RSJ classes collaborate on feature writing and fact-checking exercise

Multiple RSJ classes collaborated on an exercise involving writing and fact-checking feature stories this semester. The Ryersonian is running a series of stories from students in JRN 303 – Feature Writing Workshop, after the pieces were fact-checked by students in JRN 317 – Exactly So: The Challenge of Precision. 

The pieces, released as a series on the Ryersonian website titled ‘Pandemic Tales’, focus on the impact of the pandemic on young people at Ryerson or in downtown Toronto. April Lindgren, who teaches JRN 303, says that to combat the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was more one-on-one coaching, as well more instruction on how to effectively conduct virtual interviews.

“There was a greater emphasis on interviewing and a need to do in-depth interviews with sources and to draw out from them more detail than maybe would have been necessary if the reporter had been present to see an event or a situation unfolding in person,” said Lindgren. 

Among the pieces, there was a range of stories told. Annemarie Cutruzzola, one of the students in JRN 303 who participated in the exercise, wrote her piece on the impact of the pandemic on students in Film Studies. Cutruzzola wanted to know how students in the program were handling virtual learning, without professional equipment and facilities.

“I think some of the struggles that artists or students in creative programs like film have faced have been overlooked. But the pandemic had a massive effect on the arts and culture industry and the livelihoods of artists,” said Cutruzzola. “As students about to enter that industry, it’s an important angle to consider for this series about the struggles that young people have faced during the pandemic.”

While Cutruzzola wasn’t able to go to a film set due to COVID restrictions, she didn’t allow it to take away from her story, asking detailed questions over Zoom instead.   

“Just as some of my sources described how the restrictions forced them to find creative solutions, not being able to report in-person pushed me to hone my interviewing and research skills.”

Trevor Popoff was another student in the class, whose story focuses on how Ryerson is handling virtual exchanges during the pandemic. He had spoken to friends who lost out on the opportunity to go on exchange and in doing research for his piece, learned of virtual exchange opportunities at Ryerson.

“My initial idea just considered the feelings of those who were slated to go on exchange and then had their trips cancelled, or had their trips cancelled halfway through. My finished product shows how schools have both adapted to help people who had their trips cancelled out, and simultaneously invented a new way to expose as many people as possible to experiences that were once reserved only for those who could afford them.”

Popoff also faced challenges with not being able to spend time with his sources. However, he credits patience from those sources, as well as Lindgren’s teaching as being important in writing the piece.

“We had to rely on interview techniques to elicit a scene out of our characters. Luckily, my sources for this story were some fantastic people who were more than willing to go

along with my weird lines of questioning,” said Popoff. “Also, April taught us some techniques about how to interview for a scene when you don’t have access to the person, so that was really helpful too.”

While the feature story was an assignment for the class, students had the option to have their stories fact-checked and published. This marks the first time that the JRN 303 class has done a real-time fact-checking exercise with JRN 317.  

JRN 317 – Exactly So: The Challenge of Precision was taught by Carly Lewis and Rudy Lee. Speaking on the collaboration, Lee says the students in the class were instructed to verify “everything” in the stories. Some of this verification included confirming quotes with sources, ensuring that context was maintained and even challenging word choice. 

“One thing that we've reiterated throughout the course is that it doesn't suffice to simply point out what's wrong; you must endeavor to fix it. The integration with the feature-writing workshop not only required our students to reach out to real sources — who can be uncooperative or outright unresponsive — but it also afforded them the opportunity to suggest changes to the writers and work through edits, things that can't truly be replicated with simulations.”

Lee says that despite the fact that most students didn’t have much of a background in fact-checking procedures coming into the course, the skills they picked up throughout the course were visible in the exercise. 

“Most of the students had no idea what fact-checking entailed at the outset of this course, but the buildable skills they honed throughout the semester culminated in this assignment. They all had a great handle on the process, both the checking process itself and how it fits into an editorial workflow, and a few of them were even presented with curveballs — shielded identities, veiled narratives, misidentified sources, even fabrication — which they navigated with an impressive amount of equanimity.”

Georgia Mills was one of a few students who was in both JRN 303 and JRN 317 and was involved in both the writing and fact-checking sides of the process. Her piece explored how young people are navigating therapy to help their own mental health, as well as their other relationships. In regards to JRN 317, Mills says the course taught her how to expand her thinking and “dig deeper.”

“JRN 317 is one of the best courses I've ever taken at Ryerson and it was extremely helpful to be in this class while working on various feature projects. The course completely changed the way that I approach the writing and editing process,” said Mills. “I know that it's made me a better writer and communicator by paying more attention to both minute details and the bigger picture, context [and] tone of a piece at the same time.”

After the fact checking was complete, the pieces were then sent to the Ryersonian. Peter Bakogeorge, the instructor for the Ryersonian, also notes how big an impact the fact-checking made. 

“It was huge. It was really nice for us. While fact-checking is a huge thing in magazine journalism, it’s not really done to the same extent in newspaper or website journalism,” said Bakogeorge. “I know from talking to the 317 instructors that some of their students went above and beyond and more than just fact-checked, they actually kind of improved the overall editorial quality of the stories.”

Bakogeorge was happy with the pieces that he received. He notes that with the collaboration, he hopes to show that the Ryersonian accepts pitches from students in all classes, not just from the Ryersonian masthead.

“One of the reasons that we’re so eager to let students from other classes submit stuff is that we want the Ryersonian to be for everyone in the program,” said Bakogeorge. “Clearly it’s going to be dominated by the students who enrol in masthead and take the course and are receiving credit for it and have the editor roles but we encourage people from all other classes and all years to contribute.”

The stories can be accessed on the Ryersonian website. (external link)