New Hire Spotlight: Reyn Ou

NEW HIRE SPOTLIGHT: REYN OU

THE WALKING CORPSE OF THE JPR DEPARTMENT

by Natalie Comfort

The news director talks about their journey into the journalism field, their gripes with the mainstream media, and why they keep their work and personal lives separate.

Natalie Comfort: When did your interest in journalism and multimedia begin?

Reyn Ou: I developed an interest in multimedia, first and foremost. When I was little, I used to always go to the special features parts of DVD movies to look at the behind-the-scenes and special effects parts because I always thought it was really cool. I started off with a pirated copy of adobe premiere when I was 15 and I used my mom’s camera. Then I had a really big burnout where suddenly I couldn’t watch movies or TV shows anymore without it hurting me. So, I fell out of it for a bit. But I went to high school where they really drilled into you that you need to figure out your career by 18. So, I was like well I did spend 3 or 4 years learning film, I guess I’ll make that my career. When I was 18, I was trying to move out of my house. I was very focused on having a financial safety net. So I applied to a bunch of internships. The one internship that called me back was CBS news in LA, which wasn’t video, right? So I was like eh. That was the first time I did journalism at all. I knew this internship was going to help me get a head start so I took it. I had no idea what journalism was. But I ended up getting sucked into the world of broadcast news after that because I was really into the thrill of breaking news. But I got pulled into journalism by force. I think my dream back then was to be a writer for SNL. I wanted to do entertainment. I wanted to be a writer or video editor for comedy.

NC: That is the opposite of news, which is usually sad and tragic.

RO: I actually saw my first dead body when I was interning for CBS. There was a shootout in the neighborhood. And I remember my supervisor just casually goes: oh there’s a dead body. And you instinctively turn to look at things, right? And I looked at the screen and was like oh … there were like pools of blood spilling onto the sidewalk. And I was like, so this is what this line of work is. When I went to college, I took all these film classes about the history of film, how the camera was invented, and all these theoretical things. I was in my third year of college, and they still didn’t have any classes that had practical applications. And I was like I’m not going to learn anything at this rate. I was already minoring in journalism at the time since I wanted to have something in case film [fell] through. I realized when looking at the journalism course list, they had a lot more practical courses. I was in a very pragmatic mindset, where I just really wanted to get a job as soon as I could. So, I made the switch to journalism. And DIG and the Daily 49er hired me. I had noticed that people in journalism don’t have the [strongest] skill set in multimedia, which made my work stand out. All I have to focus on is strengthening what I already know. I got here because I was trying to look for a job, not because I found a calling or a passion or anything. I have fun with what I do. Would I consider it my passion… not really? I don’t like my passions to be work-related. I think it produces a lot of anxiety.

NC: The stakes are so high.

RO: There are so many other things you can make your passion without making it your entire life. I would hate to make [it] something I would eventually end up resenting. Video-making, multimedia, and journalism are things I like doing and things that I am good at. I am okay with that being my career. I am okay if I eventually end up hating it, or being tired or drained from it. It’s not something I creatively rely on.

NC: It's not so special to you that if you grew to hate it because you have to use it to make money, you wouldn’t feel that your job took something away from you.

RO: Exactly. I am pretty happy that I am in this field because I found a really good balance between my work and the things I like doing, that aren’t necessarily my source of happiness. I think if I made my work my source of happiness, I would be very miserable.

NC: How is working for 22 West similar to the other positions you have worked at the Daily 49er and DIG Magazine?

RO: I’m still producing content. I am able to incorporate my voice into things. 22 West, DIG, and Daily 49er did not have any sort of like restrictions on the things that I could produce. And that was really cool because it gave me a lot of room to experiment with things. The reason I was able to find opportunities outside of campus was that these student media publications had given me so much freedom that I could just make whatever the fuck I want. People here are really open to collaborating, when I was working for Daily 49er I was the only person on a team. For a while, I was the only video person: shooting, producing, editing…

NC: I can’t imagine. That must have been a massive turnaround time since you had to do everything yourself.

RO: Yeah, it used to take me 2-4 weeks to make a video.

NC: That’s honestly still pretty impressive for one person.

RO: I appreciate that, but you need a team. I like 22 West because there is an adequate amount of people to work with. I can count on people now. Whereas, with Daily 49er, I was on my own.

NC: When you mentioned being excited about there being a team now, what’s something you would like to make for 22 West?

RO: I am actually in the works of producing a radio show, called “Reyn Against the Machine.”

NC: I love that!

RO: Thank you, it was a nickname that my girlfriend came up with on the fly. It stuck with me; I thought that is so funny. It’s going to be a radio show where people can talk about injustices they saw on campus. There is a lot of shit that goes down that doesn’t get picked up by student media. I want to create a space that had a more immediate response for students. I am working with Jacob (Jacob Ingram is 22 West Radio branch’s General Manager) on that. He has also been wanting something more socio-politically involved since radio has a very strong sports division, but not necessarily a news division. So I was hoping to help fill that spot.

NC: That brings me to my next question. What do you consider to be the main purpose of news and journalism? What does it mean to you?

RO: I want to wield it as a weapon to dismantle the status quo. I never liked mainstream media for maintaining the status quo. I feel like it’s lame, it’s easy, it’s uninspired, and it’s also just unfair. The media shapes people’s opinions, right? And when people’s opinions are shaped, it shapes how they behave and interact with the world and each other. So when you have the media telling you things about who deserves rights and who doesn’t, who is inherently powerful and who’s not, what is right and what is wrong, you sort of indoctrinate people under this cultural hegemony. So, my desire for journalism is to put a wedge into that. To get people to start questioning the nature of their lives. To question why things are the way they are and why we take them for granted. Why do we feel like it’s normal to clock in from 9 to 5 every day? Why do we think it’s normal to have to pay for healthcare? Why do you have to convince people why you deserve housing and happiness and food? Why do we take these as things that are natural? Because it is not natural we came up with this stuff. It’s a long-winded answer to say that I hope to see media allowing people to start revolting against the daily injustices they experience and are too tired to question.

NC: What would you say are some foundational aspects of your identity that shape how you experience the world?

RO: I consider myself to be Queer. I have realized very early on that when you are Queer it immediately sets you apart. Even though we are progressing towards a more progressive worldview, [we] are still progressing towards a worldview that sets people apart based on their sexuality. I think a lot about gay marriage, right? Because within our culture it is seen as a victory for Queer people, right? The reason why it was such a big deal in the first place was because of healthcare. You couldn’t see people in the hospital dying unless you were married to them. It only [was] like that because we established that [heterosexual] marriage was the highest status for a person. So, even though you are securing more rights for gay people the need for those rights [existed] to begin with because cis-hetero people established that [system] to begin with. A small victory for us is still a small victory under this overarching system. Some people might be happy with that because they have existed for so long under this system that they just want some relief. But I think it would be better in the long term if that overarching hegemony didn’t exist in the first place. But you know, that’s asking a lot, so I get it. There is a huge kinship I have with the world around me because we have very similar experiences. It’s my one solace even when I know that I will never live to see the end of this culture of oppression that we’ve created. Being Chinese… well, my parents are really anti-Chinese because they are right-wing. So, growing up Chinese living with xenophobic parents is really weird. It gets really weird to have other parts of your family be Chinese living their lives with Chinese culture and wanting to take part in that but being afraid your parents will call you a spy. I didn’t get a lot of time to explore my Chinese self. I deeply regret it because I used to explore it a lot. I have a part of my family that is deeply connected with that culture. Growing up in America, in this culture, sometimes you have to assimilate. And I’ve been trying to not assimilate as much because I’m angry. I got more time to explore being Queer because somehow being gay is more acceptable than being Chinese in certain cases.

NC: And I remember you mentioned how you didn’t want to get your personal identity tied up in work, why do you feel that way?

RO: I don’t think work should be your identity. With the way we perceive work now, you’re going to exhaust yourself. I don’t know if it’s even possible to turn your passion into work these days because we are making work such an all-consuming thing.

NC: It’s kinda like capitalist propaganda, that you are what you create, and you have no other value.

RO: Yeah, exactly. With that in mind, I already don’t want to get my personal self sucked into this corporate capitalist machine that’s just going to erase myself of all value. Reduce me to what I bring to the table. I think if I tried to make my identity a priority at work, I would be really upset because they’re not going to get it right. It’s not in their interest to get it right. They lose money every time they try to invest in making things fair. I can’t put my faith into workplaces to respect me as a person. So I try to separate my personal identity from work because I don’t trust them to take care of it. I don’t expect a company to do more than the bare minimum and I would be mentally worse off if I expected that.

NC: You don’t set up an expectation that you know is going to get torn down

RO: I work to make money, I don’t work to find meaning. I think meaning exists outside of work. I hope other people don’t make work their entire lives because that’s really sad. And I know some people don’t have a choice like me. I graduated high school with the intention of looking for work and I sort of had to make that who I was for a very long time. But I wouldn’t wish that on someone, I wish we all got the chance to explore ourselves and I don’t know, touch grass in an open field. But instead, we’re here.