Darfur on Hold
The media's story selection process hasn't put the crisis in western Sudan in the background, yet the genocide continues. Maybe there's something wrong with the structure of news reporting...
Now Rwanda looms in the background. The mass murder of civilians that began three and a half years ago in Darfur, an area in western Sudan the size of France, has been described as “Rwanda in slow motion” and “the world’s worst humanitarian crisis” for the past two years. Compared to the Rwandan genocide, the […]
City News Goes to the Blogs
Large dailies see city bloggers as ground-level troops in the 24/7 news reporting cycle
The sun is still nestled well beneath the horizon in the early hours of June 29. Across Toronto, delivery trucks slip through the streets, stopping at clusters of newspaper boxes and filling them with still-warm stacks of the new day’s issue. Shawn Micallef, associate editor for Spacing magazine, walks eastward, towards downtown and home. He […]
It’s a Shame About Pay
Shameless, the much-lauded feminist magazine for older girls and younger women, has remained true to its anti-corporate principles over seven issues and two years. It's being kept alive with volunteers, fundraisers and more volunteers. But the question is, for how long?
In spite of the rain, the Word on the Street festival site in Toronto buzzes with local readers and writers looking for a good deal on magazine subscriptions, someone to publish their opuses or perhaps an autograph from a favourite CBC personality. On the eastern curve of the Queen’s Park roundabout, where the festival is […]
The Little Paper That Shrank
After the resignation of editor-in-chief Jim Jennings, Sun Media is set to rationalize editorial with its "Centres of Excellence," producing identical content for Sun papers in different cities
On the night of Tuesday, September 19, Toronto Sun city hall reporter Rob Granatstein heard something that upset him. Please say it isn’t so, wrote Granatstein in an email to Jim Jennings. Right now, I’m still your editor-in-chief, replied Jennings. Wait until 10 a.m. tomorrow morning. Then we’ll talk. At 10 a.m. the next morning […]
Pssst … Try the Back Door to Cyberspace
On the frontiers of human rights and technology, outspoken nerds fight to free the flow of information on the web
In the belly of the red sandstone Munk Centre at the University of Toronto, down two flights of stairs and hallways that twist and turn, computer hacking meets political activism at Citizen Lab. The hum of 20 computers reverberates against the clickety-clacking of fingers on keyboards as Nart Villeneuve, the lab’s director of technical research, […]
The Game of the Name
After the Dawson College shootings, four Toronto daily newspapers raced against deadline and each other to get one crucial fact. Here's how two of them got the scoop... and two didn't
It’s mid-morning. Tu Thanh Ha is at work writing a story about a Canadian astronaut’s spacewalk. He’s been up since 4 a.m. covering the event and expects to head home soon from The Globe and Mail‘s four-person bureau in Montreal. As Ha types, The Toronto Star‘s news editor Alan Christie arrives at 1 Yonge Street […]
Watching the Media Detectives
MONTREAL — The woman to my left probably wants me removed from the premises. Ten people have already tried to steal my seat and I’m not even grateful for the view. I’m drawing whales and giraffes in my notebook, pausing only to yawn and to check that no one’s swiped my bag. I gave up […]
For Those About to be Babes of the Month
The good people who brought you UMM are certain Bobbi will become the magazine for girls who want their games, their gadgets and, oh yes, their "tasty" guys
Number 29 bends so low the photographer’s camera lens is centred with the crack of cleavage between her breasts – and he’s crouching on the floor nearly six inches below the makeshift stage. The blonde then sucks in her small belly and, impossibly, she’s thinner. Slow and exact, her hands rove over the tight fabric […]
Reality is the New Black
Contestants flock to auditions for Fashion File Host Hunt, looking for a chance to become the new Tim Blanks. Meanwhile, fashion journalism veterans wonder if CBC's Factual Entertainment Division trivializes their reporting reality
Julie Montpetit is preparing for her close-up. The camera pans from her black platform pumps to the nut-coloured leather belt cinched high on her waist. She’s perfectly composed until you meet her eyes, which are tearing up with fright, pink and wet under the spotlights. It’s a Friday morning in downtown Montreal, and any other […]
Right or Wong?
When Jan Wong blamed Kimveer Gill's Dawson College rampage partly on Quebec's pure laine distinction, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Jean Charest fired off letters of protest to The Globe and Mail. Buried in the rubble of the battle was the reporter's right to call it as she saw it
On Wednesday, September 13, the calm of a rainy early afternoon at Montreal’s Dawson College was broken by gunfire. Kimveer Gill entered the campus carrying a semi-automatic Beretta and began shooting like a child at a midway game. He fired 60 shots, wounding 20 people and killing one before turning the gun on himself. Three […]
