About Us
Bright magazine grew out of a discussion about the need for more good news in the world – access to those stories that we know are out there, but are not getting the coverage, profile, and audiences they deserve due to a focus on “if it bleeds, it leads” journalism. The Media Studies students in VIU’s Making the News MEDI 302 class, were growing despondent about the state of the world in the fall of 2023.
The web was full of coverage of wars in the Ukraine, Gaza, and untold other nations around the world; environmental doomsday reports of rising temperatures, thinning ozone, fires, floods, and species extinction; political corruption under Trump, Putin, and at every level of government; slow progress on Truth and Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, Black Lives Matter, and anti-racism efforts around the globe; the reversal of Roe v Wade at the Supreme Court, laws against LGBTQ2S rights over their own bodies; and increasing fear that social media was decidedly anti-social.
In the wake of all this, students wanted to curate a difference balance of news coverage, change their diet of unhealthy and often fake or second-hand news so that more good news got into their systems. We talked about what that would look like, how the students in the class might be a part of sharing these stories, and what it might do to even the scales. From September to December 2023 the students with bylines here went across Vancouver Island BC to find the stories that mattered to them and they hoped would inspire, enlighten, and uplift our readers.
The result is this first offering of stories in a handful of categories we know will grow as subsequent classes come up behind them and share the words and images that bring a smile to their faces, make them think, fill them with a bit more hope to fight the good fight for the issues that matter to them. The interviews, resources, and individuals you’ll find here are one part of a larger solution that will remind us what we are fighting for and that we are not alone. We hope you take comfort and inspiration from what you read here and find your own way to part of that solution.
Bright magazine is run, between classes, by VIU Professor Joy Gugeler, who can be found in Rm 133 of Bldg 345 on VIU’s Nanaimo BC campus, 900 Fifth St, V9R 5S5 or at joy dot Gugeler at via dot ca.