J-Topics

John Paton: Exclusive interview and digital first advice for young journalists

Feb 22, 2012 - Posted by Belinda Alzner

Belinda Alzner sat down with Digital First Media CEO John Paton for an exclusive interview where the front-man of the second-largest newspaper company in the United States talked about his digital first, print last strategy and how he doesn't see Canadian newspapers investing in their digital products. Rhiannon Russell also reports on Paton’s advice for young journalists.

Wearing Our CPUs On Our Sleeves

Jan 03, 2012 - Posted by Robert Washburn

Journalist Wayne MacPhail looks into his crystal ball at dramatic changes to our phones, computers and the Internet. The ensuing innovations will be the next wave of communications devices journalists can expect to see as platforms for delivering news. MacPhail asks: "How do you tell a story to a wristwatch?"

#Twitterfight or: How journalists manage their online presence

Dec 21, 2011 - Posted by Belinda Alzner

Childish sniping, iffy ethics and the sheer lunacy of public feuds expose the human side of journalists. Is that wrong? Raeanne Quinton looked into the emerging trend of newsrooms issuing social media guidelines to reporters for the Ryerson Review of Journalism and recounts some infamous Twitter-battles between Toronto’s Jonathan Goldsbie and Sue Ann Levy.

Content-farming, and what it means for journalism.

Jun 27, 2011 - Posted by Claude Adams

"The content farms have taken journalism hackwork to a whole new level." A highly critical look at factory journalism: online companies like Associated Media and Demand Media that generate enormous quantities of content masquerading as news. Writer Virigina Heffernan of the New York Times also reports on what Google is doing to counteract this phenomenon.

Toronto's ScribbleLive launches new version

Oct 07, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

Journalism-friendly content management system ScribbleLive, a Toronto start-up, hopes to change the way news articles are written.

Data-driven journalism: a beginner's guide

Oct 07, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

The European Journalism Centre's data-driven journalism round table in Amsterdam came up with a 78-page crash course on the rising industry...

Marissa Nelson on Googlebots, Twitter and CoverItLive

Oct 06, 2010 - Posted by Alexandra Bosanac

More dispatches from Wordstock 2010: What Marissa Nelson, managing editor CBC.ca and hot commodity, taught me about Googlebots and social media.

Magazine writers slow to take up multimedia

Jul 06, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

As the digital age continues to creep into every aspect of journalism, Susan Currie Sivek asks: why aren't magazines tapping freelancers for multimedia?

Ethics 2.0 - dos and don'ts of social media

Jun 08, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

Do you fact-check all your retweets? Do you publish rumours, or gossip? Is it OK to have an opinion in your personal blog? These were just a few of the ethical questions raised during a CAJ workshop titled “Ethics 2.0: The dos and don’ts of social media." The discussion, led by journalism professor and J-Source Ethics editor Ivor Shapiro and Vancouver Sun managing editor Kirk LaPointe, looked at the problems -- and potential opportunities -- that arise when journalists use social media to communicate.

Magnet workshop: SEO writing

Jun 08, 2010 - Posted by Dana Lacey

Ray Litvak is the founder of Writing Web Words, a company that helps local businesses raise their online profile using SEO. He led an SEO writing workshop at Magnet, an annual magazines conference, where he offered up tips for conquering Google's search results page...