Recognizing recent RSJ awards, nominations and grants
RSJ students working on location to produce the documentary film "To Die For" that was nominated for the CAJ Student Award of Excellence. Photo credit: Trevor Green.
With so much uncertainty happening around the world, here is a roundup of good news in the world of RSJ. The Hong Kong 360 team has won the Emerge Media award (EMA) for Video Short (external link) , a journalism student has received the Mitacs Accelerate award (external link) and grant and a RSJ TV Doc group has won a Amnesty International Canadian Media award (external link) for Post-Secondary Youth.
A number of students, faculty and alumni have also been recently nominated for the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) awards (external link) , the CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism (external link) , The Lansberg Award (CJF) (external link) and the Canadian chapter of the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing (SABEW) awards (external link) . Several RSJ alumni have also been awarded the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) (external link) regional awards.
“I am thrilled for the many RSJ alumni who were nominated for awards and especially proud of the RSJ students who have had their hard work recognized through awards or nominations,” said Janice Neil, RSJ Chair. “It was a bright spot in a school year that ended in a way none of us could have expected.”
In the summer of 2019, the RSJ’s Hong Kong 360 team traveled to Hong Kong as part of an international journalism course led by professor Adrian Ma. Today, they are being recognized for their work by winning the (PDF file) EMA for short video (external link) .
“Taking on a reporting assignment in another part of the world is a high-pressure, demanding experience, one that can really push you to your limits as a journalist. And as proud as I am that they were able to put their reporting and production skills to the test, I'm prouder still of the fact that these students were so professional, respectful and genuinely appreciative of the people of Hong Kong,” Ma said.
Using 360 video and immersive storytelling (external link) , they brought viewers to one of Asia's most dynamic and complex places to learn more about the efforts to preserve Hong Kong's heritage and culture.
“To be able to travel is such an immense privilege, as is being invited to hear someone else's story. This award is a wonderful recognition of their hard work, but I believe the experience itself was already invaluable to them. Thanks so much to the RSJ and FCAD for supporting this program."
The EMA, sponsored and hosted by the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, celebrates and showcases the achievements of Canadian postsecondary students in journalism, photography, graphic design and communications.
RSJ student Matthew Lemieux has been awarded a Mitacs Accelerate award (external link) with the help of internship supervisor and RSJ instructor Sonya Fatah. His research work includes a partnership with the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group to explore the scope of live journalism for the performance company.
“The MITACS award provides students with an excellent opportunity to pursue research about journalism while also getting paid for their efforts. In this case we are exploring new opportunities for engagement with audiences using live journalism,” Fatah explains. “Since exploration with this medium of journalism isn’t a fundamental part of the journalism curriculum at the moment, this research grant provides the student (Matthew Lemieux) with an exciting co-curricular opportunity to explore this area while also deepening his research skills.”
On April 17, Amnesty International announced the winners of the 25th annual Amnesty International Canada Media Awards (external link) . RSJ students Sarah Chew, Katie Swyers, Martha Currie and Stephanie Liu won the Post-Secondary Youth award for their documentary film Trafficked.
The piece explores the reality of human trafficking through the real-life stories of two survivors of sex trafficking.
Judge Samantha Fink said that while many pieces were able to eloquently portray an important human rights issue, this film’s ability to promote the victims’ agency, empower their audience, and reach suggestions of a solution were the main reasons for their choice.
“We believe the creators did an excellent job of guiding their viewers into the corners of this local, yet often hidden, significant human rights story.”
The documentary film has also been nominated for the CAJ awards.
RSJ alumni and CBC producers Jennifer Fowler and Erin Byrnes also won an Amnesty International Canada Media Award for long-form audio. They were part of the CBC podcast Uncover: The Village (external link) team along with reporter Justin Ling.
The podcast is a gripping account of how Toronto Police allowed deep-seated, decades-long prejudice against the city’s gay community impede their investigation into Bruce McArthur’s shocking serial murders.
And now turning to nominations. Last week, the CAJ released the list of finalists for the 2019 Awards program and the RSJ has quite a few students, faculty and alumni on this list. The CAJ runs an annual awards program that recognizes the best in Canadian journalism—with a particular focus on investigative work.
Here are the 2019 nominations:
Student Award of Excellence
RSJ students Sarah Chew, Katie Swyers, Martha Currie and Stephanie Liu
RSJ Doc / Ryerson University
Trafficked is a documentary produced by RSJ students about human trafficking. In this documentary, viewers learn about the human trafficking system through the real life stories of Karly Church and Beatrice Wallace, who are survivors of sex trafficking.
RSJ students Trevor Green, Katie Li, Vartan Bzdikian and Daniel Drigo
RSJ Doc / Ryerson University
To Die For explores the experience of a few Canadians who have requested Medical Assistance in Dying (or MAiD,) and have been denied, because they didn’t meet the specific criteria outlined by the government. Physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients became legal in Canada in 2016, and in many ways, the health care system is still grappling with related complicated and controversial issues. In order to qualify for MAiD, patients must have a “grievous and irremediable medical condition with a reasonably foreseeable death.” The main challenge has been trying to implement a standardized system to carry out these requests, and some patients have been denied this end-of-life service – for various reasons, including mental competency (patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia have been denied, for example.)
Open Media
RSJ alum Wendy Gillis
It Took A Village (external link)
Toronto Star
Data journalism award
RSJ alumni Anu Singh, Joseph Loiero Sian Lloyd were part of the team along with Andreas Wesley, Caitlin Taylor, Dan Taekema, David Common, Ellen Mauro, Jorge Barrera, Valerie Ouellet
Peer-on-Peer Violence in Canadian Schools (external link)
CBC News
Institute for Investigative Journalism and media partners
IIJ / Toronto Star / Global News / Le Devoir / Regina Leader-Post / National Observer
Nearly 20 students and alumni from the RSJ were involved with researching, reporting and writing stories about Ontario’s drinking water as part of a national investigation into tap water (external link) .
The students along with Robert Cribb, RSJ instructor and investigative reporter at the Toronto Star, were part of the largest journalistic collaboration in Canadian history with more than 120 editors, reporters, students and faculty members from 10 media organizations and nine universities contributing to the Tainted Water investigation.
Dozens of articles and broadcasts have featured the work of RSJ students and alumni. The investigation has also been nominated for the CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism (external link) .
Online Media
RSJ alumni Michelle Shephard, Kathleen Goldhar, Ilina Ghosh and Arif Noorani were part of the team along with Mitchell Stuart, Judy Ziyi Gu, Tanya Springer, Leslie Merklinger and Amy Husser
Uncover: Sharmini (external link)
CBC News – Investigative podcasts
Daily Excellence
RSJ alumna Briar Stewart along with Adrienne Arsenault
New Zealand Mosque Attack (external link)
CBC News – The National
RSJ alumnus Paul Workman
Ethiopian Airlines Crash (external link)
CTV National News
RSJ alumnus Blair Crawford was part of the team along with Elizabeth Payne, Kelly Egan, Jon Willing, Shaamini Yogaretnam, Taylor Blewett, Joanne Laucius, Wayne Cuddington, Julie Oliver
Westboro Bus Crash (external link)
Ottawa Citizen
JHR / CAJ Award for Human Rights Reporting
RSJ alumna Emma McIntosh along with Mike De Souza
National Observer
CWA CANADA / CAJ Award for Labour Reporting
RSJ alumna Kimberly Ivany was part of the team along with Timothy Sawa, Mark Kelley, Loretta Hicks and John Badcock
CBC News – The Fifth Estate
JHR / CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award
RSJ alumna Rhiannon Johnson
Portfolio entry (external link)
CBC News – Indigenous
The CAJ awards committee has been working on an alternate, online means of announcing and sharing the recipients of these awards for 2020.
The CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism (external link) also announced shortlists last week. The award honours a Canadian news organization that embodies exemplary journalism with a resulting impact on the community it serves.
The following two of the five finalists for the large media category had stories produced by RSJ students, faculty and alumni:
Toronto Star for its 16-part immersive digital series “Undeniable: Canada’s Changing Climate” that covered the impact of climate change in every corner of Canada, including:
- “When the hard rains fall (external link) ”
- “Open for business (external link) ”
- “Fields of Dreams (external link) ” done by RSJ alumna Diana Zlomislic
RSJ alumna Emma McIntosh also has a story in the series on the Fort McMurray wildfires (external link) .
Institute for Investigative Journalism for the consortium’s “The Tainted Water” investigation that uncovered a pattern of secrecy at all government levels across the country about tap water tainted by lead, with stories such as:
- “Is there lead in your tap water? Canada-wide investigation exposes dangerous levels of toxic metal (external link) ” (Toronto Star) done by RSJ instructor Robert Cribb and students in the investigative class
- “The Secrets of Canada's tap water, explained (external link) ” (Global News)
- “Parched: Experts urge transparency on lead-tainted water in some Regina, Saskatoon and Moose Jaw homes (external link) ” (Regina Leader-Post)
Each year, the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF), in association with the Canadian Women’s Foundation celebrates a journalist who provides greater profile to women’s equality issues, recognizes exceptional research, analysis and presentation through a gender lens in print, broadcast or online news.
RSJ alumni Molly Hayes, Elizabeth Renzetti and Annie Burns-Pieper have been shortlisted for the Landsberg Award (external link) .
Here is a little bit more about them and their submissions:
Annie Burns-Pieper, a freelance investigative reporter at the time of her submission and now managing editor for the Institute for Investigative Journalism, freelance investigative reporter, for her work in The Globe and Mail, revealing the prevalence of sexual violence against Canadian public transit passengers:
- “Thousands of Canadian transit passengers target of sexual violence between 2013 and 2017, Globe analysis finds (external link) "
- “Dozens of sexual-misconduct complaints made against transit staff in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal since 2013, records show (external link) ”
- “Transit agencies say they’ll improve tracking of sexual violence (external link) ”
Molly Hayes, crime and justice reporter for The Globe and Mail, for her articles exploring intimate partner homicide and femicide, focusing on a case in rural Ontario:
- “After a grisly murder-suicide, a small Ontario town looks back at missed signs of dangerous obsession (external link) ”
- “Ontario triple murder-suicide will be reviewed by Domestic Violence Death Review Committee (external link) ”
Elizabeth Renzetti, columnist and feature writer with The Globe and Mail, for exploring issues such as biased design in space, the lack of female political leaders and why ideologically-motivated killing of women isn’t treated as terrorism:
- “Opinion: Violent misogyny is a threat to half our population. We need to call it what it is: Terrorism (external link) ”
- “Why has Canada had so few female first ministers? (external link) ”
- “Even in space, women can’t escape the flaws of biased design (external link) ”
On Wednesday, SABEW announced the list of finalists (external link) for the 6th Annual Best in Business Awards competition, recognizing outstanding business reporting published and produced in Canada in 2019. A number of RSJ alumni were finalists. SABEW hopes to be able to hand out the awards once Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.
In the meantime, here are the RSJ alumni finalists for this year’s awards:
Audio or Visual Storytelling
RSJ alumni Sean Stanleigh, Stephanie Chan and Tara Deschamps were part of the team along with Laura Regehr and Ann Lang (The Globe and Mail)
Industry interrupted (external link)
Breaking News
RSJ alumni Josh O’Kane, Jeff Gray and Rachelle Younglai were part of the team along with Alex Bozikovic and Tom Cardoso (The Globe and Mail)
Sidewalk Lab negotiations (external link)
RSJ alumni Christine Dobby, Ian McGugan and David Berman were part of the team along with Emma Graney, Jeffrey Jones, Carrie Tait, Kelly Cryderman, Gary Mason, James Bradshaw, Andrew Willis and David Milstead (The Globe and Mail)
Encana to move its headquarters to U.S. (external link)
Feature (Long-Form)
RSJ alumni Joe Castaldo and Alexandra Posadzki were part of the team along with Jessica Leeder and Lindsay Jones (The Globe and Mail)
Feature (Short-Form)
RSJ alumna Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News)
In planet’s fastest-warming region, jobs come with thaw (external link)
Investigative
RSJ alumni Joe Castaldo and Alexandra Posadzki were part of the team along with Nathan VanderKlippe and Jessica Leeder (The Globe and Mail)
How did Gerald Cotton die? (external link)
Personal Finance and Investing
RSJ alumnus Victor Ferreira (Financial Post)
The inconvenient truth about responsible investing (external link)
RSJ alumnus Tim Shufelt (The Globe and Mail)
RSJ alumna Sandra E. Martin was part of the team along with Mark Brown, Julie Cazzin, Chris Richard and Daisy Barette (MoneySense)
Canada’s best dividend stocks 2020 (external link)
Scoop
RSJ alumna Rachelle Younglai was part of the team along with Niall McGee (The Globe and Mail)
Barrick eyes hostile bid (external link)
Trade Article
RSJ alumna Kelsey Rolfe (Benefits Canada)
Rise of the machines
Lastly, the RTDNA (external link) regional awards were announced yesterday. RTDNA Canada Honours the Best in Radio, Television and Digital journalism. The annual awards competition attracts entries from across Canada. Congratulations to alumni and their colleagues in newsrooms and shows across the country recognized by this year’s awards.
A big round of applause for all of the RSJ students, faculty and alumni for these outstanding achievements!