Story days at RSJ carry on despite COVID-19 pandemic

COVID-19 has forced classes at the Ryerson School of Journalism to move online, but that has not stopped story days for first-year journalism students from proceeding. 

Story days are when first-year journalism students find a current event to report on and submit an article about it on the same day to their lab instructor for their Introduction to Journalism class. It is the first time many first-year journalism students will work to such a tight deadline. 

Students will not be given more than the typical seven hours to do a story despite COVID-19, because traditional newsrooms have not adjusted their deadlines. 

“The theme is to be flexible, fluid, and to pivot depending on student needs and the circumstances that they’re facing,” said Professor Nicole Blanchett, who teaches Introduction to Journalism. Blanchett is a new addition to the faculty and is teaching the course for the first time. 

Blanchett said students will be expected to do interviews over the phone, on Zoom, and through email. Depending on their personal circumstances and the number of COVID-19 cases in the area where they live, students might choose to do in-person interviews with masks on. 

One change that has been made is there will be three story days for the class instead of four. 

Blanchett said COVID-19 has limited Toronto-specific events, but it has opened up stories for students in their own communities. Students will be encouraged to cover stories in their communities that their classmates might not know about. 

Students will be able to reach out to their lab instructors through Zoom, Slack, or phone during story days. 

Blanchett said lab instructors will have the same hours scheduled during normal times, but they will be providing support online. 

She said a piece of advice she has for first-year journalism students for the first story day is to start writing as soon as possible. She claimed the writing process can start sooner than when students start typing, as they can make notes about important points during interviews and plan their stories in their heads. 

This is her first time teaching Introduction to Journalism. Ryerson hired her in July. She started teaching broadcast courses at Sheridan College in 2006, and she served as the head of the journalism school there for 10 years.  

She said story days have to continue because they are part of the RSJ learning experience. 

“Story days continue to go on in every newsroom in the country,” she said. “You can’t stop the journalism no matter what challenges you’re facing.”