Six Questions With…CTV News’ Maurice Cacho

(Bell Media)

Getting his start in the business with Toronto’s CP24 as a web journalist, and co-host of WebNation (alongside Amber MacArthur), Maurice Cacho has been one of the pioneers in Canadian journalism marrying social media with real-time news.

Alongside his passion for all things tech, Maurice has taken his expertise over to CTV News, as a web producer, playing a big part in the redesign of the CTV News website.  He has been called upon regularly for his insight, as social media continues to become an important part of everyday life and moonlights as AppCentral’s roving reporter.

iPhoneinCanada got the opportunity to ask six questions to Cacho.

One app you can’t live without.

Instagram. I just love how it has a tight community of people who like to take photos – and if you use the app enough, users become good photographers. I used to think Instagram was just for lazy people, since it turned bad photos into interesting ones. But now, users are developing their skills and taking cleverly composed photos with neat lighting, and the filters just go the extra mile to make photos pop.

Most memorable ‘jailbreaking’ moment/story

I have a bricked HTC Android phone lying around somewhere…I think something must’ve been wrong with the motherboard from the start, because it ended quite quickly.

Your favourite tech gadget ever

The gaming rig I built back in Grade 10 was kickass. It had a Voodoo video card, which I overclocked. Anyways, that went toast. I have a need for speed and pushing the clock cycles pushed that computer through three different video cards. I also gave it a custom blue paint job in my parent’s backyard, and that was at a time before manufacturers came out with coloured cases. I had to sand down the beige paint and plastic, prime it, paint it, wax it. It was a real geek’s hot rod!

One Tip for Twitter Users

Don’t broadcast, engage. You’ll get a whole lot more out of it – and so will your followers.

Most memorable social media and news moment

It was in the midst of the G20 summit in Toronto – and violence was breaking out on the streets. From the CP24 newsroom (where I worked at the time) reporters were telling us about the chaos in the field. Right away, I started tweeting out their updates from our account and asked for UGC. It was a huge success – and set a precedent amongst Canadian media for using Twitter during breaking news situations.

One phone accessory you just can’t leave home without.

As simple as it sounds, my OtterBox case. I’m pretty active outdoors and it does a good job of cocooning my phone. At one point, I thought I should ditch the case so I could enjoy the iPhone’s beauty. Bad idea – I dropped the phone on the ground and the back got all shattered.