Category / Read / Research

What newsrooms are doing – and not doing – to deal with the mental health of their reporters

By Trevor Hewitt Weaving through busy streets on his gas scooter, Cliff Lonsdale thought about what was about to happen – after all, it’s not every day you’re sent to interview someone whose daughter has just been killed. As he reached his destination, Lonsdale knocked on the door. A woman answered. “Yes?” she asked, in…
Duncan McCue works with Ryerson J-School on curriculum for covering Indigenous issues

By Jasmine Bala for the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre Reporters working in Canadian newsrooms should receive diversity training just like police officers and health workers do says Duncan McCue, the newly appointed Rogers Visiting Journalist at the Ryerson School of Journalism (RSJ). McCue said the training is necessary because journalists who don’t understand Indigenous cultures can cause…
Patti Sonntag spearheads Canadian collaborative investigative journalism project

This story was funded by the J-Source Patreon campaign. By Jane Gerster The first time Patti Sonntag tried to pitch a hands-on investigative class about resource extraction companies to Canadian journalism schools she was met with enthusiastic but noncommittal interest. It was 2014 and while schools were interested in the topic, Sonntag said, the project was…
Film exposes role of Ugandan newspapers in persecution of LGBTQ community

Queer Ugandan filmmaker lives in fear for his life, but is determined to keep telling stories from one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the LGBT community.
Canada’s access to information regime is systemically broken, says panel

Accessing public information in Canada frequently entails multiple-year delays, seemingly arbitrary and generous redactions, and time-consuming appeals processes.
Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is part of a journalist’s job, say panelists

Feeling uncomfortable while reporting on some communities and situations is part of being a good journalist.
Positive mental health stories more often shared online than negative stories, study finds

The study by Gavin Adamson examined the content of articles dealing with mental health and how they were shared across digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
Reporters need to dig deeper into crime maps to tell the whole story

New research finds that crime maps released by Canadian police forces only paints a partial picture of what is happening.
Freelancers helped invent digital communications tools to build online networks

By Errol Salamon, Work and Labour Editor Before the Internet and World Wide Web became fully commercialized in the mid-1990s, freelance writers and photographers began using computer networks as organizing tools as early as 1992. Even before rights-grabbing contractsbecame the strong concern they are today for freelancers in Europe and North America, and before freelancers launched social…
Kamal Al-Solaylee’s new book explores the complexities of having brown skin

By Allison Ridgway for the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre When Kamal Al-Solaylee saw a group of Filipina maids enjoying a picnic in a Hong Kong park during their time off work one Sunday afternoon in 2011, the concept for his next book began to form. That idea solidified when, back home and riding the subway…