Yusur Al Bahrani

Journalists Within Borders

Journalists Within Borders

By using social media to report on #ISIS from home, journalists risk reporting lies, spreading propaganda and missing the story

By using social media to report on #ISIS from home, journalists risk reporting lies, spreading propaganda and missing the story

 Yusur Al Bahrani

TEASER: Journalists Within Borders

TEASER: Journalists Within Borders

Here is a sneak peek at one story from our Spring 2015 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism magazine. Edited and filmed by Jennifer Joseph and Alanna Kelly

 Yusur Al Bahrani

What’s in the public interest? The Snowden Archive

What’s in the public interest? The Snowden Archive

The small cooperative work space for journalism students at Ryerson was crowded with professors, working journalists, community members and the few j-schoolers who could squeeze in. Suddenly, U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden appeared on a large screen—the moment we were waiting for. I was prepared to live blog the event, but being a journalist, a thought […]

 Yusur Al Bahrani

Whose brand is it anyway?

Whose brand is it anyway?

Unions still needed to protect journalists' integrity in the face of creeping advertorial

Last summer, The Globe and Mail wanted to introduce a drastic change: editorial staff writing and editing advertorial copy as part of their regular duties. If this branded content proposal became a mandate, journalists would serve advertisers rather than their readers. It might have happened at the Globe if the unionized staff did not take […]

 Yusur Al Bahrani

The other side

The other side

Videos depicting beheadings of journalists, aid workers and other foreigners are too common as we focus on the conflict in Iraq and Syria. The photos of the James Foley beheading that were captured from the video released by ISIS haunt me. They’re terrifying. In late November, news regarding an Israeli-Canadian who was reportedly captured by […]

 Yusur Al Bahrani

The best Canadian magazine cover in 2013 is….

The best Canadian magazine cover in 2013 is….

Congratulations to the good people at Spacing, whose 10th anniversary issue has been dubbed the best Canadian magazine cover of 2013 by our readers. Sarah Fortunato’s City Hall cake (with art direction and design by publisher Matthew Blackett) garnered 26 votes from our readers. We also tip our hat to the people at Maisonneuve, whose […]

 Luc Rinaldi

Freedom from information: the symptoms of a national transparency problem

Freedom from information: the symptoms of a national transparency problem

Last month, the Nova Scotia government gave its freedom-of-information (FOI) watchdog, Dulcie McCallum, two weeks’ notice. What it didn’t give her was a reason why. McCallum, who held the post for seven years, was shocked by the decision and said it showed disrespect for her office—not to mention everything it stands for. If the officer […]

 Ronan O'Beirne

The stories we miss without a real 30-year rule

While Canadian and American journalists often lament the annual slow news days in late December and early January—when legislatures have risen and everyone else is at home—reporters in the United Kingdom never want for stories at that time of year.   In the past month, British journalists have carried out the ritualistic writing of stories […]

 Ronan O'Beirne

Fetishizing the form’: on the importance of word counts

Fetishizing the form’: on the importance of word counts

Last week, The New Yorker published a 17,000-word piece on Barack Obama by editor David Remnick. I haven’t read the feature yet, so I don’t know much about it, but I know how long it is because: Gawker noted it in a story about quote approval. So did the Washington Post. So did The Wire […]

 Yusur Al Bahrani

Friday Funny: MSNBC, where the ‘B’ stands for ‘Bieber

Friday Funny: MSNBC, where the ‘B’ stands for ‘Bieber

From the department of “Things That Make People Complain About ‘The Media,’ Whatever That Means.”

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