Category: Uncategorized

Goodbye 2016. Hello 2017.

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AMY TENG photo

Hello 2017.

It’s been intense.

After an internship at Vancouver Courier where I wrote various articles, ranging from discarded hair made into oil booms to a local karate champion moving on up, I graduated from Langara College in June 2015.

I was immensely satisfied with this achievement because I struggled with a few health issues. I still struggle to today but I’m a fighter.

Always the warrior.

I contributed to New Canadian Media, a national nonprofit media outlet focused on bridging mainstream media and ethnic media.

Contributed to Megaphone magazine, also a nonprofit.

(Yes, I’ve noticed the trend. I seem to have a thing for nonprofits. Where are the for-profits at?)

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Hello Langara! Hello journalism! Hello New Westminster!

SAM TO photo

This is how I look on a good day. You may or may not see me wandering around New Westminster with a notebook and pen.

—

Hello. I mentioned previously, as part of my journalism program, I will be covering a municipal beat. This term, I’ll be reporting on New Westminster, doing my best to capture the flavour of this area. If you have any ideas, don’t be afraid to throw them at me.

Sharing a little bit about me: back to school and back on track.

The main highlight of my summer was completing Tough Mudder in Whistler with a few friends but otherwise, I spent majority of time working at a grocery store.

Tough Mudder wasn’t as tough as I thought it would be but there was one moment where my spirit quivered because I was required to jump off a platform that stood about 20 feet in the air into roughly 12 feet of cold, murky water. It was already too late when the volunteer said, “Don’t look down. Just look straight at the mountains in front and jump.” I had looked and took two steps back.

My mind blanked out a little bit from the moment my feet left that platform to the moment they hit the water. Ask me what happened and I cannot tell you. Heights are not easy.

There were a few other things I did this summer:

Reading “Journalism and Truth” put me through a roller-coaster ride. It started off with chapters that questioned the quality of sources journalists used, the stance on checkbook journalism and the reliability of eyewitness testimonies.

For a few days, I asked myself, “What am I doing this for? What is the point?”

However, by the end of the book, it saves itself. It reminds me why.

But journalism is still, as Thomas Griffith characterized it half a century ago in The Waist-high Culture, “history on the run.” Journalists need to be much more aware of their relative strengths and shortcomings, and they need to let the readers and viewers in on their secrets. After all, as Griffith remarked: “If journalism is sometimes inaccurate and often inadequate, ignorance would not be preferable.” (page 167)

With this reminder, I will cover everything as accurately as possible by deadline.

Thank you for your patience with me.

Deanna Cheng

I won the BCYCNA Community Scholarship award

KAYLA ISOMURA photo

I am a proud and happy writer.

Journalism department head of Langara College Frances Bula announced last week, the British Columbia and Yukon Community Newspaper Association Scholarship recipients from our program. I am one of four to receive the award.

Although I was a bit under the weather at the time it was announced, I was very happy I made the effort to apply.

When I received an email informing me I won the scholarship, it requested a headshot and a short bio. I grabbed my classmate Kayla and she snapped one for me. (Thank you, darling.)

For my future, there isn’t any specific goal. All I know is my drive to write and that is what I am listening to.

The other three recipients are Sacha Porteous, Jules Knox, and Katja De Bock. Knowing how hard-working and smart these people are, with more life experience than me, I am humbled to be listed beside them.

The first step: an introduction

DEANNA CHENG photo

This was me before I sunk heavily into this journalism program. I absolutely love the program but it is not without a price. Honestly, I look crazier than this now & somehow people still accept me.

Hi. My name is Deanna and I’m currently a journalism student at Langara College. For the next month or so, I will be writing about letter-writing, snail mail and everything postal-related. I haven’t decided what will happen afterward but I plan to keep this space.

In the fall, I will be assigned a municipal beat and will be blogging exclusively about that. This is all I know right now.

I wanted to start a professional blog but I wasn’t sure which topics to write about. Some subjects such as karate were closer to my heart than others; I didn’t want to write about topics I had no passion for.

Now, with this journalism program, I’m developing a better understanding that it isn’t about the subject matter itself but the method I choose to write with.

In the last nine years, I kept a personal blog. Whenever I sift through old posts, I relive fragments of my life. Often, I surprise myself. It’s amazing to see how much I’ve grown as a person and as a writer. It’s also lets me see the core of my self with some distance yet familiarity. That still water within my soul’s well. It’s a reflection I occasionally struggle to face.

With this platform, I hope to develop and hone my skills as a writer and a journalist. In oh-so-many years, I want to look back and see what has changed. And, maybe, what hasn’t changed. This is my first step.

Thank you for remaining patient with me.

Welcome to my journalism blog.

 

Deanna Cheng