooth. Besides that, they also want to avoid offending their planned interviewees as much as possible.
4. The Expenses
Another thing these cosplay community journalists consider is expenses. From upkeep and maintenance of their equipment to travel fees, they also have to do their budgeting to save some money while covering these events.
Sometimes, events organizers would give media passes to those who they deem qualified to cover their events. These media passes allow them to enter and exit the event premises for free.
5. The Output and Their Corresponding Deadlines
Organizers also set deadlines for the media to release their write-ups to ensure that the momentum of the event won't be lost. Thus, the media need to produce quality content fast.
To cap off this entry, covering cosplay events is hard, and in most cases unpaid, work. It takes passion, dedication, and determination to ensure that they cover the events they attend to fair and square.
Welp, that's it for this entry. See you on September!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Carlo Rayas is a longtime anime fan and convention goer for more than a decade. Aside from writing for OtakuPlayPh, he also hosts his own site where he talks more about stuff not involving the local anime and cosplay community.
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