Tune in, turn on, print out
It's time Canadian journalists tap into computer-assisted reporting
Journalism has seen many evolutions-advocacy, gonzo, investigative and new journalism have all made their impact. But it’s precision journalism which may bring about the biggest change. Any journalist can join the movement. All it takes is a computer. Finding the unfindable is one goal of precision journalists. Adept statisticians, they are motivated by calculating precise […]
The Unfriendly Giant
Once upon a time at a string of Ontario weeklies, the people were poor but happy. Then Southam bought them out. Now they're just poor
The two-storey brick warehouse in Stoney Creek, Ontario, that is home to Brabant Newspapers Ltd. is anything but impressive. Inside, the drab walls and exposed pipes are dingy with age and neglect, and when it rains, buckets catch the water leaking through the roof. Fifty miles away in the heart of Yorkville, the posh high-rise […]
One Side to Every Story
The bad news is that more and more 'good news' really isn't news at all
The item was legitimate news, there’s no argument about that. And it was also legitimately placed, well down in CFTO’s early evening line-up. If there was something “wrong” with the item, the viewers never knew it. But something was indeed “wrong.” The story, as introduced by newsreader Tom Gibney and narrated by reporter Jim Wicks […]
The Voice of Another Village
How did Now show that an alternative weekly could survive and prosper in the Toronto of the '80s? By getting down to business
“We had the advantage of being extremely naive-had we known anything about publishing, we never would have started the paper.” Edwin Fancher, co-founder of the Village Voice. The Great American Newspaper, by Kevin Michael McAuliffe. “We were convinced we could make it work as a business. It seems a bit ridiculous when we look back […]
A Non-Explosive Issue
W5 established that Canadian uranium was helping to fuel the American war machine. It also established that when it comes to scandal, Canadians tend to prefer tuna
Had the story been ready on time, it would have kicked off W5’s 19th season opener on CTV. It was-or at least it had the ingredients of-a very good piece of journalism, one of those coveted stories that makes news as it breaks news. The only reason it did not open W5’s new season last […]
Fact Do Not Speak for Themselves
Looking over the pallid prose that poses as print journalism in this country, it seems to me that most news and feature stories that get published contain a good deal less than meets the eye. We must do better. It is simply no longer enough to arrange facts into logical sequences, or to report events […]
Strolling to the Rescue
The journalists at Metroland's 17 papers believed that their future lay with unionization. What they didn't figure, however, was just how long it would take for the future to arrive.
The management team begins to file in at 9: 15 on this warm October morning. By 9:30 a.m. half the room is full. The only two women in the crowd almost disappear into the sea of more than 30 men who sit anxiously in their grey and navy suits. They are the editors and publishers […]
The Star Set the Trap
Then stepped in it
On Monday, August 17, 1992, Toronto Star reporters Kevin Donovan and Philip Mascoll sat at a wooden picnic table on the outdoor patio of a Lick’s restaurant on Kingston Road sipping coffee amid the lunch-time crowd. Each wore a concealed tape recorder attached to his leg, just above the ankle, with masking tape. Across from […]
