12 Days of the RRJ: Day 4 – Citytv
When Citytv first took to the airwaves in 1972, it was clear it was television with a difference. But now, the Toronto station has lost its unique flair and seems tired and mundane. Everyone has his or her favourite villain for Citytv's decline, but it could use a new hero who’ll do something as visionary as its co-creator Moses Znaimer did almost 40 years ago.
Look for Aubin’s account of Citytv’s demise in the Winter 2011 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, which launches on December 14 at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto. Images courtesy of: Diego_3336, BAMCAT, Richard_Miles, gjones, stevenharris, tracer.ca, StarbuckGuy, wyliepoon, xtinabot, Sweet One, David Topping, betsyweber, slava, neck.face, axelsrose.
12 Days of the RRJ: Day 3 – Twitter on the Hill
As more and more Canadians consume their news on a growing variety of platforms and devices, handheld reporting is changing how Parliamentary news is produced, consumed and digested. As Twitter takes the Hill, here is Ashley Csanady’s list of the top ten political reporters you should be following.
Bonus Round: Can you match the political pundit to his or her tweet? Look below for the answers. Kings and Queens of the Hill • David Akin, Sun Media parliamentary bureau chief (@davidakin) Tireless and knows what’s up in Ottawa. Always one of the first members of the gallery to jump on new technology. • Rosemary […]
12 Days of the RRJ: Day 2 – Swerve
Swerve magazine isn’t your typical newspaper supplement. A staple in Friday’s Calgary Herald, the award-winning insert, with its quirky style and long-form journalism, is more than just an events guide. Swerve’s editor, Shelley Youngblut, wants to start a conversation about Calgary. The magazine’s editorial and financial success mean it could serve as a model for other cities.
Meet Youngblut and Swerve in Kostiner’s feature for the Winter 2011 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, launching on December 14 at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto.
12 Days of the RRJ: Day 1 – Matt Galloway
After waking up Torontonians for 15 years, Andy Barrie stepped down as host of CBC Radio One’s Metro Morning. He left the program at high ratings and passed the mic to Matt Galloway. Will the new show hold up to expectations? Kristina Gutauskas takes to the streets to find out what listeners think about the show—then and now.
Look for Gutauskas’s profile of Galloway and the new Metro Morning in the Winter 2011 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, launching on December 14 at the Cadillac Lounge in Toronto.
Why Didn’t I Know this Africa?
What Canadian newspapers too often don’t show you
In the 1970s, there was Idi Amin. The vicious dictator made big news in the West with his brutal murders, rapes and torture of Ugandan citizens. Amin was ousted in 1979 and a few years of further instability ensued. In 1986, the current president, Yoweri Museveni, took over. The Globe and Mail praised him for […]
Drawn but not Quartered
The crisis in art criticism
“Here we have the usual Roy Arden stuff—garbage, rubbish, scraps—very boring, of course,” Brussels-based curator Dieter Roelstraete harrumphs in front of Canadian art star Roy Arden’s black-and-white photographs. Arden’s body of work is part of a group showing in Antwerp, Belgium, called Intertidal: Vancouver Art & Artists, that Roelstraete has co-curated. Wait—the curator just called […]
Risky Business
To prosper during the Great Recession, Canadian Business got a major makeover. New editor Steve Maich thinks he has the winning formula, but do the numbers support his optimism?
Canadian Business editor-in-chief Steve Maich sits at a two-seater table at a Timothy’s coffee shop in late October 2009, a short walk from Rogers command central, the hulking mass at the north end of downtown Toronto. He strikes what I can only assume is his signature pose, the same one he has in the portrait […]
Beyond Repair
CBC hoped its news renewal would revitalize the sputtering network, but how much can you do with the same broken engine under the hood?
In the din of the newsroom, an orchestra of hammers struck the first note. Old sets were hastily torn down and replaced by transparent desks, luminescent backdrops and television screens. As the sound of buzz saws and workboots grew louder, so did the pressure to meet the on-air deadline. Newscasters rehearsed their standups on unfinished […]
Much ado about Precious Little
The digital age was supposed to usher in an exciting new era of “citizen journalism.” The result so far: some very useful news tips, great on-the-spot images of breaking events and an avalanche of lovely weather shots
At the end of the 20th century, a promising new phenomenon appeared—amateur reporters and commentators who came to be known as “citizen journalists.” They presented their writing on the internet, called web diaries, weblogs or simply blogs. The people maintaining these sites were writers unhindered by conventional journalism practices who wanted to tell stories from […]
Lost
Mir Mahdavi fled a death sentence. His so-called crime: battling corruption in an Afghan paper. Now he’s safe in Canada, shut out from his profession—and he’s not alone
By 8 a.m. most days, Mir Mahdavi is walking his customary 15-minute route from his home in western Kabul, greeting the same friendly faces and stopping in the same grocery store for cigarettes before arriving at the three-storey apartment building that houses Aftab (“The Sun”), the weekly newspaper of which he is founder and editor-in-chief. […]
