Interview with Global TV reporter NADIA STEWART

INTRODUCTION BY REMAS ELRADI FROM DAILY DOSE OF BLACKNESS:

Born and raised in Toronto, Nadia Stewart is a video-journalist who has worked from coast-to-coast in Canada, from Newfoundland to Ontario to Saskatchewan to Alberta to BC.

In 2010, Nadia joined the CBC, working as a multi-platform reporter and anchor in St. John’s, Calgary and Edmonton. She also spent six years as an editor and freelance writer for Planet Africa Magazine, a Toronto-based quarterly publication that celebrates the achievements of the black community across the diaspora.

These days, you’ll find her both in-front and behind the camera for Global BC, and she’s also worked as a news writer for The Weather Network, writing weather-centric casts for a national audience.

Nadia is also proud to be one of the first graduates of the University of Guelph-Humber’s Media Studies program (2006) and is also the Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Black Journalists

Thanks so much for joining us today Nadia. We really appreciate you taking the time to tell us about your life and career, and eager to have any advice you might have for us!

NADIA

That was a great introduction! Thank you.  You covered everything I’ve done over the last ten years! Maybe I’ll add something about how I got my start: I started working in community television, on Rogers television in the Peel Region, a cable community station run by a lot of volunteers who are getting their feet wet in the industry. I was a floor director, then worked my way up to writer, assistant producer, reporter, talk show host and then anchor. Then through a series of connections I got my first gig at the CBC.

So that’s one of my career tips: network, network, network.

That’s my very very humble beginning. I wasn’t even getting paid for my first five years. Sometime they would give me a fifty-dollar honorarium, but believe me – it all volunteer!

MATT:

What does your day look like? We googled you a bunch and there is clip after clip of you standing in front of crime scene, in front of a fire, in front of a flood… all manner of things. How do you get there, and how do you know what to say? How does all that happen?

NADIA:

My day changes depending on when my shift is. Right now I am working 8:30-4:30, so on a typical day I call in to the Story Desk at Global and talk about what the stories of the day are. Usually the Story Desk will have some stories in mind, and then I just set out there and start to put together a story.  I really never know where I am going to end up on any day.

The morning reporter is the one who really has to roll with the punches in our newsroom, because that’s the shift, so that’s usually the most challenging one, because it’s a hard start – you wake up and then you just have to get right into it.

If I am being honest, that’s my least favourite shift, because I am really not a morning person. But no matter when you start, the assignment starts with a phone call, and then off you go.

But I feel really blessed to have worked in newsrooms where people trust me. They trust my ability to pull a story together, they trust my judgment, they trust my conscience. Sometimes I am with a producer, but more times than not its just me and a shooter.

The shooters and editors in the field are a huge resource, you can really draw on them because they’ve been at this much longer than you

Sometimes you are pulling together a story, doing research on the fly, lining up interviews: its in the car between shoots, rolling through the day pulling together what you need to know, and figuring out what you don’t know.

When I start the day, I don’t know what I don’t know. And I just go from there, keeping my mind open to learn, and then I start to pull it all together. By 2 or 2:30 I want to be sitting down somewhere and editing. I edit anywhere and everywhere: in my truck by the side of the road, on a boat, in a café, wherever. I pull together all the bits, write the story, upload it to the server and then send it in to the station. As long as my story is in fifteen minutes before air, I’m good.

MATT:

But when you get your assignment for the day, you just have to head there and figure it all out on the fly?

NADIA:
Yup, just figure it out. Sometime the desk will have tips or contacts for me, sometimes there will be a camera already on the scene, but yeah, you just have to hit the ground running.

ANATI:

Hello Nadia. It seems like there are not that many Black journalists in Vancouver. What’s that like for you, and do you have any tips for aspiring journalists?

NADIA:

Well, I’ve kind of gotten used to working in markets where there are not a lot of Black journalists. When I went to Newfoundland, I was the only one, and same in other places I’ve been. I’ve learned how to deal with it to some extent, but I will say it was jarring to say the least at first, especially after growing up in Toronto, where there is a solid Black community and all my family there.

Leaving that was a culture shock, it really was. I was a very startling experience. There was no one to do my hair, you know, no one to help me out with my hair. I ended up finding a student at Memorial University who was on a student exchange from Zimbabwe. I would go to her every couple of weeks and she would put a weave in or something.

It was an experience, but I went through all of that, and after being on the air and stuff, I did find a community of Black students, and we all became friends, but it really took a while.  As a soon as I realized I wasn’t going to find Black people in the newsroom, I turned to the community.

Wherever you go you’ve got to find your tribe. When I got to Calgary I met a group of young African professionals to hang out with, when I got to Vancouver I created a group, and I have my church, with a lot of Black people there. I’ve always found my group outside of my job, and its really really important to be around people who know what its like to be you and what your experiences have been like and who you can relate to.

With the Canadian Association of Black Journalists, we’ve been trying to pull together Black journalists who are out there in these small markets but are not connected – we want them to know that we see them.  We are trying to encourage Black student journalists to get out there, out of big markets like Toronto and Montreal and Halifax, and take jobs in smaller places. It may be unpleasant and you may encounter racism – the first time I was ever called the N-word, it was a very jarring experience, but it made me tougher, and it helped my gain perspective on what its like to be a Black woman in Canada outside of major urban centres. We’d love to see Black journalist all across the country.

VANESSA:

Hi Nadia: I wondering what are some of the best pieces of advice you have been given

NADIA:

I remember when I moved to Newfoundland, the woman who hired me was so supportive and a wonderful mentor, she said that no matter where you are or what you doing, always remember what you are about. Where you are coming from, what you are trying to accomplish.  Generally speaking, people have been very nice to me, but I have gotten some awful emails and journalism can be a tough business, and if you don’t have that firm foundation, its easy to get unsettled. Just remember where you are from and where you are going.

The other piece I have is always put yourself out there. I always encourage people to take the risk: if it's moving to another city, take that risk! If it's launching a platform or a podcast, take that risk! I took a huge risk for my first job in Newfoundland, and its how I ended up where I am today.

BIRAIMA: When you first got into journalism and you encountered setbacks or things weren't going well how did you deal with it?

NADIA: Oh I definitely had those moments when I was first trying to get into journalism! It was really hard to find a job, really discouraging. You just have to keep trying, just have to stay persistent. You might get fifty No’s but eventually you're going to get that one Yes. I learned a really valuable lesson when I was working at CBC in Calgary and I got laid off because the station was downsizing and the show that I was anchoring got cancelled.

I became very deflated, very negative - it just felt like my whole world was ending. Looking back, I realize I just didn't handle it as well as I could have. It's actually something that I have written about on my blog and something that I have really tried to learn. Sometimes your biggest setback is something that actually set you up for a really big comeback.

That experience forced me to reframe some of the challenges that I go through, and now I don't necessarily see them as negative things. Your attitude really does determine your altitude.

I try to frame challenges as if I'm being repositioned for something else, like I'm going to be launched into something else. Even now with this Covid situation, we've had some setbacks for the Canadian Association of Black Journalists and we're trying to reframe it to think how we can do things better and do things differently.

I never look at my setbacks as the end, it's always a relaunch  I would just say don't give up! Whatever the dream is hold tight to it, don’t let it go.

REMAS: Hi Nadia!  How would you describe going up in Canada as a Black person?

NADIA:  I grew up in Toronto and to my eyes it was a very multicultural environment. I had other Black kids in my school and kids from all over.  I didn’t really notice it too much, especially when I was younger, I was kind of oblivious to the fact that I am Black But I had my eyes really opened to the diversity of the Black experience only when I left Toronto and moved to other parts of the country where Black people have been experiencing racism on a whole different kind of level. When I left Toronto for the first time, I learned that people saw my skin colour first. In Toronto it didn't feel that way 

Now I think part of the CABJ: I am really understanding what people are experiencing in other parts of the country. Its opened my eyes and helped to focus the work that we are doing as an organization.

SALIEMA:  What do you wish someone said to you as a youth?

NADIA:  I wish someone had told me that it was all going to work out in the end. When I first started out in this profession I was so worried so stressed so anxious that all kinds of things so preoccupied but now that I'm older I realized things to work out in the end 

That's what I said all of you it's all going to work out it's all going to work out and it will Don't let the little things the little day-to-day setbacks don't let them get you down don't let them get you worried 

SADIE: Hi Nadia! I’m part of the DDB podcast crew - what do you look for in a good story? 

NADIA: I think stories are about people - stories that force us to think about someone other than ourselves. We can get really tied up in ourselves and what's around us and when someone presents to us the story of somebody else, it really forces us to bring up feelings of compassion and empathy and understanding, humility even.

MATT: Can you tell us about a couple of stories or reporting experiences that you wont forget?

NADIA: I will never forget any of the national disaster that kept the wildfires here in BC the flooding in Calgary hurricane Igor Never forget those ones because people are so vulnerable during those natural disasters People's feelings in those situations are just so raw - It's amazing to see how communities come together in those circumstances People's perceptions of what really matters begin the shift  because of those experiences 

BIRAIMA: I have another question: what's some advice that you would give to somebody who might be interested in starting a career in journalism?

NADIA:  The first thing is to know why you want to get into journalism. What are you interested in, and what's your what's your motivation, because this is not an industry where you're going to make a lot of money. It's going to be tough in that respect, especially when you are just starting out, so you've got to be sure about the why. Understanding the why is going to keep you grounded when times get tough.

My second piece of advice is around networking. My first job when I was still freelancing was at Planet Africa magazine and they have a community awards show and I was there as a red-carpet reporter. I interviewed a guy there who is very well known in the Peel region and he said that I was very good at what I did, and he connected me with somebody else.  That guy told me to send my resume to these five people, so I set my demo reel cold to five stations across the country and Newfoundland called me back with 8 weeks of work - and that turned into launching my career!

Networking is key! Network, network, network. 

JOAN:  Hi Nadia! My questions is seeing about how busy you are: how do take care of yourself, how do you rechange, how do you do self-care? 

NADIA:  I don’t do the morning shift that often these days, but I still wake up pretty early on my own and pray and meditate first thing in the morning. I need to start my day with that piece of mind, to know what I'm grounded in and what really matters to me.

As well, I really set limits on my work. I have timer set for how much time I spend on social media, and that includes work. I allow myself 30 minutes for each social media app: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.

I work hard to limit how much time I spend on social media, especially Twitter, and that usually helps me organize my day and keep my sanity.

I keep things quite structured: I set time for my homework for school, I set office hours for the CABJ, but in general I try really hard not to burn myself out with the feeling that I've got to get this done, I've got to get that done, I've got to get this done. If it doesn't get done, it doesn't get done! Tomorrow's a new day and sometimes things just don't get done. I accept that – I accept that there's only so many hours in the day, and I accept that I have to eat and sleep 

JOSH: My question is how is the current Covid situation affecting your work?

NADIA:  I'm like everybody else, I'm trying to figure out my own comfort levels around where I go and what I do, but in terms of my work, my editing really hasn't changed much. I can edit anywhere, and I'm choosing to edit mostly at home because I think that's the safest and most sensible thing to do.

In terms of interviews, it's been a bit tricky because sometimes the person you're interviewing is kind of far away over there, and you are stuck in the middle, and the camera guy is way in the back – so it's been a bit awkward for sure.  I used to do a lot of streeters - man on the street interviews - and I just don't feel comfortable doing those right now. Other reporters don't seem to mind though, and what I have come to understand is that all of us have different levels of comfort around doing the job.

I find that I have to be a lot more patient and show other people the kind of compassion that I like to be shown myself. We are all going through the same experience, we're all having to shift things up while our worlds have been turned upside down.

Definitely I am not hounding people the way I used to when I get close to my deadline! That's been the biggest change - recognizing that other people outside of our organization are facing similar challenges. Lots of Grace, lots and lots of grace!

ANTHONIA: Hi! Did you always want to be in media? Or did it change somewhere along the way. 

NADIA: I kind of went back and forth between wanting to be in media and wanting to be in law. I used to do competitive speaking I used to love that - I used to love giving speeches and being in debates, but I just found law to be boring! And so really since high school I knew that journalism was going to be my path 

ANTHONIA: That’s really young! Were your parents supportive?

NADIA: I was very fortunate to have supportive parents. I know that's not always the case with immigrant parents - my parents are from Jamaica and like a lot of parents they wanted me to be doctor or a lawyer or accountant, that's it! Pay the bills! But I was really surprised at how supportive my parents were right from the right from the jump. They were always really supportive about what I needed to do, where I had to go to school, where I had to move to.

AIDA: Hi Nadia! My question is about your Masters. What went into that decision?

NADIA: I knew I didn't want to do a Master's of Journalism. One of my mentors told me that I’ve already done so much work in this field, and to go and explore something else. And she was so right. I knew that I wanted to do something that was focussed on giving back. I didn't want this just so I could have another degree or make more money or have another title: I wanted to find a way to give back.

I want to be involved in the non-profit world and to be involved in leadership and this degree turned up at a perfect time. To be able to study non-profit leadership while I am actually leading a non-profit been just perfect - it has been kind of like a dream experience for me. This degree has really been about trying something different and giving back.

EVERYONE:  Thanks so much Nadia!