The First Week at UBC School of Journalism

This post will read almost like a sequel to the previous one. Perhaps some things are just meant to be. I was the only non-white person at work (in my office) before. Now I am a Master student at UBC School of Journalism, where the majority of students are white. I did a count during my orientation. There were probably at most six Asians, including myself, present. Later on I realized that most of them were second-year students. I am a newbie! There is actually an Asian guy in my Wednesday and Thursday classes. Woohoo.

I don't know about you, but I am beginning to sense this great danger in journalism. The lack of ethnic diversity will have an effect on media content. Most of my earlier posts in this blog revovle around the topic of ideological news discourse in Western mainstream media. My role as a specatator has officially been "promoted" to a position as an insider in the industry. It's true. The back end of news media is made of mostly white Caucasians. I wouldn't be surprised that media content ends up reflecting their values and ideologies exclusively.

We are talking about what should be considered as news. The Asian guy brings up Beijing Olympics. Human rights issues pop up in my head immediately. The cat killing incident still bothers me a great deal. This white guy, second row, disagrees and claims that it shouldn't be news anymore because it's over already. I almost want to get up and question him why he doesn't consider all these human/animal rights issues surrounding this defining historical event relevant. Then again I realize, ah, maybe he doesn't have a deep understanding of Chinese history and all the cruel things that Chinese government did in the past and is still currently doing. I won't go into them, either, simply because they're too sensitive for me to blog about. Let's just say I am disappointed with Beijing. Not just cat killing. I do have a cat, yes. It's the fact that the Chinese completely ruins this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to prove to the world that they deserve to participate in such significant occasion that celebrates freedom, liberty, and human rights. In my eyes, they completely blow it. Somehow the white guy from the second row doesn't really see what I see. Well, we are all entitled to our opinions, and I respect his. I am just more concerend with why we care about certain things and why we don't care about some other. These differences would be even more dramatically reflected in such lack of ethnic diversity at my School....

At any rate, I would like to introduce my post-undergraduate blog on Wordpress. I blogged here a lot during the last year of my undergrad and the year after. It's time to move on! A new chapter.... life since UBC J-School!