By Robyn | Published:
Tuesday, 29th January, 2008
Hello Past and Future Jschoolers,
It has been a few months since Jschool 2007 ended, and I thought I’d give a bit of an up-date on how the diploma has helped me.
I was offered probably three or four journalism jobs in communities ranging from the Crowsnest Pass in southern Alberta, to Thompson in northeastern Manitoba. [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Thursday, 29th November, 2007
Hey Jo,
I hear you on the $28,000 a year. It’s hard to justify a job that doesn’t pay the bills…
I hope you have a wonderful birthday in New Zealand. Nothing beats home. Say hi to the Duchess for me.
And congratulations on the intern. I’ve been following your elections with great [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Tuesday, 13th November, 2007
So long, farewell, and to next year’s students, good luck.
It has been a great year, but despite that, I’m ready to go home. My internships have ranged from Whitehorse, Yukon in Northern Canada to Launceston, Tasmania–about as far apart as I could possibly get–and I’m travelled out.
It is time to curl up by a [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Friday, 19th October, 2007
Despite being sick most of my second week, and having had to go home (or be sent home) early most days, I’ve had an amazing time at ABC. I’ve loved researching science stories, and was able to pull two stories together into research briefs.
The firs story I worked on was indoor air quality, which [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Tuesday, 16th October, 2007
GET SICK!!!!!!
They asked me to research a story on sick buildings for next year, which was all fine and dandy until I came down with a flue yesterday. The joke is partly on me for researching sick building syndrome, being in a sick building (although theirs is far less toxic than the one I [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Thursday, 11th October, 2007
Week one is nearly done, and I must say, I’ve had fun. It only took me a day or two to figure out I was siting beside and across from the reporters (the faces on TV), who by the way, all have cubicles–no special perks. I’ve read more science stories than I can [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Tuesday, 9th October, 2007
Day two of my internship is done and I have to say, I’m loving it. What could possibly be better than researching science stories all day?
Catalyst has a staff of about 20 or 25 people to create its weekly half hour program. There are five reporters who present the stories, production people, editors, [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Monday, 24th September, 2007
Everyone is back this week for crunch time. We have a full itinerary that kicked off with a discussion and role-playing on journalism and trauma, then t-line speed tests. Tomorrow is photojournalism. Wednesday is broadcast journalism. We have deadlines for the independent and I’m still trying to adapt to having to [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Thursday, 6th September, 2007
Week two is half over and I have to say, they use way to many commas here. It is kind of like a comma addiction. They are randomly plunked down in sentences on a whim and used somewhat erradically. Half the time there is a comma before and in a list and [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Saturday, 1st September, 2007
Today wrapped up my first week and I have to say, my experience here was a lot more relaxed than Joe’s! Today we all went home around 3:30 – 4 as we got the paper out around 1:30 and then, since its a lobg weekend and the paper doesn’t run unitl Tuesday afternoon, we [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Thursday, 30th August, 2007
First off, Jo, I really hope Louis (sp?) is ok. That’s scary. Secondly, Jo, how do you do it? I’m worn out trying to get up in the morning, walk the dog, feed the horses, work all day, get home (1/2 hour drive each way) feed the horses, feed the dog, cook [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Tuesday, 28th August, 2007
ps means read after the other post but since it gets posted chronologically…you’ll get this first…one of my co-workers at the Whitehorse Star is from Toronto, studied at UQ in Brisbane, knows Desley and has heard of John and is now working in Whitehorse. That is a really freaky coincedence if you ask me. [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Tuesday, 28th August, 2007
Had a great wedding (not mine), saw so many familiar and long lost faces, drank tasty wine and ate delicious salmon, have not looked at shorthand in three weeks and was not at all impressed when my alarm went off at 6 am this morning. Even my dog who normally loves mornings was not [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Thursday, 23rd August, 2007
I got to Whitehorse safe and sound and after a day of jetlag, picked up the two local papers to start sessing out issues. At first glance, layout is very different from Australia (very consistent page-wide layout), photo captions are different, headlines are centered. Then I started flipping through headlines. The first [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Wednesday, 8th August, 2007
…a license to ask questions. If you see something unusual or interesting, you can ask questions–sometimes for stories, some times for curiosity (which could always become a story down the line). The other day, the poor garbage collector made the mistake of getting out of his truck while I was jogging past. [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Monday, 23rd July, 2007
Last Thursday we went down to the Independent offices for a demonstration on sub-editing. Don walked us through what sub-editor does–winge, winge and winge, err…edit, correct and fix. He then showed us how his software worked, how he adjusted font, format, layout and size. Although, I think the best part of the [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Wednesday, 18th July, 2007
1) He always has his camera handy and is ALWAYS snapping pictures…I have a rather large collection of pictures of John taking pictures; and
2) As I sit here looking up three or four different things John has told me to go look up (based of course on questions I foolishly asked in class), I realize, [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Wednesday, 11th July, 2007
John, Desley and I have had some discussions over style and syntax over the last few months. So, I’ve been consulting Canadian publications…I’m not crazy! We do use periods in abbreviations (such as Rev.). We also dearly love our commas, frequently using them before and (as a link of ideas in a [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Monday, 9th July, 2007
A responsibility for objective, un-bias reporting, that is what journalists are taught. Unfortunately, we all have our biases and they creep in to written work, often re-enforcing stereotypes and prejudices.
For me, one of the biggest ethical issues I see in reporting is stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists. Newspapers are quick to point out [...]
By Robyn | Published:
Saturday, 7th July, 2007
I have a beef to pick with today’s headlines and am wondering if anyone else was slightly offended by it. There was a tragic accident in Cherbourg yesterday where a 24-year old woman and a 6-year old boy were killed. That unfortunately is a sad reality and there have been a few such [...]