Shooting the Messenger
Worried about press freedoms in Canada? Try reporting the news in Zimbabwe
My excitement about giving a presentation on the state of Canadian media to a bunch of European journalism students cooled when I discovered I was to follow the reporter from Zimbabwe. All my criticisms of corporate concentration, CanWest Global Communications Inc., the public relations industry and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model of thought control in democratic societies […]
Celebrity Takeover
Advice columns from the rich and famous, memoirs from the stars who've been there—now celebrities are moonlighting as journalists. Meanwhile, editors have decided it's worth it to coddle their popular, but fledgling talent
“Sex does not a relationship make,” Jann Arden advises. “Dating is a tool used to weed out the wackos.” The question “So Confused” had asked Arden was whether she ought to stop looking around, now that she and her date had slept together. In the December 2005 issue of Elle Canada, the advice columnist finished […]
The Fruits of Victory
The federal government's charitable status grant finally came through and helped a limping Walrus to stand on its own two feet. Now Canada's biggest general-interest mammal has to take its act out on the road
Harper’s and Mother Jones have a lot in common with The Walrus. They’re idea-based magazines that have changed their business structures from non-profit organizations to foundations. They rely on charitable status for survival. Except, being Canadian-based, the Walrus had to jump over a few extra barriers to achieve its goal – barriers it may have […]
Digging a Bigger Poll
A lot of people think polls bury the issues and reduce elections to horse races. So what did Canadian media do for the 2006 general election? They stepped up the number and frequency of polls
“You have to look at polls not as a neutral, transparent measuring instrument,” says Bob Hanke, peering through his red-framed glasses. “They’re shaped by journalists who think that knowing who’s ahead and who’s going to win – the whole emphasis on prediction – is more important than actually describing what you or I think or […]
Another Year, Another Epithet
After the Boxing Day shootings in Toronto's downtown core, local news media quickly labelled 2005 the Year of the Gun. They say they weren't sensationalizing
Rob Roberts, the National Post‘s Toronto editor, got the news within 10 minutes. He was short-staffed – it was, after all, the day after Christmas. So he sent in what he had, two reporters and a night person. He didn’t know who was dead – if anyone – but he knew the story was big. […]
Who Needs Journalists?
From Wikinews to Our Canada, from Fashion to Chatelaine, readers are supplying more—and, in some cases, all—of the editorial content. It's a threat to journalists' livelihoods, but it sure makes the publishers' statements look good
Journalists, are you worried about more magazines folding, about the onward march of corporate downsizing, about the steady migration of readers to the Internet? Of course you are! But fear not. At the Ryerson Review of Journalism, we’ve developed a plan for you to stay in the game. You see, journalists really can benefit from […]
War of the Words
At Canadian Press, style is never taken for granted. Usage, sensibly enough, often comes down to what doesn't look stupid—for now
Patti Tasko calls it a “huge fight”: Canadian Press (CP) versus the town of Lac La Biche, Alta. No blood was shed, no one was killed, and there were certainly no sex scandals. But calls came into CP, including one from the mayor, with people riled up about one thing: the spelling of the town’s […]
Spoiling for a Fight
Two Toronto hospitals, two in-depth series, two newspapers... same day. How did it happen? How did they get access? And what was in it for the hospitals? A behind-the-scenes look
The day before her “Situation Critical” series on Sunnybrook hospital’s critical care unit was set to be published in The Toronto Star, health policy reporter Tanya Talaga caught a glimpse of an open spread of that day’s edition of The Globe and Mail on a colleague’s desk. A half-page ad jumped out at her: “Life […]
