Arianna Huffington brings the “Good News”
Death. Destruction. Despair. These are all things that could deter someone from opening up a daily newspaper. It’s news, but in a world where “if it bleeds it leads,” news can make the world seem downright depressing. The Huffington Post now has a solution. On January 12 it announced the creation of an entire section dedicated […]
Thoughts on freed press: Libyan media
I recently read a really interesting piece about media ethics in the January/February 2012 of The Atlantic. The article, “Freed Press,” is writer Graeme Wood’s personal account of teaching said ethics to a group of about 50 young (under 30) Libyan journalists. Wood writes that about 100 independent magazines and newspapers are published in the Libyan city of Benghazi, which is a […]
A picture is worth a thousand keystrokes
We’ve all done it; inserted a “smiley-face” at the end of a flirtatious text message or a “sad-face” emoticon after a friend has poured her heart out online because, let’s face it, you weren’t really paying attention and didn’t know what else to type back. Modern day emoticons that many of people use on a day-to-day […]
The Toronto Star bids its beloved “Newsboy” adieu
Jim Wilkes, or “Newsboy,” as he is called at the Toronto Star, said farewell to his colleagues on January 13 after more than 36 years as a photographer and reporter for the publication. To commemorate his long career, the Star said goodbye in both a print article and a blog post, which featured some of Wilkes’s most memorable works as […]
Halifax Media thinks you’re a sloppy dresser
t doesn’t look like it’s getting any easier to be a journalist. The Halifax Media Group, which bought a chain of small and medium-sized American newspapers from the New York Times Company for $143 million, has been getting national attention for a string of corporate decisions. The first was on January 9, when it was reported that the […]
The “Aha Moment” with Journalism
For some of us, journalism is a calling that we realized from the moment we could string words into sentences. For others, this moment of realization—the light bulb going on in our heads—was somewhat delayed. In a post that appeared in The Huffington Post’s High School section earlier this week, 17-year-old Jack Davis recalled the moment he first […]
Ladies’ Home Journal now written by the reader
Ladies’ Home Journal is taking open journalism one step further: to the magazine world. The publication announced on January 10 that its content will soon be written almost entirely by readers. Pros: • Majority of the staff still keep their jobs, now working as fact-checks and helping develop the readers’ stories. • Readers will be paid professional […]
Maired: My Rumble with Rafe
CORRECTION: The original blog post said that ten years ago, the Review asked Mair to write a guest column. In fact, this incident occurred in 2004 despite what Mair indicates in “Free Speech, Censorship, and Why Ryerson’s Journalism Program Can Go F#@k Itself.” The Ryerson Review of Journalism regrets the error. — “I understand only too well.” The words burned […]
American Delicacy The Onion Arrives In Canada
TORONTO—Foodies throughout the city are scrambling for their recipe books after a surprise delivery of an American delicacy landed on street corners in the early morning of September 28. The Onion, a distant, saltier relative of the herald, the bugle and the gazette, has never been cultivated in Canada. Although it is often unfairly associated […]
CAJ responds to Quebec’s proposal for “professional” titles for journalists
In response to a Government of Quebec report that suggested some journalists be given a professional title, The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) released a statement arguing that the proposal would infringe upon the freedom of the press. The proposed legislation is designed to help the public distinguish between amateurs and those “serving the public interest” and to fight […]
