From the field I’ll be ready when it happens by Erin Hudson Student reporter, McGill Daily
W
ell, no one said this was going to be easy. I repeated this mantra on a sunny day last April after having just crashed and burned in an interview, effectively quashing all hope of working in a real newsroom – at least for summer 2012. Graduating with a BA from McGill in Oc-
tober, 2011, I have no formal journalism training. But deciding journalism was the profession for me halfway through my degree, I took all the opportunities I could to get experience. Working as a reporter and editor for the McGill Daily and volunteering around CKUT, McGill’s campus community radio station, the majority of what
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I know I learned at these two outlets. The amount of gratitude and respect I have for my coworkers, fellow volunteers, and friends at these places is hard to express. The transition from being a student journalist in these settings to an unknown newbie in a professional context has been jarring to say the least. Navigating the networks of mainstream media and the ever-transforming journalism industry without getting caught in the undertow of hopelessness is a precarious art that I’m trying to learn, but the reality of today is that there’s not time for learning on the job. You’re ready or you’re not, and you can only count on one shot. So, to cope, I’m making like a sponge attempting to absorb all perspectives, approaches and skills I can so one day when that opportunity appears I’ll be ready. I’m still in the game: as Quebec Bureau Chief for the Canadian University Press, I report weekly for newspapers across the country and I coordinate a national radio show, GroundWire. Yes, I’ve won recognition for my work even gotten paid for my work - but I’m not a journalistic success story. I spend most of my days working a minimum wage job or instructing fitness classes, and I’m getting some life experiences you only get by doing. I’m chasing the dream pragmatically, working my nose-to-the-grindstone with fingers crossed that it’s going to pay off. I think it will. Based in Montreal, Erin Hudson is a freelance journalist, the Quebec Bureau Chief for the Canadian University Press and coordinator of the National Campus Community Radio Association’s news magazine GroundWire.
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