Crimes of Fashion
Why reporting on what we wear has little style and no substance
When Nancy Jane Hastings was asked at her admissions interview for Carleton University’s graduate journalism program in 1981 what kind of writing she was interested in, she said fashion. The interviewer laughed. Nevertheless, Hastings was not only accepted into the program, but was the first one in her class to get a job-at Toronto Life […]
Hard Labour
Jim Campbell's solitary crusade to create a free press behind bars
Known to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction as #170-590, Little Rock Reed is a convicted armed robber and a journalist with 10 years’ experience. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell which trade is more dangerous. In May 1992, Reed was released on parole after serving 10 years at the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility. […]
Crewless
Cheaper, faster and better: Working solo, video journalists are infiltrating TV news. Everywhere
It’s hockey night in Windsor and the hometown’s Spitfires are hosting the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in a Monday night battle at Windsor Arena. Nine rows above ice level, Scott Scantlebury is looking through the viewfinder of his Canon Hi-8 video camera. He could be the proud father of a player filming a home movie […]
Academic Question
When not on the lookout for that fresh angle on a stale story, journalism students are bracing themselves for insults from people who are earning a living in the profession we’re hoping to break into. We don’t have to look very hard. Dodging reporters who want to know how our impressionable young psyches have been […]
Rex Appeal
How many Newfies does it take to host a national call-in show, inflame the nation with small-screen soliloquies, produce incisive documentaries and still read six hours a day? Just one
Among the posters that adorn the walls at CBC radio’s Morningside studio in Toronto hands one that depicts dozens of colourful pairs of woollen mittens. They’ve formally displayed on an old wooden rod, but there’s something distinctively homemade about the way they hang. The muted shades of red, blue and grey blend together as the […]
Right to Know
Damned by all for their handling of the Homolka publication ban, are the media in fact on the side of the angels?
They have been accused of reprehensible behaviour, of using a self-serving principle to profit from tragedy. They have been blasted for lacking the courage of their convictions, for inadequately defending freedom of the press. In protesting the most notorious publication ban in Canadian history, have the media gone too far or not far enough? Although […]
Great Spirit of Enterprise
Government funding cuts nearly buried them, but native publications are rising from the debt
When William Nicholls decided to launch a magazine in 1993, he knew he was in for a challenge. With little capital and no prospects of government funding, the Mistissini Cree had to borrow computers, clean offices to cover the rent on his own, and go eight months without a salary. But his perseverance paid off. […]
Fool’s Paradise
Why is The Globe and Mail selling us the wrong environmental story?
If October 25, 1994 was a black day for the Russian environment, it was darker still for Canadian environmental journalism. Although a major oil pipeline had ruptured 24 hours earlier in the Russian Arctic, with unofficial estimates suggesting the spill was at least twice the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska, our national […]
Missing the Big Picture
How Prime Time Magazine's documentaries have lost the wider vision of The Journal
I’m Pamela Wallin. Tonight on our magazine, theRyerson Review of Journalism will look at how documentaries have changed at the CBC evening news show, and why Canada should care. With the killing off of The Journal, the esteemed current affairs program, we’re going to examine how its replacement, Prime Time Magazine, is living up to […]
The Fastest Gums in the West
The east writes him off as a raving redneck. But when Rafe Mair shoots from the hip, British Columbia listens
Apart from the bending red bars of the digital clock on the wall, the studio is cold and still. It’s 8:30 a.m. and counting, and the seat for the morning show host is uncomfortably empty. The only promises of anyone’s arrival are an unopened can of Diet Coke under the CKNW microphone and flasks of […]
