Ronan O'Beirne was the Blog Editor for the Spring 2014 issue of Ryerson Review of Journalism. The RRJ Takes Home Some Hardware
As keen followers of our Twitter feed may have noticed, the Review added to its trophy case yesterday, taking home eight awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
As keen followers of our Twitter feed may have noticed, the Review added to its trophy case yesterday, taking home eight awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Miro Rodriguez’s story about how citizen video affects coverage of police shootings earned second place in the “Consumer Magzine Article: Feature” category. In […]
Thanks, Lynn
A long-suffering journalism instructor retires
By Ronan O’Beirne There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes at the Review, and nobody has seen or done more than Lynn Cunningham. A widely respected editor before joining the faculty at Ryerson (she received, among other accolades, the National Magazine Awards’ lifetime achievement award in 1999), Lynn has been a mentor to countless writers […]
Why aren’t political reporters asking the right questions about polls?
Even after British Columbia’s 2013 election debacle, journalists still miss the mark on public opinion surveys
By Ronan O’Beirne Welcome to the poll on polls. To begin, please press 1 “What is a poll?” David Akin asks in the makeup room at the Sun News Network studio in downtown Toronto. He doesn’t need to think about his answer. “It is a snapshot backward in time.” This photo of public opinion is a […]
The Quebecor empire, on which the son refuses to set
By Ronan O’Beirne Don’t panic. Image via Maclean’s. Or, okay, go ahead and panic. Whatever. In case you’ve been living under a rock or haven’t checked your Vidéotron email: Pierre Karl Péladeau (or PKP), who served as CEO of self-styled “communications giant” Quebecor from 1999-2013, and vice-chair thereafter, is running for the Parti Québécois in the […]
Spring 2014: Wrong Numbers
Ronan O'Beirne investigates the role and purpose of poll analysis in Canadian journalism. His story will be available in the Spring 2014 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.
By Ronan O’Beirne Ronan O’Beirne investigates the role and purpose of poll analysis in Canadian journalism. His story will be available in the Spring 2014 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism.
Why we should all just calm the heck down about breaking news on Reddit
By Ronan O’Beirne I spend an unhealthy amount of time on Reddit. It’s my go-to for funny stories that might be made up, graphs and discussion about hockey and pictures of train stations. (And the gifs. My God, the gifs.) I don’t go there for news, but sometimes I’ll see something on /r/worldnews that wouldn’t otherwise have crept into my regular browsing or […]
Crystal balls and strikes: swing and a miss for baseball’s pre-season predictions
After the hype died down, the Blue Jays didn’t win the World Series last year—but don’t expect that to stop fortune-telling reporters
“If something seems too good to be true, it probably is,” cautioned National Post baseball writer John Lott in November 2012, as fans whipped themselves into a frenzy over the Toronto Blue Jays. With everyone in baseball talking about the team—which had just completed a massive deal with the Miami Marlins for two starting pitchers […]
Benghazi and the case for an ombudsman
Image via USA Today. At the end of last night’s 60 Minutes, Lara Logan kind of apologized for an earlier report on the Benghazi attack that has been shot through like Swiss cheese. As Craig Silverman and Jay Rosen have pointed out, Logan’s 85-second segment did not sufficiently address the many problems with the original […]
Falling revenues and falling axes: layoffs at Rogers Media
For the bean counters in Canadian media, it just keeps getting worse. Rogers Media—a division which includes the corporation’s radio stations, TV channels, magazines and baseball team—announced yesterday that it has laid off 94 employees, or about two percent of its workforce. The announcement comes just six months after Rogers laid off 62 workers. Consumers […]
The Fords vs. the truth: an unfair fight
Never has an unfair fight gone on for so long. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, councillor Doug Ford, want you to believe that they are the victims; that they are trying to fight for “the little guy” in the face of fierce opposition from the left, the unions and—of course—the media. Doug Ford […]
