Pleasure to virtually meet (v-meet?) you all. My name is Cathy Miyagi, and I’m a UBC journalism student taking this ETEC course as an elective. I think it’s fair to say that the changing spaces of reading and writing are applicable to the journalism industry now more than ever! There’s currently a “digital first” movement that’s taking over all major Canadian media outlets which has called for those entering into the field to become multi-media journalists (“MMJ”).
I work in the live newsroom at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) in Toronto alongside the best broadcast technicians, producers, and writers. Whether it be through television, a website, or an app, technology has nevertheless modified the human consumption of news, but writing is still the key element. Have you thought of how you write news banners on screen under 50 characters? What moving images complement the text on screen? What words best convey emotion, persona, the story?
Previous to this, I was a bean counter and management consultant for 10 years. Leaving the corporate world (ie. a salary) has been absolutely terrifying which is why it’s taken me this long to do what I love to do….tell stories. I’m frequently asked “why journalism, why now?” and though the answer has always been clear to me, it’s been hard to articulate in conversation. My mentor, a news director, described it best to me recently: “The mind can win the battle but your heart will win the war.”
So… I chose the above image to act as both a self-intro and a demonstration of myself as text.
Image from:
Jules, Gipsy. Self-confession. Emprededor.wordpress.com, 28 February 2013, https://emprerdedorglish.wordpress.com/2013/02/28/self-confession/. Accessed 17 May 2018.
