The Division of Humanities and Social Sciences (DHSS) is hosting four different lectures and career talks for UIC students to attend during the month of March. The first lecture was arranged by the International Journalism (IJ) Programme and was held on 14 March. “Another White Sandy Beach: the Real-life experiences of Travel Blogger and Digital Nomad, Johnny Bliss” was the title and topic for the first lecture of this series and career talks.
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| “Another White Sandy Beach: the Real-life experiences of Travel Blogger and Digital Normad, Johnny Bliss” |
Johnny Bliss has been working for the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation's alternative, youth, and sub-culture radio station FM4 since 2007. His infotainment programme "Johnny's Journeys" has covered a wide range of topics, including environmental issues and the modern plight of tribal and animistic cultures. He has also covered major festivals and sporting events, including the World Cup in South Africa, the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and the Starmus Astrophysics Conference in Tenerife, Canary Islands.
His extensive travels have taken him both around Europe and around the world, including such far-flung destinations as India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cuba, Svalbard, South Africa, New Zealand, Timor, Borneo, and the Galapagos Islands. He has also interviewed luminaries such as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, actor Elijah Wood, musician Moby, Icelandic comedian and former mayor of Reykjavik Jón Gnarr, Icelandic first-lady Eliza Reid, Canadian sci-fi author Robert J Sawyer, Canadian poet Susan Musgrave, astronauts Rusty Schweickart, Claude Nicollier, Walt Cunningham, and Charlie Duke, and many more.
Johnny started the lecture by talking a little a bit about his background and how he lived in Vancouver (Canada) for 13 years, then San Francisco (USA) for 10 years and now has spent the last 10 years in Vienna (Austria). He then started talking about how he was involved in many smaller jobs to get by while trying to start his own record label, which ended up failing.
Then he explained he moves to Europe and felt happier and was lucky enough to land a job at an English speaking Austrian radio station, FM4. He explained to the students how he managed to get by on just a few hundred euros a month from the two radio programmes he hosted. Finally he found opportunities via the radio station to travel around Austria, which led to travelling around Europe, and then eventually led him to being able to travel the world. In the end, Johnny Bliss was covering stories at the Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010 as well as the World Cup 2010 that was held in South Africa.
Johnny provided tips that helped him save money and sustain his lifestyle such as couch surfing or using cheap dorms, journalist accreditations, and being flexible enough to seek out cheap flights. Later on during the lecture he explained the disadvantages he encountered such as visiting places that were not friendly towards journalists and the problems maintaining a relationship due to the constant travel.
He finished off his lecture by providing a quote from famous Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, “Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get”.
Johnny Bliss was then asked several questions by the audience such as “How does he choose topics to talk about on his radio station?” He responded by saying that “I talk about things that interest me, I don’t usually look to the news, but I look for the people and their stories, I talk about what I would like to talk about”.
Johnny was asked what he would like the students and staff that attended his lecture to take away with them, and he responded that “Experience is everything”.
Reporter: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
Photographer: Zhang Xinyi (IJ, Year 3)
Editor: Deen He (MPRO)
(with special thanks to the ELC)
