Resources for j-students at the CAJ Conference
Attention all j-students and recent grads: The upcoming Canadian Association of Journalists Conference has some sessions that may be of interest to you. There are tips for job seekers, networking sessions, and career panels with network executives, along with sessions that will help you develop skills you need to break into the industry.
Attention all j-students and recent grads: The upcoming Canadian Association of Journalists Conference has some sessions that may be of interest to you. There are tips for job seekers, networking sessions, and career panels with network executives, along with sessions that will help you develop skills you need to break into the industry.
If you’re heading to the conference at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto the last weekend in April, you might want to check out some of the following sessions. (All blurbs taken directly from the CAJ website. To view the full program, go here.)
FRIDAY
9:30-10:15 a.m. Hiring tips for job seekers: inside tips from Canada’s top newsroom managers
Join David Walmsley, managing editor, the Globe and Mail, Peter Cooney, hiring manager for the Star, Angela Pacienza, online news director for The Canadian Press, Jonathan Whitten, executive director at CBC and Christina Reynolds, managing editor of Elle Canada, for a practical session full of good information for those looking for a newsroom job. Moderated by Jules Elder of Centennial College. This panel will be followed by a career fair sponsored by the Ontario Community Newspapers Association.
2:00-3:15 p.m. Twitter tricks and tips for journalists
A tutorial for advanced Twitter users featuring tips and tricks from leading newsroom social media experts. In this “show & tell” session, journalists can learn Twitter tools to search more effectively, find better sources more quickly and reach their audience more effectively. Please bring your laptop, tablet and/or smartphone and join Sarah Millar of OpenFile.ca, QMI Agency’s William Wolfe-Wylie and Ron Nurwisah, Huffington Post Canada, with moderator Lauren O’Neil from CBCnews.ca and host Shauna Rempel, #CAJ2012 co-chair.
3:30-4:45 p.m. CAR/data journalism teaser session
Join CBC’s David McKie, the Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor and King’s College’s Fred Vallance-Jones for this session on using data journalism techniques to research and tell 10 stories that you can take back to your newsroom. This session is meant to wet your palette for the offsite workshop that’s taking place all day Saturday and Sunday at Ryerson University. See the entries for those sessions in the Saturday and Sunday program.
SATURDAY
10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. A writers’ magic: The mechanic behind the muse
Writing can seem mysterious — more magic than craft. And great writers — or, more accurately, great writing — can make it seem easy, while the rest of us slog and struggle. But just as a beautiful cathedral is built of homely bricks, mortar, lead and glass, beautiful writing is built of words, sentences, paragraphs, scenes and chapters. We’ll break down the basic tenets that make writing work, and show how they can be built into written pieces that soar. This session will be a combination of best practices and trouble-shooting to identify writing techniques suited to purpose and platform. Led by Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair professor at the Missouri School of Journalism.
2:15-3:45 p.m. The art of the interview: Turning sources and subjects into storytellers
[node:ad]Many stories fail before a writer ever sits down at the keyboard. They suffer from the question not asked, the detail not gathered, the moment not noticed. Interviewing remains the most important part of journalistic storytelling. But interviewing itself is requires a range of skills that can be learned and strengthened over time, and applied to different reporting situations. We’ll identify the purpose of various interviews, and explore how the purpose shapes the approach. Then we’ll drill down on interviewing as a vibrant and strategic dynamic that elicits accountability, verifiable facts, dazzling quotes, relevant anecdotes and telling detail, and that turns subjects into storytellers. Led by Jacqui Banaszynski, Knight Chair professor at the Missouri School of Journalism.
3:45-5:15 p.m. Ethics panel: Current dilemmas journalists face in a digital world
Social media policies: How do organizations worldwide shape social media policies? We’ll examine social media as a source, and what ethics should prevail for live-blogging/tweeting. Vancouver riots: B.C. courts ordered Vancouver newsrooms submit all unpublished footage of the June 15 riot. How should newsrooms respond to these court orders? Is this debate changed by the fact that citizens posted photos online in an effort to identify suspects? Reporting when the cat’s out of the bag: How ethically did news organizations report on the Twitter account that chronicled Vic Toews’ messy divorce? Does hiding information people are discussing support or undermine our ethical standards? Discussion featuring Bert Bruser, counsel, Toronto Star, Lisa Taylor, Ryerson University, Stephen J.A. Ward, director, Center for Ethics, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and moderator Ted Fairhurst, law and ethics professor, Centennial College joint journalism program with the University of Toronto Scarborough.
3:45-5:15 p.m. Speed dating: Networking sessions in small groups with managers from some of Canada’s top newsrooms
A session idea borrowed from the FPJQ and the Ontario Association of Broadcasters, featuring: Scott White, editor in chief, The Canadian Press, Joanne MacDonald, vice president of news, manager of CP24 Toronto, Anne Lavrih, 680 News Toronto, National Post, Jennifer McGuire, Editor in Chief CBC News, Kim Elliott, Rabble’s Publisher, Tim Shore, blogTO’s Publisher, John Racovali, National Post’s City Editor, Lauren McKeon, This Magazine’s Editor, Lara Zarum, The Grid’s Production Editor, and Cristina Reynolds, Elle Canada’s Managing Editor. Bring your resumes, your ideas or just sit and chat for a few minutes!
SUNDAY
10:30-11:30 a.m. Keynote speaker: Thomas Mulcair
Thomas Mulcair, the Outremont MP elected leader of the Official Opposition and leader of Canada’s New Democrats last month, will speak to delegates during a keynote address. He has been asked to reflect on his first 30 days in office and agreed to a short question-and-answer period.
11:45 a.m.-2 p.m. Data mining: How to get real answers out of your toughest sources
This hands-on workshop will teach how to use powerful free tools such as ScraperWiki, Google Refine and BuzzData to scrape large data files off the web, mine them for meaningful trends quickly and publish your findings privately to your team or publicly to the world.
Coding web-scrapers from scratch will not be covered during the workshop, however, scripts will be provided to run and experiment with, as well as programming reference material and cheat sheets for those interested in learning to code.
Led by Momoko Price, journalist and communications director of Toronto startup BuzzData. Introduction by Shauna Rempel, #CAJ2012 co-chair.
