Field Notes

For Oscar-winning documentary maker Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, making films is a way to promote social change. In this exclusive interview for J-Source, she tells Sneha Kulkarni it's not the awards that matter, but the lives you change.

Continue Reading Saving Face: Changing the world through storytelling

In the second part of a J-Source series on covering the Michael Rafferty trial, an inside look at using Twitter in the courtroom. James Armstrong from Global News is one of the many journalists tweeting testimony. So how do you keep journalistic checks, balances, and integrity in check–and decide in a matter of seconds what horrific details of an 8-year-old's alleged rape and murder to share with the public? It's just as challenging as it sounds.

Continue Reading As it happens: Tweeting from the Rafferty murder trial

While working as an assignment editor and producer at CBS News in New York, Natasha Rudnick found herself relying on Twitter more and more to cover remote and international breaking news. This phenomenon of social networking provided an invaluable tool in discovering information and contacting sources on some of the biggest stories of the last few years. She discusses the pros, cons, and caveats of using Twitter to reach the world from the newsroom.

Continue Reading Twitter: A journalist’s gateway to the world

Photojournalist Marc Ellison spent last summer working with female, former child soldiers in war-ravaged northern Uganda. Conscious of resentful attitudes to journalists, Ellison adopted a unique, 'anthropographic' approach in his examination of the issues these former combatants continue to face in their post-conflict lives: He helped them tell their own stories.
 

Continue Reading Capturing the aftermath of war: Helping child soldiers tell their own stories

Mary Thibeault’s estate has yet to be settled seven years after her death, and the blame lies with the executor of her will: Halifax mayor Peter Kelly. Rhiannon Russell reports on how Tim Bousquet investigated this story for Halifax alt-weekly The Coast and effectively ended the political career of the mayor of the largest city in Atlantic Canada.

Continue Reading How I got the story: Tim Bousquet on Halifax mayor Peter Kelly and Mary Thibeault

Would you let sub-zero temperatures, intimidating contestants, and packs of dogs keep you from covering a story? A rookie reporter from Ontario, Sam Riches, learns the 'code of the North' on the trail of one of the most famous dog sledding races in the world.

Continue Reading Deadlines, dog sleds, and diving temperatures: Covering the Quest

Field Notes Editor Nicole Blanchett Neheli finds out why the President of the University of Guelph said media weren't reporting on African famine because they deemed it a boring story, and speaks with CBC's Brian Stewart to get his take on how journalists are covering the devastating effects of famine in Somalia.

Continue Reading Is African famine too boring to cover?

You might think content is the most important factor when you're trying to sell a story, but it's the pitch that closes the deal. Freelance journalist Katie Ingram gets advice from three seasoned professionals on pitching for publication.

Continue Reading Want to sell your story? Practice the art of the pitch

Selena Ross set out to discover what was behind a number of pedestrians who had been killed by snowplows in Montreal. What she found was a snow removal industry that is entrenched in a culture of collusion, bid-rigging and violence. Rhiannon Russell spoke to Ross to find out how she got the story that has exposed the dirty money behind yet another Montreal industry.

Continue Reading How I got the story: Selena Ross on Montreal’s dirty snow removal contracts

James Morrison-Collalto, an ENG camera for CityNews in Toronto, describes what it's like working behind the lens to get the story, and his path from the classroom to the big city streets.

Continue Reading The view from behind the lens: Working ENG camera