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    The Uber-ization of Journalism

    Media managers are wondering what went wrong. If the solutions are hard to discern, they have only to look at the technology they so eagerly embrace.

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    Globe Public Editor: A parliamentary committee to save the news? Good luck with that

      By Sylvia Stead, for the Globe and Mail This week in Ottawa, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage began to study how Canadians “are informed about local and regional experiences” by the media, whether broadcasting, digital or print. It’s a noble mission, fuelled by a concern over protecting Canadian content while local newspapers are…

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    Toronto Star public editor: Cartoonists and the freedom to offend

    By Kathy English, for the Toronto Star Just as opinion columnists have wide latitude to express views that some readers may find offensive, so too do editorial cartoonists have considerable freedom to offend. Freedom of expression can be a messy business and that important principle that as someone who believes passionately in freedom of expression,…

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    CBC Ombudsman: The wrong place at the wrong time: Reporting on crime

    By Esther Enkin, for the CBC The complainant, Suzanne Maloney, thought this was an inappropriate turn of phrase to use when referring to the stabbing of a woman on the streets of Montreal. She thought it implied that the victim was to blame. I disagreed, because both in common usage and in the context of…

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    Globe public editor: Ghomeshi coverage was warranted, necessary

    By Sylvia Stead for the Globe and Mail The Jian Ghomeshi trial on charges of sexual assault and choking has concluded and we won’t know the verdict until March 24 when Justice William B. Horkins rules in front of what no doubt will be a throng of journalists and others ready to tweet, report and…

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    Toronto Star public editor: When it’s more than a ‘typo’

    By Kathy English for the Toronto Star Sometimes a typo published in the Star is just that, a regrettable slip of the finger that makes little difference to readers’ understanding of the news at hand. Vigilant Star readers report dozens of typos every day, most of them minor slip-ups — usually resulting in garbled and…

  • From left to right, panelists Ivor Shapiro, Lee-Anne Goodman and James Turk. Photo courtesy Robert Liwanag.

    Journalists should not be neutral, says Centre for Free Expression director

    By Robert Liwanag Neutrality in journalism limits the civil liberties of reporters and should be abandoned, said the director of Ryerson University’s Centre for Free Expression during a recent panel discussion. Citing CNN’s two-week suspension of global affairs correspondent Elise Labott over a tweet last November, James Turk said neutrality fails to distinguish an institution’s…

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    Brunswick News ombudswoman: Permit me to parade my pet peeves

    By Patricia Graham, Brunswick News ombudswoman Now that the new year is well underway, I’ll share with you some of my personal journalistic vexations—things I hope not to see, or to see less of, in 2016. Errors in names, dates, phone numbers, venues, etc. I cringe every time I see a correction for the date…

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    Four lessons from losing a journalism job

    By Melanie Coulson It is two years to the day since I ‘lost’ my job in media. I don’t mark it, but it’s hard to forget. It was three days before Valentine’s Day, 2014. It hit me like a truck. It was completely unexpected. So unexpected in fact, the first thought as the envelope detailing…