Read. Watch. Listen. introduces you to the personal side of our faculty, staff and alumni. Participants are asked to answer three simple questions about their reading, viewing and listening habits – what one book or newspaper/magazine article is grabbing your attention; what one movie or television show has caught your eye; and what album/song, podcast or radio show are you lending an ear to.
Hannah Sung, a veteran Canadian journalist, producer, podcaster and educational speaker, is the Spring 2020 Asper Fellow in the Faculty of Information & Media Studies.
Today, she takes a turn on Read. Watch. Listen.
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Read.
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee kept me riveted over the holidays. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to indulge in a novel rather than reading non-fiction and, honestly, once I started with this, I had no choice – I flew through the pages! It’s historical fiction following multiple generations in Korea and Japan during the time span of the Japanese occupation to the almost-present day. I loved it and had to explain to my 8-year-old why a grown-up would choose to read a book that makes her cry.
Watch.
There’s a bit of a Korean theme here but I’m going to jump on the Academy Awards bandwagon and say I loved Parasite by Bong Joon-ho. This movie was everything – riveting plot, beautifully crafted, a rare mix of emotions and with enough depth and social commentary to keep you talking for ages afterward. Go with a friend!
Listen.
OK, this one is easy because I’m leading a group of wonderful FIMS students in a research project called Podcasts & Perspective and our syllabus includes Finding Cleo from CBC Podcasts and In The Dark (Season 2) from APM.
Finding Cleo is an incredible example of using narrative, plot-driven storytelling in order to lead audiences into challenging social issues that are complex and require reflection, both personal and as a nation – what kind of country do we want to be, Canada? After listening to this, you can’t say you didn’t know how Canada has built its systems on policies that actively discriminate against Indigenous populations. This is a brilliant example of how to do this kind of audio journalism and I’m so pleased to be discussing it in class.
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If you have a suggestion for someone you would like to see in Read. Watch. Listen., or would like to participate yourself, drop a line to inside.western@uwo.ca.
