The next time I have a lousy work day, or despair about the state of journalism in Canada, I’m going to re-read this piece about José Rubén Zamora, editor of El Periódico: “When the Killers Come Calling: A Guatemalan journalist and his family are terrorized by a gang of thugs.” I especially like this line:…
A longtime journalist recently sent an email to a bunch of colleagues with notice of a typewriter for sale. The journalist sent along assurance that the machine works perfectly and is in excellent condition. His colleagues responded with some detailed queries about this “device.” Any questions of your own for the seller?
“In a scene reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film The Birds, a giant seagull stole the show on the Channel Nine News in Melbourne,” reported Australian online news.com.au. “The massively magnified bird walked across a real-time projection of the Melbourne cityscape behind newsreader Peter Hitchener’s head while he was reading a story about a 27-year-old…
The Toronto Star spun Stephen Harper’s alleged admission — “I don’t like to watch Canadian news” — into an entire column including reaction and confirmation about whether the prime minister takes in Canadian media. The quote: “I watched the last several elections in the United States very closely. I tend to watch mainly American news…
The U.S. White House and Fox News are in a de facto war. Now journalists are talking about whether to deal with the Fox News team as colleagues, or with the whole organization as a political player bent on attacking real fair and balanced journalism …
A case now being heard in the Supreme Court of Canada will determine the fate of whistleblowers — and will have a major impact on press freedoms in Canada. Lawyers for media outlets and press organizations are in court arguing against an attempt by a Montreal ad firm to force Daniel Leblanc, a reporter with…
“Can vice save journalism?” asks Maureen Dowd. “We need life rafts,” she wrote in The New York Times. “Publications once buoyed by splashy ads evoking drinking and sex are now conjuring ways to use drinking and sex to subsidize the news.” Yay! Wine clubs and dating services. That’s our ticket to survival!
One of the most comprehensive reports on the future of modern journalism is now online, prior to Tuesday’s official release by the graduate school of journalism at Columbia University. “The Reconstruction of American Journalism,” written by Leonard Downie, Jr., former executive editor of The Washington Post, and Michael Schudson, a Journalism School professor, is very…
The New York Times posted a series of essays about reading electronic documents compared to paper. Some are of direct relevance to journalism — and our current crisis as it relates to technology . . .
Get a musician friend to compose music for free for your audio slideshow or online video: that was one suggestions from multi-media trainer Robb Montgomery of Visualeditors.com at a recent Wordstock seminar. But should creators really be asking other creators to work for free? Montgomery’s sessions were full of pointers on useful tools, devices and techniques frontline reporters and freelancers…