Hiroshima

When I read true stories, such as Hiroshima I can never really say what doesn’t work for me in the book. I want the story to be told however the journalist experienced the situation whether that is uncomfortable for me to hear about or not. It doesn't matter if some situations are hard to take in, too gruesome, or graphic because these true stories are not about the reader but about the people who were there. I don’t want to be sheltered as a reader or spared from anything. I’m reading for the truth.

“Of a hundred and fifty doctors in the city, sixty-five were already dead and most of the rest were wounded. Of 1780 nurses, 1654 were dead or too badly hurt to work.”

I would have appreciated more dialogue throughout the book to be able to get more in touch with how the people were acting amongst one another. Although this may have been impossible given the circumstances, but theoretically it’d be interested to know more about the inner conversations. Were people talking? Were people praying? Were people saying good byes?


"They said they would, but the little, broken man got away from them, and the last priests could see of him, he was running back towards the fire."

There is a real art of story telling in this book due to the fact that it feels like very little story telling is happening, if that makes sense? The book flows naturally. One moment, followed by another. Not exaggerating any moment, or expressing opinion but just letting the story be the story. And I appreciate the lack of emotion that was used in the story telling. It’s emotional for the reader to read, but on their own terms.


The whole way, Father Kleinsorge was oppressed by the thought that all the damage he saw had been done in one instant by one bomb.

Like Alyssa mentioned in class, this book was hard to read. I’m not a naive person but when you sit down and just read this book it feels like a story. And then when you shake your head and think this isn’t a story this is humanity, you totally get taken a back. It's important to understand history and if we don’t learn from it as a whole, as a country then at least take your own message from it and keep those morals and live your life accordingly.

The importance of broadcast journalism writing

Weekly we try to conquer our way through broadcast journalism class here at Red River College. As first semester comes to an end certain things that Joanne Kelly has taught me stick in my head:

-talk to your audience directly
-don’t tell but show
-and don’t be cliche or use jargon




How embarrassing is this reel of newscasters reporting on the fact that Conan O’Brien will be broadcasting a same sex marriage? Is there just one writer that works for every news organization in America? Or are these people just too lazy to try and come up with something that hasn’t already been said? I can’t even give kudos to the first person who reported on the topic with the phrase ‘pushing the envelope’ because that’s just too easy.

As I continue my work in attempting to become a broadcast journalist I’ll try to  PUSH THE ENVELOPE. HA!

Remembrance Day Reflections

Remembrance Day means something different to everyone. 

 Neither of my grandfathers fought in the war. My papa Stewart (the only grandpa I’ve ever known) was a farmer and therefore he was exempt from war. I remember when I was younger watching kids in my class cry at Remembrance Day ceremonies because their grandfathers had fought in the war. I was always curious about their emotions and their families because I did not have that connection.

For me, Remembrance Day is a time for me to give thanks for those who fought for me to be a Canadian. I am very appreciative of living in this country. We are so lucky. I attend a service every year to give thanks to those who fought and to give myself time to reflect on how I feel to be Canadian. But sometimes it’s hard to explain what being a Canadian means. Peter Mansbridge shed light on this matter when I attended an Encounter with Peter Mansbridge at the Convention Centre on Friday night.

Mansbridge told 3 stories about what being a Canadian meant to him and they all revolved around our nature to care. One story stayed with me and had special significance  as we approach November 11^th.

Mansbridge was in the Netherlands in 2005 on the anniversary of D Day. There was a celebration of the soldiers and these men that are now in their 80s walked amongst the crowds. And there was one mom who held her 4-year-old child on her hip, and he gave high fives as the soldiers walked by him.

Mansbridge went up to the child and his mom and asked why she would bring her 4-year-old child to this event. She said so he’d know what a Canadian was.

It’s import to be thankful and as our soldiers grow older we cannot let our gratitude fade out. We must continue to teach others what they’ve done for us.

Lest we forget.

Trusting your newscaster.

I am one out of six students who have been picked to attend a dinner where Peter Mansbridge will speak. I am beyond excited about this opportunity and want to share the question I  ‘figuratively’ asked Peter Mansbridge:

As a novice journalist I am just beginning to have my first experience with telling sensitive stories,  such as the St.Amant radiothon story I am writing for The Lance this week. As I’m confronting these different stories I begin to question what part does emotion play in journalism, especially broadcast journalism.

My question for Peter Mansbridge would be how do you deliver the news or tell someone’s story without losing control of your own emotions and remain poised? Is it possible to separate yourself emotionally from the story you’re telling, especially if it’s some sort of world tragedy like war or natural disaster?

As a kid I would sit down and watch the news with my dad every chance we got. We even watched the news while we were in different provinces or states enjoying summer vacations together. I always looked up to broadcast journalists as someone who can be trusted and someone who can be counted on.

And even today at this age when I think about it, it’s still true to a certain extent. People have favourite broadcast journalists, people that they have grown to trust and want to hear the news from. With this comes a lot responsibility especially if you’re reporting on a national level.

I think Peter Mansbridge is an exceptionally smart guy and he is the newscaster who I trust the most. I just find these relationships between the person delivering the message and me the person receiving the message extremely interesting.

WATCH THESE VIDEOS

As a journalist I want to tell stories. And today I want to share this story with you.






This story has already been told but I wanted to share it with all of you guys. Sometimes being in this program you can take a hit, fall down and not want to get back up and all together just become discouraged. After a rough Thursday ***cough BROADCAST J cough*** sometimes it's hard to want to carry on.

Then I came across this story. Now I'm not talking about the story itself (which of course was inspiring) but more so I am talking about the way its being presented. After watching this I thought, "Oh yeah THIS explains why I am in this program."

I want to tell stories like these and present them in a manner that is appealing to others. When Ross Capicchioni retells the story of getting shot and the sound of the guns goes off every time he mentions it, it gives me a chill and makes me want to present my stories in the same manner.


Thanks to The Berrics for reminding me I love journalism.

Irresponsible/Annoying

For those of you who don't know I'll say it again,  I LOVE RICK ROSS.

On Friday it was reported that while on a plane ride to Memphis from Florida, Rick Ross had a seizure. There was a doctor on the plane but Ross was unconscious so the plane had to make an emergency landing. The story broke while Ross was still unconscious. Fans waited with baited breath for the outcome. Thankfully, the medical team got him up and running again.

While the news was being reported I was stuck in class and in a full blown panic attack mode. I desperately needed to be following the story. Sources that were reporting on the incident were not updating fast enough on his progress, so I took to twitter to follow the people in his entourage. Eventually tweets came in that Rick Ross was fine and it was nothing but a minor hiccup in the world of his health.

TMZ had the most up to the minute report on the situation and I was continuously refreshing their page all day. Eventually other entertainment sources were carrying the story as well. And then some information was released that I don't believe.

BET tweeted:

The link led to a video of Ross sitting on a plane. In the video he says that he just boarded the plane and was headed to Memphis.  Now in my opinion, this video was filmed before the seizure as he doesn't mention anything about the incident. But as you can see BET claims it was filmed after the incident to prove that he’s ok. I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS VIDEO WAS FILMED AFTER THE INCIDENT. NO WAY. I thought how can an organization get away with posting a video and claiming it’s footage of the rapper after his seizures, when clearly it is not.

 Then I saw on Ross' twitter that he posted the video as well.

 It’s a weird situation. In the video Ross looks completely fine and not disoriented at all. He does not mention the seizure or the emergency landing. He talks about his upcoming show in Memphis and asks us all to download his new singles off itunes. (DO IT)

Anyways, I just don’t believe the time frame of this video.  I feel like they are claiming that this video is something that it is not. And it's REALLY bugging me. Whether Ross is condoning it or not, it's still annoying to be given fake information.

Of course everyone wanted to know that Rick Ross was ok (except for his competition), but posting a video under false pretenses is not the ethical way to go about confirming that he's doing better.

Can't Stop Won't Stop

Imagine a world where Queen Latifa, Will Smith, Ghetto Boys and Public Enemy all go on tour TOGETHER. Well, that happened in 1991.SHOCKED. If only I wasn’t two years old at that time. Today that would never happen in hip hop. The different styles within hip hop have become isolated and in my opinion a lot of love has been.

On Wednesday,  I was more than excited to attended the lecture given by Can’t Stop Won’t Stop A History of the Hip Hop Generation’s author, Jeff Chang. The Uniter hosted the speaking engagement at the University of Winnipeg.

I love snapshots of history especially when it relates to something that influences my life on a daily basis. Personally I do not think that you can say hip hop originated from one spot in the world, at one point in time, with a certain group of people witnessing it. Jeff Chang disagrees to a certain extent. He spoke about the origination of hip hop. He spoke about the birth place of hip hop, the Bronx. He covered topics such as abandonment, DJs, the universal zulu nation, and what got the gangs out of the Bronx and what brought hip hop in.

The speech was long, so I’ll narrow it down to what I found most interesting. Something that relates to hip hop today, the split.

Chang spoke about the point in hip hop culture where it split. The split he refers to is when it was possible that music could move across the country and world. Hip hop used to be something you had to experience then and there. You had to be in the ballrooms, you had to be at the parties and you had to be dancing in the parks to know what hip hop was and then the record was created and it took hip hop all around the world. 

This began to create imprints around the world of what was happening in the Bronx. Hip hop was no longer a moment, it became a replica that could travel. You didn’t need to be there to experience what was happening in places like the Bronx, like Jeff Chang you could be in Hawaii at recess experiencing what those in the parks of the Bronx were making happen.

And from there it grew and changed and we've landed on today or a couple years prior to today, and hip hop has becomes a part of commodity culture. Who wins? An original lyricist, or someone who has you wearing their clothes, drinking their energy water and has been shot in the chest a handful of time? In the world we are living in now, 50 Cent wins.

As the world of hip hop music continues to evolve, I’m not sure where it's going to land next. Here are some stats to help the guess...

2000- 90 million hip hop records sold- 13% of the market
2010- 27 million hip hop records sold- 8% of the market


Chang spoke about the difference between true artists and money makers. I can agree there’s a difference between someone like 50 Cent vs Nas. And I can also say that there are artists who transcend it all..

By the end of the lecture all I heard was Jay-Z is incredibly dope.
(that’s why he can fall into both categories)

word to that.