Full Immersion
From Syria to street protests, virtual reality technology lets us experience stories as if we were really there, but not without ethical concerns
The streets of downtown Montreal are cluttered with protestors chanting, “Fuck the police!” Traces of the sun filter out from behind department store buildings as anti-capitalists rally for International Workers’ Day. Spectators capture footage of police spraying a thick cloud of tear gas into the crowd, which sends people running. Marie-Espérance Cerda interviews protestors and […]
Bad ATItudes
Last year's email deletion scandal in B.C. reveals a government culture of secrecy that threatens to cripple Canada's free information laws
On November 20, 2014, Tim Duncan received an access to information (ATI) request. As executive assistant to the minister of transportation and infrastructure, he was asked for all records relating to the Highway of Tears, a 724-kilometre stretch of B.C.’s Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert where, by some estimates, over 40 aboriginal […]
Esteemed veteran or accused killer?
Journalists should tell the victim's story
A husband and wife who lived in downtown Toronto both died on December 20, but a CBC article told only one of their stories. A significant chunk of the article described the husband, Robert Giblin: Giblin had served with the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, Department of National Defence officials have confirmed. In a statement, the DND said Giblin […]
No Comment
Digital publications are silencing their readers, but is that a move that benefits many or a tactic to control public image?
Russell Wangersky peeled away the cling wrap encasing the chicken, thinking of it sizzling on a barbecue. When he turned the bird over, he saw “a great honking fistful of still attached skin and fat” tucked in where the ribs should have been. Over six months, he investigated the meat-to-fat ratio of Newfoundland Farm Products […]
The rise of the reader
In the ecosystem of the web, readers and journalists are now co-dependent species—a relationship we're still trying to grapple with
The former hierarchies of the journalism industry have crumbled by the weight of the digital realm, to be replaced by blurry parallel relations between journalists and readers. The result is evident in the record 10,600 readers who participated in the Toronto Star‘s annual “You be the editor” survey. Administered by the Star’s public editor, Kathy English, the “highly unscientific, […]
#RRJPredicts journalism in 2016
Will print die? Will journalists still have jobs? Will magazines go digital? We share where we think journalism might be heading.
Review multimedia editors Eternity Martis and Allison Baker are spreading the holiday cheer with our predictions for the next year of journalism. In case you missed some of our more realistic (ahem, wishful) predictions in the video, here’s what we said:
Offleash Podcast: Numeracy
Offleash is the Ryerson Review of Journalism‘s first-ever regular podcast, published on RRJ.ca every second Wednesday at 3:33 p.m. In this week’s episode, Allison, our multimedia editor, and Viviane, senior editor, team up to cover a controversial topic: math…and journalism. The Review’s instructor Tim Falconer makes a guest appearance to talk about his 2014 blog post […]
Zoom away
In the name of news, journalism continues to toe the fine line between reporting and intruding
The sound of clicking cameras was the underlying soundtrack for all the heartwarming, tear-jerking, smile-inducing videos of Syrian refugees arriving in Canada this past weekend. While the camera lens remained focused for the most part on Justin Trudeau’s friendly greetings and coat-giving proceedings, the row of broadcasting equipment looming over the newly arrived Syrian-Canadians in […]
The changing anatomy of a magazine
Is it time for magazines to restructure the front of book?
By Blair Mlotek and Viviane Fairbank The front of book (FOB) consists of the first few pages of a magazine, with smaller pieces and graphics meant to ease a reader in before the long features. FOBs may have been relevant once, but today, when shorter articles and listicles are the majority of content found online, they don’t add […]
Levelling the Playing Field
Women are vastly under-represented in sports journalism, but some female leaders are tackling the skewed gender balance and ingrained sexism
At age 12, Julie Scott was the only girl in a boys’ hockey team. There were no girls’ teams when she was growing up in the 1980s in Guelph, Ontario, but she was determined to play hockey just like her big brother. Buried under padding and sometimes using her brother’s old equipment, she proved she […]
