This is a joint byline for the Ryerson Review of Journalism. All content is produced by students in their final year of the graduate or undergraduate program at the Ryerson School of Journalism. Great Scott, Killer Kates and Other Stars in Their Courses
Measuring the power of restaurant reviews
The neon proclaims it The Rosedale Oyster; the public apparently couldn’t care less. On a cold Thursday evening in mid-January, four patrons linger at the bright stand-up bar, but in the darkened dining room for 85, only six brave souls have chosen to ignore The Globe and Mail’s warning. Killer Kates has struck again-or so […]
Newshounds from Outer Space
Why the wire services are the black holes of science reporting
What the deuce is it to me? [Holmes] … interrupted impatiently: you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work. -Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study In Scarlet Being a teenager in suburban Toronto in the […]
Origins of Oppression
With slight understanding of Afrikaner history, the media skim the surface of a complex story
Marq de Villiers has been the editor of Toronto Life since 1981. Born in South Africa, he was educated at the University of Cape Town and the London School of Economics, where he received a diploma in International Relations. He has worked for Reuters in England and Spain, as a feature writer for The Cape […]
This Mag at 20
Bringing new life to an old dissenter
Twenty Years and Still no Respect” ran the headline on the editorial in last October’s This Magazine. True, the Toronto-based publication was celebratingits20thanniversary.But This Magazine gets a fair measure of respect. Since its genesis in 1966 as This Magazine Is About Schools, when it was a champion of the free-school movement, This Mag has become […]
The Apprenticeship of Daniel Richler
From the loose cloth of rock commentary to the tight fit of The Journal with undiminished passion
Daniel Richler, confused, peered into the box holding his going-away present: Were the beige corduroy jacket with dark brown elbow patches, the hand-woven tie and the matching brown Wallabees a joke or not? The CITY-TV staff around him at McVeigh’s New Windsor Tavern were cracking up. The gift, of course, was his new CBC uniform. […]
The Chinese Have an Image For it
Our attention is first commanded by a sound vaguely resembling a gong. A flash of deep blue follows, and a graphic movement unfolds. It’s 7 p.m. and time for Peoples China to sit down to watch the news. There’s no glamor here, no middle-aged beauties like Jan Tennant, no sexually provocative types like the late […]
The Public Right Not to Know
In the vast majority of cases, court coverage presents few problems for reporters. Once a trial or hearing commences, virtually anything said by the judge, lawyers, and witnesses on the stand can be reported verbatim, without fear of retribution. Like Parliament and the legislatures, what is heard is “privileged,” which means the laws of libel […]
Fact Do Not Speak for Themselves
Looking over the pallid prose that poses as print journalism in this country, it seems to me that most news and feature stories that get published contain a good deal less than meets the eye. We must do better. It is simply no longer enough to arrange facts into logical sequences, or to report events […]
Strolling to the Rescue
The journalists at Metroland's 17 papers believed that their future lay with unionization. What they didn't figure, however, was just how long it would take for the future to arrive.
The management team begins to file in at 9: 15 on this warm October morning. By 9:30 a.m. half the room is full. The only two women in the crowd almost disappear into the sea of more than 30 men who sit anxiously in their grey and navy suits. They are the editors and publishers […]
Getting it Wrong
Was the CRTC dictating news content? The editorialists thought so...
The Globe and Mail‘s editorial ran under a grave headline: “The State as editor.” The writer insisted the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission had no business imposing a 45-percent Canadian content quota on the news broadcasts of two Windsor radio stations, citing freedom of the media as guaranteed in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. […]
