Real-time breaking news – Therese Bottomly - In 2007, the Portland Oregonian won the Pulitzer Prize (its fifth in the past ten years) for its coverage of the Kim family who were snowbound in the wilderness for days before rescue. The team of reporters and editors juggled fast online updates with deeper daily stories in the newspaper to provide “skillful and tenacious” coverage, said the Pulitzer judges. Managing Editor Therese Bottomly will explore the perils and promises of online reporting in real time breaking-news situations. Using the Kim family saga as a case study, this workshop will provide practical tips and takeaways for reporters and editors. You can keep one eye on the web and one on print, and this session will show you how.

For the past several years, Bottomly has worked with reporters and editors to open government records to the public. She is a board member of Open Oregon, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting public access to government meetings and records. As part of that work, she is developing a website and publications in order to help smaller newspapers and working journalists across the state.

Storytelling is at the heart of all good journalism. In this workshop, we’ll look at specific tools which will help participants visualize, focus and structure compelling news features and documentaries. This workshop will be useful for TV journalists, and multimedia video journalists who want to learn more about TV storytelling.

Marsha Barber is Director of Broadcast Journalism at Ryerson University. She spent many years at CBC, where she was a senior producer at CBC's flagship newscast The National. Before that she was an award-winning documentary producer. Marsha has trained reporters and producers for CBC, Global TV, China Central Television (CCTV), Cambodian television, and other networks, and runs journalism training and media training workshops internationally. She also conducts training for journalists in multimedia and print operations who want to better understand how to use video and audio in a multi-platform media universe. She can be reached at mailto:%20m2barber@ryerson.ca

The Shocking Truth About
Tasers: Jim Bronskill, Frédéric Zalac, Sandra Bartlett and the groundbreaking investigation into tasers.

Jim Bronskill is a reporter in the Ottawa bureau of The Canadian Press news agency, specializing in security and intelligence, policing, and justice-related issues including civil liberties. He has considerable experience using information laws to uncover stories. Before joining CP in November 2003, Jim was a reporter with Southam News (now Canwest News Service). He previously held various positions at CP andhas also worked for the Ottawa Citizen, the Owen Sound Sun Times and TVOntario. Jim holds a master's degree in journalism from Carleton University, where he has been a sessional lecturer since 2003. He and CP colleague Sue Bailey have been writing about Taser stun guns for five years, teaming up with the CBC last year for an ongoing series of stories.

Storyville: Tom Hawthorn The assignment desk wants a story — a squib on the weather; an obituary of a notable fish biologist; a colour piece on the bridal show at the convention centre. Such tired assignments can be soul-destroying to veteran reporters and career-destroying to rookies. They need not be. The Storyville workshop describes how one reporter won a Pulitzer with pieces on an ordinary rainy day and a sunny Easter Sunday. We'll look at how others successfully tackle stories on trade shows, summer fairs, Christmas hampers, Boxing Day sales and other chestnuts. The workshop's goal is to have you begging your editors for these assignments. Trust me, they'll love you for it.

Tom Hawthorn is an award-winning (and, sometimes, an award-losing) freelance reporter based in Victoria . He writes a weekly human-interest column for the B.C. section of the Globe and Mail. His stories can be read at: http://www.tomhawthorn.blogspot.com/

The unthinkable happens. Or maybe it’s thinkable, but of unprecedented scope. The power is out, the phones are down, and critical roads are blocked or inaccessible. Evacuations have been strongly recommended—or perhaps they’re mandatory. Curfews are planned or already in place. Local first responders are on-scene, the Governor has declared a State of Emergency, mobilized the National Guard, and hasrequested expedited assistance from the federal government. U.S. Department of Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency External Affairs Officer Mike Howard leads a workshop on unified messaging, media access and disaster communications during catastrophic events. .

At one time, the idea of professionalizing journalism was considered not fit for discussion. Today, when anyone with a computer can broadcast and publish anything and claim to be a journalist, the idea of formal journalism standards and accreditation is getting a second look.
Is it time to professionalize journalism? Could it work? With journalist Deborah Jones and journalism professor Alan Bass.

An independent journalist, Deborah Jones works for Agence France- Presse, the Globe and Mail, the New York Times, Time and others. She has worked on staff for the Canadian Press in Halifax and on
the Vancouver Sun editorial board. She is also an editor with the Canadian Journalism Project. Her research and writing interests focus on civility and long-range social and environmental issues. Jones shares her Vancouver office with a mystery mutt and considers family, friends, coffee and wine journalistic and life priorities.