Submitted by markbriggs on Sat, 02/28/2009 – 7:07pm
Conversationalist 1: Liz Monteiro
Conversationalist 2: Mark Briggs
Liz Monteiro has spent 17 years at the Waterloo Region Record. She is now a full-time master’s student, too, focusing on journalists and how they negotiate their identities in this time of change. “Canadian news organizations have been slower to change than those in the U.S.,” she says.
She is looking forward to refreshing her point of view on journalism. She is currently working amidst a “sea of negativity” since the newspaper just went through a round of painful layoffs. Her hope for the workshop is two–tiered: “invigorate myself, and reinvent myself. I don’t think Record will exist as it is right now so I’m preparing for what’s next.”
She is invigorated by other examples, especially those found on American journalist’s blogs. “We’re not the only expert and the readers can help us.”
Liz say her ability to talk to people and get them to tell her stories has long been her strength, but now she wonders if that makes her special compared to anyone else who tries to do that. She feels her experience as a journalist has to count for something, though, especially her ability to put a story into a larger context. “I want to be collaborative and learn from others,” she says.
Newspapers are the cornerstone of democracy, they hold government accountable, according to Liz. She feels like that it’s slipping away. She wants to help find new ways we can still have “some of that core stuff.”
Liz doesn’t think we’ll have a printed product like we have today. She does think journalism can sustain itself somehow, though. “I truly do believe they will be reincarnated in another way,” LIz said.
