Field Notes
Travelling to West Africa to work as a digital journalist, Global News online editor Ashley Terry expected there would be differences in how reporters get and tell stories. But what she didn't expect was to face some of the same challenges that online journalists see here in Canada.
The relationship between media and First Nations peoples in Canada has not always been a positive one. And in many ways, two UBC students say they felt they were paying for the mistakes made by reporters who came before came. They reported on the secretive tradition of spirit dancing in B.C. and their final report aired on CBC The Early Edition in Vancouver. Rachel Bergen and Stephanie Kelly report.
David Common was CBC's lead reporter on the ground in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing, and during an unprecedented search for the two suspects. Here in J-Source, he shares his experience following this breaking story that gripped the world.
Journalists tell stories every day, but what happens when a journalist becomes the story? Here in J-source, Global Toronto's Mark McAllister describes the events leading up to his much publicized on-air seizure; how he dealt with the media scrutiny that followed; and why a medical condition doesn't stop a reporter from being a reporter.
CBC explains how it got the tax haven series, which all began when almost a year ago when Frederic Zalac, a reporter for the Radio-Canada program Enquete and our Special Investigations Unit, was approached by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
What's more important: exclusivity or a great story? A new model of cooperative journalism being developed at the Toronto Star is helping to break news, and the traditional practice of keeping information from competitors. Here in J-source, Star investigative reporter Robert Cribb explains how sharing resources led to better journalism in a series on underage Cuban sex workers.
J-Source goes behind the story of the National Newspaper Award-nominated story “Cashing In: Inside PEI’s Controversial Immigrant Partner Programs.” Laura Armstrong, a graduate of University of King’s College journalism program and deputy editor for “Cashing In,” explains how their student investigative workshop exposed the inner workings of the province's immigration program.
Renee Wilson was surprised to hear someone describe journalists as "shitbags" at a recent conference, and grew concerned when that statement was backed up with plenty of examples of subpar shock journalism being passed off as news. Here in J-Source, she explores a solution for sensationalism: "genuine conversation."
You may think chronicling the lives of the dead is either the first or the last job you could have on a newspaper. But after years of writing obituaries for The Globe and Mail, Sandra Martin argues that it taught her there’s “no such thing as an uninteresting or insignificant life.” Martin reflects on how she applied her journalistic approach, pushing for context, insight into strangers’ lives, in her new book, Working the Dead Beat.
Do your biases affect your journalism? Field Notes Editor Nicole Blanchett Neheli talks with American J-prof Sue Ellen Christian, and reporters from across Canada, about strategies to ensure every story is as balanced as possible, and how reflection and ethics are the keys to objective reporting.
Field Notes
edited by NICOLE BLANCHETT NEHELI
We get the stories behind the stories from journalists in the field. Nicole Blanchett Neheli is the Co-ordinator of the Journalism Broadcast Program at the Sheridan Institute of Technology. She formerly worked as a news producer and writer at Citytv in Toronto, and is currently researching participatory journalism: Redefining Journalism
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