MAJ Archives

A journalist's profile, stories and careers in the field of journalism. Know a journalist who should be profiled here? Send an e-mail to Janet E. Bardon.

September 16, 1999
Dawn Chafe
Editor (In Chief), Atlantic Business Magazine
St. John's, NF
dchafe@abmag.nf.ca

As a young girl, it bothered me immensely when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. It seemed that everyone wanted to know what I was going to do with my life, before I had reached my tenth birthday. There was just something so irritating about the "I don't know" response. So there I was, mentally berating myself for wasting my youth on playing with dirt and beating up the siblings. Subsequently, I made up my mind during my pre-adolescent years that I wanted to be a journalist.

It wasn't a decision that sprang from Lois Lane-envy or a desire to emulate one of those model perfect television commentators. Mentally assessing my talents, I was convinced that the only thing I could do well was write and I decided that I was going to be a writer. But a writer doesn't always have a steady paycheque coming in and has to have a tremendous amount of self-discipline. Young as I was, I recognized the need for the former and my appalling lack of the latter.  Journalism offered the lure of potential travel to exotic places for investigative research, diverse days of frenetic activity and, so I mistakenly thought, fabulous salaries. So, journalism it was. I wasn't as smart as I thought I was though, when people asked what kind of journalism I planned to pursue, I coolly replied, "Media journalism".

From that initial recognition of what I wanted to do with my life, I decided early on that I had better begin training for my chosen profession. What does a reporter do in the course of a day? What skills do they need? They talk a lot and they ask questions and they write. Not being a particularly extroverted person, I forced myself to enter public speaking competitions. My initial efforts were somewhat pathetic, but my Grade 9 speech detailing my fear of public speaking marked the turning point where I began to feel more comfortable talking to large groups of people. I even volunteered for church readings, not that I'm particularly religious, but to hone my public speaking skills - sorry Father. Entering high school, I joined the school's debate team. Debating is an activity I would recommend to everyone, regardless of their career plans. Not only does it teach you to research ideas and articulate thoughts, it makes you think and ask questions. Why should I accept that person's argument? What about the other side of the story? From there I went on to write for the school newspaper, signed up for advanced language and literature classes in high school, and even submitted a proposal to the local paper for a youth column. Heck, I offered to write for free to get the experience.

That was in high school. When I arrived at university, I promptly volunteered for the campus radio station as a news announcer. I wanted to write for the student paper as well but as a full-time student with a part-time job, I just didn't have the time. After graduation from university with a Bachelor of Arts degree (English major, Political Science minor), I planned to continue on in a Master of Journalism program. I applied and was accepted, a surprise to me because the school only took 40 new students a year and I was but one of almost 500 applicants. While I passed that hurdle, I never attended graduate school. Student loans from my provincial government were insufficient for me to go to school, buy books, and pay for the most basic necessities in life. I might have managed on my own by eating kraft dinner for a couple of years, I couldn't ask my family to do that. So, I stayed home in Newfoundland and worked first at one radio station and then another. I found out that I didn't really like radio, I don't have the voice for it. I wanted to work for either a newspaper or a magazine but finding full-time work in the field was an impossible task. Working in sundry assorted contractual positions, I continued to ply my trade by working on a freelance basis for a local magazine. They liked my work so much that they asked me to join their organization as the Editor. I have been with them now for 7 months and am enjoying it immensely. My days are busy, filled with diverse activities, and I'm having fun. Not only am I writing on a daily basis, but I have so many other duties that there is no fear of getting bored. Oh, and in case you were thinking that I wasted all my time in public speaking, I didn't. In addition to being a full-time editor and mom, I'm also the Mayor of my home town.