For several weeks, it has felt like my brain is plugged into the internet. I am rarely away from my computer for a span longer than a few hours. Usually this sort of behaviour means I’ve become highly addicted to a new video game, or created a new website, but that is not the case this time. This phase usually always leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation, but I find myself feeling quite the opposite lately. I began to use a Twitter account, and of course, my WordPress account, way more than before. It’s been an interesting, and mixed, experience. Through Twitter I found a way to keep up to date (up to the minute even), with most of my favourite topics of interest. These topics range from journalism, to soccer (hello @Thierry_Henry and @zlatans_offical), literature, films, friends, tweeting, blogging, hip hop (you’ve got to follow @chamillionaire, he constantly updates and tweets back to his fans), hockey, etc, etc, etc…
It is an interesting feeling to read posts by your favourite authors (hello @neilhimself, @MargaretAtwood and @gladwell), about the regular stuff they are up to. It’s great fun to have twitter exchanges with them as well. It’s been a very interesting way of keeping up to date. It brings the news cycle into your head it seems. It illustrates the power of the internet to run the newscycle. That being said, it’s time to discuss my favourite thing about Twitter; journalism.
Since joining up on Twitter, I have learned a phenomenal amount about modern day journalism. It’s a fairly well-established “fact” that journalism is dying, I thought. I had remained optimistic this was not the reality of the situation, but everywhere an aspiring journalist looked, doom glared back. Some journalists are claiming this is not the case however. I have had the fortune of finding some brilliant journalists(@wodekszemberg, @GenevieveKoski, @TAudette, @EdVeilleux) and aspiring journalists on Twitter (@lavrusik, @lindork), who have, in most cases, expanded my knowledge of journalism or opened up new content for me. Following Vadim Lavrusik’s twitter has been particularly enlightening for me in regards to how social media is affecting journalism, which makes sense considering he is a social media consultant amongst his vast array of skill sets. His Twitter provides constant links of interest for journalists, and has helped me understand the industry a hundred times better than I did before discovering his tweets. Thanks Vadim! I highly recommend following all of the listed tweets though, as well as any newspapers that interest you (I recommend NY Times,TorStar, Daily Beast, Exiled, The Tyee, New Statesman, Northern Life, and the Sudbury Star for sure). You will be brought up to speed quickly on the world around you.

One more year left of post-secondary education for me. I’m filled with mixed feelings about that, ranging from unexplainable happiness to to complete indifference.
The though of being in a career has ups and downs, but overall it seems like a giant step forward after already completing four years of post-secondary education. The homework, vacant eyes, and condescension bore me after all these years. While the beautiful women, intellectual conversation (occasionally), and low-stress lifestyle are definite pluses.
I find myself in a situation where I am struggling to make sure I approach this year with motivation and confidence, but without ego and conceit. This task has been a difficult one for a number of reasons.
I am entering a writing program designed for second year college students, when I’ve already completed a four-year History degree with honours. Bill has made it a point to say that direct transfer haven’t exactly been God’s gift to journalism, and I hope to prove him wrong in some regards.
I am treating this last year as a war, hence the quote I used as my title (look it up, it’s Shakespeare). I’m going in to do my job, without wasting time, and lazing through another year of schooling. I am going to try at this course, for once in my life. I will conquer it, and push myself up out of this city hopefully. Destination unknown, but somewhere that isn’t here.
I hope you will all support me in this, my professional year of school.

Journalism is not simply a profession. Journalism has a responsibility to the public as an information provider and government/corporate watch-dog.
There are so many journalists whose articles I read, that make me feel pity for them. They are complacent. They are nine-to-fivers, with no hunger for truth. Their passion died long ago, sucked out by the long-growing apathy inflicted to humans in a consumer society, or stomped out by their corporate publishers.
Something stirs inside of me, beckoning me to push forth into journalism, and raise it from the ashes, or at least find a haven where journalism hasn’t died completely. These publications do exist, but they are difficult to come by.
Reality is a factor. Journalists need to eat and live, just like any other human being, and that doesn’t come cheap. With the downsizing in the industry, and the “journalism is dying” fervor sweeping the industry, it becomes even more tempting to settle down with any journalism job you can claw your talons into. Then complacency strikes. Next thing you know, you’re retiring, having worked for the same publication for 30 years. It’s a possibility.
I don’t see this as my future. I see myself learning the finer points of the art from Cambrian’s program (ran by Bill and Erik, two intelligent and talkative journalism veterans), tweaking with my writing as an amateur working for a small to medium sized paper, and eventually moving up to a large paper, potentially in America or Europe.
Truth be told, I would love for my career in journalism to lead me into being an author as well, but that looks to be far over the horizon at the moment. Rest assured, the sunbeams are finding their way over the horizon, faintly, but noticeably.
Journalism is not meant for people without passion. It’s meant for people who want to shoulder the burden of being a truth-teller. Journalism is not just regurgitating facts, it is showing us our own humanity in a mirror, for better or worse. Journalists have to seek the truth, even if it leads to scary and unfriendly consequences.
Call me an idealist for portraying journalists as heroes, but that’s what they should be. Modern day journalism looks more in line with the corruption in society than the truth-telling, and that is not where it should be.
It’s easy to name-drop when it comes to the ideal journalists; Ed Murrow, Hunter S. Thompson, John Pilger, Noam Chomsky, Malcolm Gladwell. Not all of these men are responsible for hard-hitting political or social pieces, some are just phenomenal feature writers. These men show the diversity of journalism, and its ability to appeal to a wide variety of readers. I hope to see a revival in solid journalism, but am unconvinced by the apathy of many of the coming generations (my own included).
Dare to dream. Dare to hope. Dare to create.