When CNN and Fox cable news reporters in the U.S. jumped on what they thought was a hot story, the ensuing panic became global news. When the “story” turned out to be a routine Coast Guard training exercise, the target became not just the trigger-happy cable news reporters, but journalism in general.
When former Colborne Chronicle editor Bob Owen was laid off during the amalgamation of three local newspapers in Southern Ontario, instead of rolling over, he created an online news site to serve his community of 2,000. Robert Washburn, editor of our new Innovation section, reports on Owen’s progress.
Iranian-Canadian journalist has been acquitted on minor charges of inciting political uprisings, according to Liberal MP Dan McTeague, but remains in an Iranian prison. The opposition MP says the Canadian government should do more to secure his release.
The controversy over marking the 250th anniversary of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham has crossed over into freedom of expression territory. Though there hasn’t been an actual attempt to prevent a reading of the manifesto of the Front de liberation du Quebec as part of the event, federalists are complaining that the reading…
U.S. media companies suffered a devastating decline in advertising revenue during the first six months of this year, according to a Nielsen report. Biggest losers included the newspaper and magazine sectors. Gainers included infomercials and smartphone ads.
Five Australian-based TV journalists vanished in October 1975, while trying to draw attention to a story much of the world was content to ignore – the brutal Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The disappearance of these young reporters, who came to be known as the Balibo Five, is the subject of a new film starring…
Esprit de Corps editor Scott Taylor is taken to task for irresponsible behaviour in a new review by J-Source contributor, Jeffrey Dvorkin. Taylor – a former soldier – writes about carrying weapons when he was embedded as a freelancer with a Canadian unit in the Balkans in 1988. He says he fired a pistol towards…
NewsA tribunal has struck down a controversial provision of Canada’s Human Rights Act that bans hate speech on the Internet. Section 13, already the target of an independent review into its broad scope and potential for abuse, violates the constitutional right to free speech, the vice-chair of the Canadian Human Rights Commission ruled Sept. 2.…
With the New York Times and Wall Street Journal looking at launching hyperlocal news sites in San Francisco, community reaction is mixed, according to Mission Loc@l, an existing neighbourhood news site. Mission Loc@l started in 2008 as a hyperlocal news site serving the Mission District. It is part of an initiative in hyperlocal coverage developed…
“Read a good newspaper … it will be your path to the world at large,” advises James MacGregor Burns, an American professor emeritus, in a New York Times back-to-college column. The cynic in me wonders if the good professor would have the same advice were he younger, with a youthful perspective on social online media…