Newsroom Notes
The School of Journalism has introduced a Newsroom Notes, a weekly safe space where students and instructors can discuss how to make future newsrooms a better place.
Assistant professor Angela Misri, said she understood the issues raised in an (google doc) open letter (external link) last year in which journalism students talked about what they were missing in their education.
“I took their points and tried to design workshops to discuss each one in a safe space. That’s where Newsroom Notes came from,” Misri said.
The first Newsroom Notes session, “Intersectionality and Diversifying our Sources”, took place Sept. 14. Journalist-in-residence Duncan McCue and assistant professor Eternity Martis, MJ ‘16, spoke about how journalists can make an effort to find a variety of sources for stories that speak to a diverse audience.
In an effort to create a safe space and foster transparency in speaking about some heavy topics, these sessions are not recorded.
“It’s meant to be a discussion amongst equals about how to create a better newsroom for all our futures, not a lecture from professor to student,” Misri explained.
She hopes the upcoming talks will include practicing journalists who are at different points in their careers. Students can suggest topics for the sessions.
The second discussion, led by Erin Sylvester, MJ ‘16, managing editor at The Walrus, looked at how journalists can improve the quality and accountability of their work with better fact-checking practices.
Sylvester told students about the scope of fact-checking and walked them through the process.
“What I really enjoyed about our discussion today was that it was not just about how to check, but also how to apply fact-checking to your own work as a reporter, and how to take the lessons of fact-checking into other aspects of your journalism work,” Sylvester said.
She said she hoped the format of a small-group discussion encourages students to walk away with an understanding of how important it is to ask yourself questions.
“Every sentence you are writing, you should think, how do I know that and can I back it up? Can I explain to someone else how I know this?”
Upcoming talks will look at protecting your mental health as a journalist, facing microaggressions, and, reporting on trauma. Some of the guests include Toronto Star crime reporter Alyshah Hasham, writer and producer Pacinthe Mattar, MJ ‘10, and culture writer Scaachi Koul ‘12.
The talks take place every Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the Venn, located at the Rogers Communication Centre (RCC) and will run through to the end of the Fall semester.