MuchMore Sung

Hannah Sung (BA 2000 TRIN), pop culture reporter for MuchMusic, is recalling some of the unusual repartee she participated in as a student at U of T. As a member of the Literary Institute at Trinity College, Sung deliberated on such topics as “be it resolved that the chicken came before the egg.”

“I learned public speaking, how to think on my feet and how to keep things light,” says Sung, 25, who now works in the historic Citytv building in Toronto.

Sung’s confident manner appeals to her young adult and teen audience, and she acknowledges that interviewing skills come easily to her. She regularly reports for MuchNews and The NewMusic, and interviewing bands is one part of her job: chatting with the British pop group Coldplay and the Afrobeat band Antibalas have been two of her favourite assignments. Sung has also covered movements such as Reclaim the Streets (a street rally in Toronto last summer to protest the construction of highways through neighbourhoods and natural areas). And she enjoys going out on the street to question people on current issues, such as how they feel about war with Iraq.

Sung, who majored in English and minored in women’s studies and history, believes her courses taught her to see all sides of a story. “I did a story for MuchMusic on a girls’ skateboarding competition. It showed the girls falling off their boards, but getting right back on again because they are really tough,” she says. “When one viewer complained that the girls were being judged by men, I explained, ‘There were no women judges for this event because the women were all skating!’”