J-Source - Articles | The Big Issue

No boost for community TV

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:17:48 MDT

This past week the CRTC has been under fire for a "paternalistic" new policy on community television. OpenMedia declared the CRTC failed to make history at an opportune moment. Groups like CACTUS the Community Media Education Society called for greater accountability for community programming fund and for a public body to manage community TV, rather than private cable companies. The Media Awareness Network offers this quick backgrounder on community television in Canada. Advocates hoped a renewed policy would support feisty, independent grassroots TV, along the lines of Vancouver’s ICTV. Instead, they received a pat on the head, according to this delightfully cheeky video report from Valemont TV.

Breaking the silence on Pakistan

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 10:42:33 MDT

In Pakistan, a disaster of epic proportions has unfolded. The Times of India reports it will take years for the country to recover. Yet media coverage has been relatively muted. In a Global Journalist panel discussion, journalists working in the region agree coverage of the flood lacks urgency. To illustrate the situation closer to home, the pages of J-Source were silent in the first weeks of the crisis, compared to extensive posts and discussion following the Haiti earthquake. Until today, with Claude Adam's piece about why we don't cover Pakistan.

In a thoughtful segment, Al Jazeera's Listening Post asks: What is it about the images of this disaster that has failed to evoke the same compassion as others have done? Even the celebrity news website Jezebel has noted the quiet reaction. In this New York Times report, the relationship between media coverage and international response is clear. A column in the Guardian argues a steady drip of terror-obsessed media coverage has affected how people feel. Yet Huffington Post columnist Ethan Casey feels blaming the media is a cop-out for a recession-distracted western audience with narrow attitudes about the Islamic world.

In the immediate aftermath, social media is helping spread the flow of information, reports Saman Sheikh. An awakening world is sending more reporters to the scene, aided by citizen journalism reports. But, clearly, the wall-to-wall coverage we’ve seen in the past is not part of the picture this time around. BBC's ‘Have Your Say’ forum asks: Should it be?

Meanwhile, here at J-Source, an over-long silence has been broken. What are your thoughts? Who out there is working on the story? What decisions are being made in terms of coverage?

(Photo: Pakistan flood damage / Monica Smith, US Army)

Stursberg: loved and loathed

no@spam.com (Dana Lacey) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:04:28 MDT

Seems CBC head of English programming Richard Stursberg ruffled a lot of feathers during his six-year tenure. He was hired in 2004 as new blood to "shake the damn place up." The Tea Makers, a blog run by someone who purports to be an anonymous CBC insider, captured some tweets and posted a video likening the leader to another infamous leader. Toronto Life's "Eleven reasons CBCers loved/hated Richard Stursberg" includes: losing the Hockey Night in Canada theme song, revamping Radio 2 by ditching its classical bent, the 2005 lockout that gave CBC "pretty much what it wanted", losing broadcast rights to the Olympics and the Grey Cup, making anchors stand while delivering news in a new CNN-style format, and bumping Marketplace for Wheel of Fortune. One of the only positive reviews of Stursberg's legacy was penned by his former chief of staff, who credits Stursberg for turning CBC Television into the "second-most-watched network in the country."

Toronto Life's list of successes attributed to Stursberg are largely commercially driven: winning the bid for the World Cup and creating reality TV smash hits Battle of the Blades and Dragons' Den and sitcoms Little Mosque on the Prairie and Being Erica. The Toronto Star quotes Canadian Media Guild president Lise Lareau: "His view of a good program was one that had good ratings. People felt that he didn't support news, as a result. How public is a public broadcaster if you make it so commercial?"

Will CBC change much under new leadership? Now-retired long-time TV critic James Bawden doesn't think so: "Stursberg's schedule is very much the one CBC will be using this fall --it's too late to change much...That means a reliance on hour long dramas patterned after American series will continue on the new CBC schedule. It takes at least a year to program new TV series." Meanwhile, Howard Bernstein was so happy to see Stursberg go he announced "Ding dong, the witch is dead."

Documents in the raw undermine propaganda

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 07:48:44 MDT

While the leaking of Afghan war documents has been criticized in some Canadian columns, on the pages of J-Source WikiLeaks is described as citizen journalism we need and a new form of asymmetrical journalism. Founder Julian Assange, a self-described ‘person of interest’ to U.S. authorities, explains his decision to provide advance viewings to select outlets. The mainstream media partnerships weren’t completely comfortable: Assange later criticized the New York Times for its handling of the data, including checking with the White House before publishing and not providing a direct link to the documents. An alternative strategy could have been dribbles instead of dumps. Here are links to compare the special reportage sites: New York Times, Der Spiegel, the Guardian.

To Afghanistan observers, the documents undermined government propaganda, which – we learn from the docs – includes paying for positive stories. Unlike the NYT, J-Source has no problem providing a direct link to the WikiLeaks war documents site, as well as to data-dumping links and instructions for CAR journos. (And we didn’t check with Ottawa first.)

(Photo: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, by Martina Harris/Julian Assange.)

Census debates

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:59:59 MDT

The Canadian Association of Journalists has waded into the census debate, telling the government, "Don't slash our census." Indeed, Statistics Canada data has long occupied a spot in J-Source's resource section as an important journalism tool. As well, journalism.net features a guide to Canadians statistics that highlights census data. Journalists have long relied on Stats Can releases, such as crime stat reports, to develop news stories. Stats Can is also a source of industry data, such as radio listener-ship and Internet usage. However, not everyone is happy with census results, which can be sloppily interpreted by the press.

Late in the game, the National Statistics Council has also weighed in with a statement defending the census. Previously, the NSC had issued a brief response to Dr. Sheikh's resignation. Interestingly, the NSC identified the questions that track unpaid hours caring for seniors and children as the biggest source of complaints received - data women's groups long sought as a base to argue for flexible workplaces, childcare spaces and other supports. Now, after a brief period of visibility for women's unpaid work, the NSC recommends jettisoning the apparently nettlesome indicator as the price of compromise.

G20 reports of media repression keep coming in

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:40:36 MDT

After the G20 folded its tent, first-hand accounts of media repression have continued being posted on J-Source. In 'Access Denied,' reporter Jesse Freeston describes being beaten by police. In the Student's Lounge, there’s an account of a student journalist having to hand over his notes and camera, and in J-News, a story of cameras being returned with images gone. As calls for public scrutiny mount, this backgrounder on covering public inquiries is a helpful read. So is the Riot Survival Guide. If you were there, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression is conducting a survey of journalists' experiences. And if you got roughed-up, take heart that although the rest of the world wasn't very interested, at least Canadians tuned in.

Doctoring the image

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:58:45 MDT

Last week The Economist admitted to doctoring a photo of Obama, using the argument that it's all part of the art of the cover. It's another puzzler in the debate over ethics in the age of digital photography. Obama’s treatment is nothing new: a look at photo tampering through history shows even Honest Abe's image was not so honest. Digital technology simply makes it easier - or does it? Today's viewers have a healthier dose of suspicion, aided by their own tech savvy that helps them spot photo from fake. Photoshopping a few extra smoke billows over a bomb blast looks more dramatic, but it may have readers asking, “What’s wrong with this picture?” Even kids can spot movie clips being passed off as news footage. But it's not up to the audience alone to play police - that’s why the industry has developed universal digital imaging guidelines.

Accountability in crisis

no@spam.com (Dana Lacey) — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 11:04:49 MDT

The motto of the Canadian Journalism Foundation is “as journalism goes, so goes democracy.” You could add “so goes accountability.” We see accountability take a backseat with BP’s staid denial of media access to areas affected by the company’s massive oil spill, but also in the company’s refusal to allow executives, oil workers and even rescue workers speak to the media. Now, the U.S. Coast Guard is supporting BP’s iron grip on information with a new rule declaring that no person is allowed within 65 feet of anything BP: that includes the oil boom, the rescue boats, and even those oiled animals we’ve seen flopping along the shoreline. All the while BP repeats the same tired line that they’re doing everything they can – but with no media investigating to ensure they are, in fact, doing everything they can to fix a massive mistake they made, how will we, the public, ever really know? Closer to home, Canadians are calling for a public inquiry into the G20, which saw many journalists arrested, beaten and generally denied access to covering the event. What stories did we miss because of that? Speaking of inquiries, the long-awaited inquiry into the 1984 Air India bombing spent over 60 pages detailing the murder – and subsequent investigation – of Canadian journalist Tara Singh Hayer, who was killed in his home in Surrey B.C. over a decade ago and whose killers remain unpunished, despite the tiring work of journalists like Kim Bolan. Any outsider has got to wonder: do journalists support impunity, or will we start demanding accountability?

Fence holds up, rights not quite so sturdy

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 08:36:39 MDT

Ah, civil liberties. So long fought for, so quickly dispensed with. Throughout the week, J-Source worked hard to keep up with reports of police actions against journalists during the G20/8 Summit. The roughed-up and handcuffed included a CTV field producer, the National Post’s photographers, and reporters for the Guardian and Real News. The Guardian’s Jesse Rosenfield describes his experiences in a podcast. “Free speech appears to have fared poorly,” observes a Canadian Journalists for Free Expression media statement. All it takes, apparently, are a few broken windows and some torched police cars – something that doesn’t stack up to a good old-fashioned hockey riot, as this Globe and Mail column noted. Meanwhile world leaders responded with another helping of the recipe that feeds public protest – a pledge to deepen public service cuts and expand free trade while saving banks from taxation. Perhaps they’ll need a higher fence for the next round.

Update: The first link of this article is to an Adam Radwanski column on new police powers under the Public Works Protection Act. Subsequent reports reveal the police had overstated their powers under the Act, someting Mr. Radwanski addresses in his next column. There's more info in this related news story.

G8 outside the gate

no@spam.com (Patricia Elliott) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:39:59 MDT

As journalists trek toward the G8/20 Summit, it may be hard to muster excitement for another round of unmet aid pledges and quickly forgotten PR moments for the hosts. Outside the gates there's perhaps a more interesting story in the showdown between political power and street power. Yet social activists complain the issues at stake seldom get covered, as focus tends to settle on anarchist offshoots like the Black Bloc and Padded Bloc, guaranteed to be wearing the most photogenic attire. Meanwhile, Indigenous land rights are a hot topic at related civil society gatherings, as are migrant workers’ rights in a global economy, and the proposed 'Robin Hood tax.' Journalists who find these things a yawn might want to wake up and take note: time and again, yesterday's fringe issues are tomorrow’s front page.

To get an inside track, the G8/20 Toronto Community Mobilization website is a hub for activities ranging from bike block actions to radical street parties. Rabble.ca has a G8/20 ‘one stop shop’ of alt media coverage, and has published a guide to independent journalists covering the event, including what to do when CSIS comes calling. The Toronto Media Co-op, a division of Dominion News, is reporting on the People's Summit, while OpenFile offers coverage from a local perspective. The G20 Alt Media Centre is already abuzz with reports, tweets, photos and video from the streets. There are also individual activists like Krystalline Kraus and Stefan Christoff blogging and tweeting from ground zero, and a lively online debate about the relationship of the bank bombers to social movements. Journalists who want to dig further into the banquet of issues on offer will find a virtual library of resources at the G8 Information Centre provided by the University of Toronto and Munk School of Global Affairs.