Pull Quotes

Subscribe on iTunes Black History Month was first celebrated in Canada in 1950, but it wasn’t made official until December of 1995. With February coming to a close, we’ve got 28 days worth of Black History Month content to sift through. This week on Pull Quotes, we ask—what does that coverage look like? We look at what tropes continue to be perpetuated, and talk about the kind of coverage we want...

Subscribe on iTunes This week on Pull Quotes, we ask: how does women’s desire get talked about in the media? Around Valentine’s Day, sex and relationship content is top of mind for readers and for journalists. A lot of these stories can be told through the male gaze. We wanted to take a look at some of the stories told from a woman’s perspective. Michal and Katherine also discuss Jill Abramson’s b...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein   Toronto Star reporter Jennifer Yang talks about her feature, “Who are the Golden Girls of Prospect Cemetery and why did they decide to spend eternity together?” and Amy Padnani and Veronica Chambers from the New York Times talk about their obit project, “Overlooked.” “Overlooked” is a space for obituaries for people who never received a N...

https://rrj.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Pull-Quotes-Episode-9_mixdown.mp3 Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein Since the Ontario PC government announced the new “Student Choice Initiative” on January 17, the fate of student newspapers (and other student groups) is up in the air. Most student papers rely on ancillary fees in order to cover costs. Campus newspapers do investigative...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein The Jewish media landscape in Canada was once a thriving, robust space. In the period up to World War II, that space was dominated by Yiddish publications. But in the decades that followed, Jewish media in Canada has dwindled to one major newspaper, the Canadian Jewish News (which nearly folded in 2013), and a handful of small local papers. Whil...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein On Monday, November 26, General Motors (GM) announced they will be closing their plant in Oshawa in 2019—putting nearly 3,000 people out of a job. Geoff Zochodne, a reporter for the Financial Post, joins us to talk about the history of the plant and what he’s looking towards as the story unfolds.   As this is our last episode until the new...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein The last few years have seen tremendous upheaval in terms of what we call women’s issues. In the United States, the election of Donald Trump prompted the birth of the Women’s March. Sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein last October brought activist Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement to the mainstream.   More women are coming forw...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein One of the main takeaways from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report was that education reform is crucial going forward. In Ontario, that curriculum was targeted to take effect beginning in September of 2018. Curriculum writing sessions had been planned for July of 2018, but when the new Conservative government took office, those...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein When the Ford government cancelled the 2015 sex-ed curriculum and reinstated the 1998 curriculum, it meant that students would miss out on learning about non-binary gender identities and same-sex relationships. At least six families are bringing human rights lawsuits to the Ontario government because of this. As we look ahead to these cases, we...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein When, on October 8 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was released, news of irreversible damage to the earth dominated the headlines. Back in 2016, 181 countries signed the Paris Accord, making a commitment to curb the global rise of temperatures at 2 degrees Celsius. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change fo...

Subscribe on iTunes By Lidia Abraha and Michal Stein This week, Toronto elected a new mayor and a new city council. But this election was not like previous ones. On July 27, barely two months into his elected term, Premiere Doug Ford announced a reduction in the number of city councillors in Toronto from 47 to 25. What followed were a series of legal challenges and a lot of confusion before the ne...

Subscribe on iTunes The Ryerson Review of Journalism podcast, Pull Quotes, is back for another season. October 17 has come and gone. Another era of prohibition is behind us; recreational cannabis use is now legal in Canada. Michal Stein talks to cannabis reporters Kieran Delamont and Mark Rendell about what changes they’ve seen in the Canadian journalism landscape as a result, and how the focus on...

Subscribe on iTunes With legalization around the corner, news outlets are finally seeing green. Ben Waldman talks about the growing ‘weed beat.’ Plus, two journalists discuss covering the cannabis sector—and whether you need to use weed to report on it. Laura chats with Amanda Siebert , cannabis editor at The Georgia Straight and  Jay Rosenthal , co-founder of the Business of Cann...

Subscribe on iTunes The Ontario election campaign hasn’t officially started yet,  but news coverage certainly has. Newly-elected PC leader Doug Ford has a history of being hostile to journalists and bucking political norms. And yes, more than a few people have made the Trump comparison. So what does good journalism look like when Ford is running for premier? And what should the press le...

Subscribe on iTunes There’s not a lot of religion reporting in Canada nowadays.  When institutional religion declined, the “religion beat” did too. Jacob McNair has been digging into religion reporting for an upcoming feature in the Ryerson Review of Journalism. He talks about why religion reporting is “pretty sparse” in Canada, gaps in mainstream coverage, and how the denominational press ha...

Subscribe on iTunes The federal budget included some items for Canadian journalism: $50 million over five years for independent NGOs to to “support local journalism in underserved communities,” and the potential for news organizations to get charitable status. But there are still a lot of questions about how this will actually work. We chat with H.G. Watson, managing editor at J-Source....

Subscribe on iTunes What do you learn after 80,000 love stories? In honour of Valentine’s Day, we talk to  Daniel Jones , the editor of the New York Times column, Modern Love. Since the column started in 2004, Jones has sifted through thousands of personal essays about love and relationships (yet somehow he’s not jaded). A couple  of years ago, the column was adapted into a podcast...

http://rrj.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/When-youre-a-female-reporter-on-Parliament-Hill-1.mp3 Subscribe on iTunes This week, National Post  reporter   Marie-Danielle Smith talks about her uncomfortable experiences as a woman on Parliament Hill  –  and how consensual sex complicates the Me Too discussion in politics.  Then,  Anthony Oliveira critiques media cove...

Why is CBC publishing in Tamil? Plus, Ryerson’s journalism school is partnering with Facebook on a digital news incubator--and the Columbia Journalism Review's Matthew Ingram has a few concerns.

Subscribe on iTunes When an 11-year-old girl said a man attacked her on the way to school, cutting her hijab with scissors, news outlets eagerly ran the child’s name and images. But a few days later, police said the attack never actually happened. And that makes things a lot more complicated. This week, we talk to Toronto Star reporters Jenna Moon and Fatima Syed about wading through this wild new...

Stories of sexual misconduct dominated the news cycle this autumn–and it all started with investigative reporting. But where should journalists push next? Anne Kingston (Maclean’s) and Hannah Sung (Globe and Mail) discuss journalism after #MeToo, Canada/U.S. differences, Ghomeshi comparisons, and whether this is really the cultural shift Time says it is.

Subscribe on iTunes Images of natural disasters are often devastating–but what’s it like to be behind the camera? Three photojournalists talk about the ethics and emotions of covering catastrophe, at the Ryerson Review of Journalism’s recent conference. Plus, visual journalist Ed Ou talks about photographing people affected by radiation from nuclear weapons testing in Kazakhstan. With voices...

Subscribe on iTunes After years of complaints, police have charged two men behind a Toronto paper called “Your Ward News” with promoting hatred against Jews and women. This week, we discuss the merits of hate speech laws and how journalists should cover white nationalism. Podcast guests: Evan Balgord is a freelance journalist, who often writes for Canadaland and Torontoist. His research focuses on...

Subscribe on iTunes Hadiya Roderique made a splash with her piece in the Globe and Mail about the hurdles to success as a black lawyer in Toronto. This week we talk to Roderique, as well as Toronto Star reporter Fatima Syed , and Extra associate editor Eternity Martis, about the challenges facing people of colour in Canadian journalism. Podcast guests: Hadiya Roderique is currently a   PhD ca...

Every November, TV reporters don poppies and newscasts host Remembrance Day specials. Major world war battles are recounted, and we hear repeated phrases like “fought for our freedom.” But what stories don’t we remember? And what role should journalists play in passing on national narratives? Podcast guests: Ted Barris , journalist and author of several books on Canada’s military history, includin...