Nicole Schmidt

Full Immersion

Full Immersion

From Syria to street protests, virtual reality technology lets us experience stories as if we were really there, but not without ethical concerns

The streets of downtown Montreal are cluttered with protestors chanting, “Fuck the police!” Traces of the sun filter out from behind department store buildings as anti-capitalists rally for International Workers’ Day. Spectators capture footage of police spraying a thick cloud of tear gas into the crowd, which sends people running. Marie-Espérance Cerda interviews protestors and […]

 Fatima Syed

The rise of the reader

The rise of the reader

In the ecosystem of the web, readers and journalists are now co-dependent species—a relationship we're still trying to grapple with

The former hierarchies of the journalism industry have crumbled by the weight of the digital realm, to be replaced by blurry parallel relations between journalists and readers. The result is evident in the record 10,600 readers who participated in the Toronto Star‘s annual “You be the editor” survey. Administered by the Star’s public editor, Kathy English, the “highly unscientific, […]

 Sandra E. Martin

Ethics R Us

Ethics R Us

Covering the media like a wet blanket

As this decade began, the trend watchers in the media predicted that it would bring a return to traditional moral values: the unscrupulous eighties would give way to the ethical nineties. Though I hate to give them credit-why does every 10-year period have to be tied up in a fashionable package and labeled like a […]