What was your first job as a journalist?
If internships are jobs—I worked at Hakai Magazine writing news stories and short features. I also helped produce an episode of their podcast
Have you ever used a typewriter?
I wish! Though if I was stuck on a desert island and could bring one thing with me, it would be a typewriter and a big ream of paper.
How is social media changing news?
Social media is a tool, like any tool it doesn't operate on its own. This question should be, how has our use of social media changed news.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Are we talking about purely fictional? Like Clark Kent? Or are we talking about an actor that played a real-life journalist in a movie?
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To be a journalist is to be a story conduit for others who need their voices heard, to hold a mirror up to our own collective humanity.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Pose a question to me that I can't answer with a cursory search,
or tell me something I can't believe.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Depends, what's the best way to tell the story? If it's any kind of multimedia, I use the Adobe Suite with a mix of my own professional gear.
What's your favorite social network?
Instagram.
Who do you wish followed you?
Probably any number of the supremely talented photojournalists I already follow on social media, oh and Ira Glass.
Why did you become a journalist?
I wanted to take my background in film, photography and communications and put them to a use I felt good about, which satiated my curiosity.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
My high school didn't have a newspaper.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
The wildfire story/documentary this past summer for News21. Despite a few small hiccups, it all went according to plan and that's rare.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Be curious! Don't be afraid to ask questions you think are "silly." Never forget that journalism is by people, for people about people.
What's your favorite drink?
I'll never walk away from a good Mai Tai.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Behind a camera.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
I feel like a little kid answering this question, but definitely National Geographic.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
Hah, which beat? One might think that reporting out of a town of nearly 8,000 in the Canadian Arctic might be slow? It's definitely not.
