CONVERGENCE Editor-In-Chief Sean Fitzgerald Managing Editors Ashley Hampson/Michelle Singerman
Who controls the media? Dean’s message William Hanna, Dean School of Media Studies and Information Technology If the medium is the message, does the controller of the medium control the message? This is the theme behind the stories is this issue of Convergence. In an era of interactive reality shows, the blogosphere, personality based “news”, etc., the issue of media control takes on a whole new dimension. Current stories in Canada’s leading newspapers suggest the American election process is being fundamentally changed by response to candidate debates on the internet. Some critics have suggested that “Schreibergate” and the ongoing Mulroney saga are in fact a media production, while others argue that it is the triumph of the press breaking through the walls of obfuscation. Who is right? Who is controlling whom? The information consumers — that would be us — have never been so beleaguered by such a multitude of media sources. Today you can interact in virtual worlds, join ultra-focused online communities, follow the exposés of your favourite blogger, enjoy the embarrassment of the rich and famous on YouTube and track events as they happen in real time on the web. More than ever, it is essential to understand who is controlling the message. Our students take a look at significant Canadian communicators — those who we trust and who influence us; David Suzuki, Dick Pound, George Stroumboulopoulos, Stephen Lewis and Mike Lazaridis all make the list. For “In Hillier we trust”, Tyler Kekewich takes a close look at General Rick Hillier and the role he has played in forming how Canadians perceive our participation in Afghanistan. For “Votes are in”, Will Cottingham evaluates the true “interactive-ness” of several new television ventures that promise
Art Director Jesse Kinos-Goodin Deputy Art Directors Val Maloney/Simon Yau Photo Editor Lauren Den Hartog Online Editor Kate Wilson Section Editors Jeremy Dickson/Moya Dillon Erica Timmerman Copy Chief Adam McLean Copy Editors Sera Ozel/Suzan Park Fact Checkers Will Cottingham/Tabitha Venasse Research Abby Blinch/Matt Shilton Contributors Sunil Angrish/ Rosanna Araujo Tyler Kekewich/Anupa Mistry Faculty Advisers Carey French/Lara King Anne Zbitnew Publisher William Hanna
control of content to television audiences. Jeremy Dickson explores native media representation and the need to change public perception of aboriginal stories and issues. Ashley Hampson takes a novel look at billboards. Her story about Rami Tabello’s quest illustrates the power of this particular medium and the illegality spawned by its effectiveness. In “World wide weapon”, Sean Fitzgerald (editor -in-chief of this issue of Convergence) enters the world of hate-mongering and examines the rich soil for racism and religious intolerance provided in the online world. Who would have a predicted a virtual community of racists? Even scarier is the prospect of the cyber world crossing over into the real world. This is just a sampling of the revelatory and interesting stories attempting to shed light on the perennial issue plaguing the informationconsuming public — are we being manipulated? I hope you read through all the stories of this issue. If you do, I can assure you will be as delighted and educated as I was by the fresh perspectives offered by our journalism students.
SMS PROGRAM CO-ORDINATORS Jane Bongers/Jerry Chomyn/James Cullin/ Barbara Elliot/Carey French/Lorne Frohman/ Michael Glassbourg/Greg Henderson/ Michael Karapita/Vass Klymenko/Heather Lowry/Donna O’Brien-Sokic/Terry Posthumus/ Gary Richardson/Marie Rishea/Michael Rosen/ Lynne Thomas/Ed Wright/Robb Wright/ Ken Wyman/Muthana Zouri Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning School of Media Studies and Information Technology 205 Humber College Blvd. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M9W 5L7 Phone: 416-675-6622 ext. 4111 Fax: 416-675-9730 http://magazines.humber.ca Winter 2008 Convergence 3
TRUTH FEAR OVER
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
CJFE is a Canadian non-governmental organization supported by Canadian journalists and advocates of free expression. The purpose of the organization is to defend the rights of journalists and contribute to the development of media freedom throughout the world. CJFE recognizes these rights are not confined to journalists and strongly supports and defends the broader objective of freedom of expression in Canada and around the world.
Having a strong membership base is crucial to CJFE. Your financial support is needed to help the organization carry out its press freedom and freedom of expression initiatives, both in Canada and internationally. Membership is open to journalists and all who believe in the right to free expression. www.cjfe.org
CONVERGENCE
WINTER 2008
Contents Who controls the message?
Features
Media Studies portfolio 36
On the cover
Scribe 8 Who controls the message? 10 Chill in the air By Sunil Angrish 12 Capturing injustice By Lauren Den Hartog 14 War of words By Jesse Kinos-Goodin
16
Billboard battle
22
Lost stories
28
Dying for truth
By Ashley Hampson
Hype 15 Check the stats By Simon Yau 18 All you need is LOVE By Rosanna Araujo
6
In Hillier we trust By Tyler Kekewich
painting of General Rick Hillier by Elizabeth Reilly
For this issue, Convergence asked journalists, pundits and industry insiders the same question:
WHO CONTROLS THE MESSAGE ON AFGHANISTAN? Look along the bottom of the pages throughout the issue to read their responses.
Stream 20 Famous is as famous does By Moya Dillon 21 Superstats By Adam McLean 24 World wide weapon By Sean Fitzgerald 26 Votes are in By Will Cottingham
By Jeremy Dickson
CJFE 27 Amid the marches By Anupa Mistry 30 Courage under fire By Abby Blinch 31 Trapped in a “madhouse� By Tabitha Venasse 32 Forgotten continent By Michelle Singerman Back 34 Where are they now? 42 Out-a-space: Norman Mailer
By Kate Wilson
By Kate Wilson
Winter 2008 Convergence 5
In Hillier we trust
Canada’s chief of defence, the master communicator By Tyler Kekewich
A
s a member of the Globe and Mail editorial board for more than 15 years, Marcus Gee says he and his colleagues have rarely encountered a more impressive personality than General Rick Hillier, Canada’s chief of defence. Hillier, a career soldier from Newfoundland and Labrador, paid a visit to the Globe’s editorial board meeting in 2006 to discuss his plans for the Canadian military. It was a memorable visit. When Gee, an international affairs columnist at the Globe, recalls that meeting, the veteran journalist uses a word that doesn’t exist. “He was jaw-droppingly good,” exclaims veteran Glober Marcus Gee. “He came in and he was witty, sharp, charming and intelligent.” Gee remembers Hillier pointing out the chronic underfunding and neglect that the military had suffered since the end of the Cold War. Since then, Gee says, he has been impressed with Hillier’s progress and strong appeal to the press. “People listen to (Hillier) and they know there’s no bullshit there,” he says. “The media loves him because he’s good copy. The media loves anyone who speaks frankly. So many people in government and official positions are mealymouthed and beat around the bush and try to cover up what they’re really thinking.” Sgt. Steve Gardiner, an Afghanistan veteran and army reservist with Hamilton’s 23rd Service Battalion, says Hillier seems genuinely concerned for his soldiers. “Politicians will always be politicians,” Gardiner says. “(Hillier) is a soldier’s soldier, and he cares about us.” So it comes as no surprise that he’s willing to lead from the front in support for Canadian Forces to conduct combat operations, in conjunction with NATO, against insurgents in Afghanistan’s dangerous Kandahar region. In a public poll by The Strategic Counsel last July, 59 per cent of Canadians surveyed opposed sending troops to Afghanistan. Still, Hillier was able to convince the Liberal government, and the current Conservative government, that combat in Kandahar was a good idea. “We haven’t had combat missions of this scale since the 1950 Korean war,” says Walter Dorn, an associate professor at the Royal Military College of Canada, and an expert on arms control, peacekeeping and the United Nations. “The decision (to take on a combat role in Kandahar) in 2005 was indeed (Paul) Martin’s and it was strongly
6 Convergence Winter 2008
pressured by Hillier.” Because of the Canadian public’s disquiet at sending troops to war, the government needed a spearhead to rally support for the mission. This job defaulted to Hillier, says retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie, the Canadian soldier-out-front in the Bosnian crisis. “When (former Liberal Defence Minister, Bill) Graham tried going coast to coast, warning of casualties … nobody showed up,” MacKenzie says of the government’s initial attempts at selling the idea of combat in Afghanistan. “When Hill-
them.” But MacKenzie, who led a UN peacekeeping force to Bosnia in the early ’90s, doesn’t agree with Ottawa’s public relations game. “He shouldn’t be the face of the war for heaven’s sake,” MacKenzie says, obviously frustrated. “This is a foreign policy issue. It should have been (former Foreign Affairs Minister and current Minister of Defence, Peter) MacKay.” Perhaps Hillier’s knack for media relations also made him such an important face for the war. “People seem to be influenced by those who
“The media loves (Hillier) because he’s good copy; the media loves anyone who speaks frankly.” - Marcus Gee, Globe and Mail columnist ier goes somewhere, there are 300 in the room, packed!” Hillier took a trip to Afghanistan in October 2007, where he spoke to the troops about the need for extended training of the Afghan military. According to CTV, the Canadian government expressed its displeasure with Hillier’s apparent contradiction of Stephen Harper’s official stance. In May 2006, the Conservatives won a vote in parliament that extended the mission from 2007 to 2009. “There seems to be a feeling in the government that he’s gone too far and he’s becoming Canada’s main spokesperson on this,” Gee says. “But you don’t want to muzzle these guys, because he’s the one with the front-line experience over there.” However, MacKenzie says, the government actually supports Hillier as their messenger — behind the scenes — because “he takes the heat off
have a clear vision of where they want to go, and someone who sticks to that vision,” says John Crean, chairperson of the Toronto-based public relations firm, NATIONAL. “The ability to communicate that passion is what makes a brilliant communicator.” This passion definitely affected Gardiner, who came home from Afghanistan in August 2007. Despite the discomfort that Gardiner suffered in Afghanistan — such as dealing with the constant smell of human waste, rotting corpses and burning garbage that filled the air in Kandahar — his respect and admiration for Hillier remains strong. He says he’s never heard another soldier say a bad thing about the chief of defence. “(Hillier) is the perfect man for the job,” Gardiner says. “He got us the equipment we needed, he gives us support and he’s always over there (Afghanistan). I wouldn’t want anybody else.”
Where’s Rick? Despite our declaration of General Rick Hillier as a master communicator, the chief of defence was unable to speak to Convergence for this article. We made sure to document our attempts to speak with him: 15: the number of phone calls we made to media liaisons at the Department of National Defence. 7: the number of emails we sent to media liaisons at the Department of National Defence. 4: the number of media liaisons we spoke to from the Department of National Defence. 42: the number of days it took for the Department of National Defence to turn down our interview request.
“The media: they’re the ones that are ... acting like gatekeepers and agenda-setters.” - John Crean, chairman, NATIONAL Public Relations
Scribe
Photo/courtesy
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Winter 2008 Convergence 7
Who controls the message? This is a glimpse at the powerful Canadian communicators of today. Who do Canadians trust? Who tells us what we know? To find the quintessential Canadian voices of 2007-2008, Convergence asked representatives from different disciplines to share their thoughts on powerful individuals — people who exude charisma, command attention and transcend what they do. Who controls the message? Take a look.
...on culture
George Stroumboulopoulos “He has revolutionized the news and made it relevant to young people when it’s hard to get people interested in the news. He is the Canadian Jon Stewart.” Mary Agnes Welch president, Canadian Association of Journalists
“He comes across as kind, likeable and non-threatening, yet authoritative and trustworthy. Finding someone who scores in all those categories is next to impossible – yet George is that guy.” Alan Cross program director, 102.1 the Edge
“It’s refreshing to have guys like Strombo present issues that may otherwise be overlooked.” Jason Tiango co-ordinator, marketing and promotions, Dose.ca
...on business
Mike Lazaridis “He puts a lot back into the community … he’s a great example of having a vision and making it happen.” “Mike Lazaridis stands above the pack of Canadian business leaders. He takes risks, melds technology and design, and puts Canada on the technology map.” Robert V. Kozinets associate professor of Marketing, Schulich School of Business Compiled by Abby Blinch, Sean Fitzgerald, Val Maloney, Suzan Park, and Matt Shilton 8 Convergence Winter 2008
Illustrations/Kerr Smith
Stewart Thornhill associate professor, Richard Ivey School of Business
Scribe
✍ ...on the environment
David Suzuki “He connects with his audience, and that’s a skill or an innate ability that not a lot of people have.” Franz Hartmann executive director, Toronto Environmental Alliance
“He’s gone from being the voice in the wilderness to having politicians making a pilgrimage to talk to him.” Keith Stewart climate change manager, WWF Canada
“He has the respect of being a scientist, and he’s able to put complex issues into ordinary language, so that people can understand it.” Bruce Cox executive director, Greenpeace Canada
...on human rights
Stephen Lewis “He’s unparalleled in his conviction and capability to move people to action. When you listen to Stephen Lewis you want to be a better person, you want to take a stand.” Dr. Samantha Nutt co-founder and executive director, War Child Canada
“I think he is someone who doesn’t beat by the same drum. He’s quite knowledgeable and has a broad view of human rights.” Anne Game executive director, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
“He goes for the truth because that’s what Canadians want to hear. He’s an excellent advocate for human rights and an excellent spokesperson for Canada.” Mulugeta Abai executive director, Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture
...on sports
Dick Pound “He’s a really smart guy who cares about getting the message out there. He is someone who cares about his cause and cleaning up sports.” Ryan Dixon writer, the Hockey News
“He actually just finished his term at the World Anti-Doping Agency. His commitment and work is trailblazing. He causes a lot of controversy, but he’s not there to make policy. He’s there to make sport fair.” Steve Keogh manager of communications, Canadian Olympic Committee Winter 2008 Convergence 9
Chill in the air Harper gives media the cold shoulder
O
n May 9, 2007, RCMP officers entered the Environment Canada building in Gatineau, Quebec and approached a contract employee. The officers told him they were arresting him for allegations of breach of trust under the Criminal Code. He was accused of leaking a secret draft copy of the climate change section of the federal government’s Eco-Action Plan. Officers put handcuffs on him and led him away, as his colleagues looked on. The next day the accused employee, Jeffrey Monaghan, 27, read from a prepared speech to reporters at a press conference, saying the entire affair was politically engineered to bully public servants. Taking him out of the office publicly — in front of his peers and in handcuffs — was done in an effort to silence people who work for the government, says Patty Ducharme, executive vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents 150,000 government workers. “(It) was done as a show of unnecessary force. It’s hardly like he presented an imminent threat to those with whom he works or to the police officers for that matter.” Normally, there are investigations or discussions before the police are called, but Monaghan was “perp-walked” out of a government office, Ducharme says. His arrest, she says, has had a chilling effect on public servants: “If you worked in that work environment, I don’t imagine that you’d take that many risks.”
By Sunil Angrish
Murray Molland, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, addresses the arrest: “We know that Mr. Harper takes a very hard position with respect to disclosing information to the media and the public generally,” he says. “Involving the police may very well have been a way to send a message to intimidate employees.” The RCMP will not speak on the matter because their investigation is ongoing, says RCMP A-division spokesperson, Corp. Jean
Canadian Press reporter Jennifer Ditchburn covered the Monaghan arrest, and says she’s noticed a marked difference in getting information from the government. “Not everybody has the ability to speak freely in the government,” she says, “so there’s definitely an issue of message control that’s been taken to the extreme.” Don Martin, columnist for the National Post and the Calgary Herald, says he’s never seen such a tense relationship between the government and the media in his 30 years of covering politics. “Does the term ‘ice age’ mean anything to you?” he jokes. “This is a party that campaigned on openness and accountability and transparency and we are getting zero for three on that,” he continues. “They think good communications is no communications.” - Jennifer Ditchburn, Canadian Press reporter It’s a climate of controlled silence, says Liberal MP Garth Turner, speaking to Convergence Hainey. To date, no new charges have been laid, from a cell phone as he leaves parliament. and since the original press release, no new in“It’s very disturbing in an open-democratic formation has been made available to the pub- environment,” he says, “and also in the inforlic. The original press release was only issued mation age that we’re all part of. We’re all part because the arrest happened in a public place, of the Google generation. This government is and arresting Monaghan in handcuffs was just almost medieval in throwing back to informanormal procedure, he added. tion is power and we’re not going to give it out.” Monaghan was contacted by Convergence, Turner, a former Conservative, was kicked but declined to comment. out of the caucus after making comments on The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), as well his blog that weren’t appreciated by others in as several Conservative MPs, were contacted, his party, including Stephen Harper. After sitbut all declined to comment or did not return ting as an independent for a few months, he calls. joined the Liberals in February 2007. He puts
“Not everybody has the ability to speak freely in the government ... there’s definitely an issue of message control that’s been taken to the extreme.”
photo illustration/Sunil Angrish 10 Convergence Winter 2008
“In something as important as this, it’s the Prime Minister, ultimately … Hillier has been speaking out too, and I think that is
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the blame clearly on Harper. “He’s a very ported. The day before, about two-dozen he has only made two appearances at the controlling guy, and he definitely wants to journalists walked out of a press confer- National Press theatre, Brennan says. His control his government,” he says. ence with Harper. The PMO had asked first appearance took place on October 3, “It’s a government that doesn’t even journalists to put their names on a list of 2007, eight months after being sworn in as allow its own cabinet ministers to give who wanted to ask questions. For nearly the 39th prime minister. Brennan says not speeches without having them vetted two months much of the media refused to much should be made of his appearances, through the PMO,” says Turner’s colleague provide their names to the list before the calling them “baby steps”. and fellow Liberal MP David McGuinty, exodus from the press conference, arguing “The reporters here are so eager to see who likens the Conservative tactics to the PMO should not decide who gets to any kind of movement that they celebrate strategies used by the Republican Party in ask questions, CTV News reported. the littlest success,” he says. the United States. By controlling the Despite some co-operation information flow, you control the from the PMO, Galloway sees reamessage, he explains. son for concern in terms of the Richard Brennan, president of dispute over who gets to decide the Parliamentary Press gallery, who gets to ask questions. agrees with McGuinty’s assertion. “Any thinking person can un“He’s (Harper) a big policy wonk derstand why it would be wrong and I think this is all a big test to see to leave that particular function in - Gloria Galloway, Globe and Mail reporter if he can have a democratic process the hands of the prime minister’s minus, virtually, a free press.” office,” she says. Globe and Mail reporter Gloria “We are the face of the governGalloway, speaking from her press ment; we tell the country what’s gallery office, says Harper has made it If anything, the media helped Harper going on in Ottawa,” says Brennan. “And clear he does not regard the media as be- get elected, argues Brennan. “In 2006 they when we can’t do our jobs (the public is) ing representative of the Canadian public, turned their guns, rightly so, on Paul Mar- not well informed. And therefore, there’s so access is limited. “He is on the record tin, and his problems, and his inability to always the chance the government can do as saying that the media does not give the do anything constructive in terms of lead- things that they (the public) don’t want Conservative party, has never given the ing a government,” he says. “And I think if them to do.” Conservative party, a fair ride. (He) hon- anything, and I would argue this up and But there has to be a limit, McGuinty estly believes that most of us (the media) down, that Harper got an easy ride.” explains. “If you’re working in the pubare biased.” Journalists’ questions aren’t completely lic sector, you have a responsibility as a In May 2006, in an interview with Lon- ignored by Harper’s government, Gallo- public servant and it’s not an unfettered don’s A-Channel TV, Harper accused the way admits. She says she does have access freedom,” he says. “There has to be some Ottawa press gallery of bias, saying they to the Prime Minister’s Office when she semblance of what information is immehave decided to become the official oppo- has questions that are really important, diately discloseable and what is not. Othsition and he will avoid them, instead he and she does get answers. erwise, you’d have a complete system of will speak with local media, CTV News reBut since Harper has come into power, anarchy.”
“Harper honestly believes that most of us (the media) are biased.”
perfectly appropriate.” - Marcus Gee, international affairs columnist, Globe and Mail
Winter 2008 Convergence 11
Photojournalist Philip Maher focuses on global hope and despair By Lauren Den Hartog
12 Convergence Winter 2008
n his extensive travels across stormravaged beaches and sun-baked deserts, photojournalist Philip Maher has seen humanity at both its best and its worst. From the shy, smiling glances of children in India, to roads strewn with bodies in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide, Maher’s experiences have expanded his perceptions about the people left to pick up the pieces after famines, wars and natural disasters. Amid the destruction left by a massive tsunami that swept the coast of Southeast Asia in 2004, Maher found himself in Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia, a region left especially damaged by the disaster. Far from despair, his lens captured the strength and determination of the people amid the ruins. “After the tsunami, it really struck me how strong people were,” he says. “People had just been raked off the land and pulled into the ocean, yet they were still rebuilding their lives and moving on.” Another location always near the front of his mind is the abandoned city of Pripyat, near Chernobyl. He visited the city in 1996 on the 10-
“It comes from our chain of command, that’s all I can say. The media has free reign out there, honestly. Media has gone out with us on
Photo/Philip Maher
Capturing injustice
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“I wanted to do something that helped people. Photography was just the way in which I was able to help children in developing countries.” - Philip Maher
Photo/Philip Maher (centre), Photo/Lauren Den Hartog (top)
Photojournalist Philip Maher year anniversary of the nuclear meltdown, which displaced nearly 500,000 people. Once home to power plant workers and their families, the city now falls in the highly contaminated, 30 km exclusion zone that surrounds Chernobyl. “That was just a very eerie place to be,” he says. “There’s nobody there and it’s sitting there to this day.” These places have stayed with Maher, etched into his memory and the minds of those who view his work. “I wanted to do something that helped people,” he says. “Photography was just the way in which I was able to help children in developing countries.” Maher has traveled to more than 70 countries, documenting disaster and atrocities to raise awareness and encourage relief efforts. “I’m always trying to take people further than the photograph,” he says. “Raising issues beyond a person’s borders helps them to understand the world, helps them to become aware.” As a front man for World Vision, a Christian organization, Maher’s line of work is often dangerous, sometimes taking him to countries where relief workers, especially those from religious organizations, are eyed with suspicion. According to Abby Stoddard, a senior research associate at New York University’s Center on International Cooperation, international aid work has the fifth highest job-related death rate among U.S. civilian occupations, and it is the only one for which the cause of death is predominantly violence. Between 1997 and 2005, nearly as many aid workers were killed in the line of duty as were international peacekeeping troops. Maher recently completed a seven-day security training session in the South African countryside. The workshop helps those in his profession prepare for real life dangers in the field. “We were not told what to expect and the seminars are confidential so participants are not warned about what will take place,” he recalls. At one point, he was hooded for several hours while guns were discharged around him in an effort to simulate a kidnapping. Despite some of the more obvious risks involved with entering disaster zones, Karen Homer, a member of the public relations team at World Vision, says international aid workers
perhaps face something more perilous. “They risk seeing poverty and injustice as an irreversible norm,” says Homer, a friend of Maher’s for more than 20 years. “Some (people), especially those in repeated disaster situations, can develop a cocoon of self protection. They shield and submerge their emotions.” Facing reality in the field, many immerse themselves in their work. For Maher this means taking hundreds of photographs on each trip, only a handful of which will ever make it to publication. He also says there are myriad things his pictures don’t reveal. “I often do not show the horrors of people’s lives. I think people already look at World Vi-
“It really bothers me that news media almost always show Canadians, Americans and Europeans doing aid work.” Maher says he worries people might see him as manipulative if he puts the “full picture” into perspective. Add to the equation the concern for fair representation, which is always on the minds of photographers such as Maher, and what emerges is a constant struggle between accurate representation and exploitation. “People may feel photography is not an activity with many moral issues. In fact, I anguish with moral issues deciding what to photograph, how to document it, and what not to photograph.”
sion programs or publications and wonder if it’s real. It is . . . The fact of the matter is that real people, moms, dads, and children — most of the world — go to bed hungry and it’s really hard for people to really feel that. On the flipside, there is so much good going on. So I try to balance out the good with the bad.” When documenting “the good”, Maher says he tries to avoid photographs of expatriat whites helping black Africans, because it tends to perpetuate a myth that natives are not capable of solving their own problems.
He cites the 1994 genocide in Rwanda as a bleak, but poignant reminder of this thought process. “I saw thousands of dead bodies lining the roads around the refugee camps,” he recalls. Maher did not take any photos out of respect for the dead, and for fear of being labeled a “voyeur”. “I’ll be honest,” he says. “I regret that decision. I realized after the fact that this was an important point in history. If we are to prevent genocide from taking place again, it’s important to document the horrors.”
our convoys, there’s nothing to hide from them, and they see everything.” - Sgt. Steve Gardiner, 23rd Service Battalion (reserves)
Winter 2008 Convergence 13
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War of words How media represents the war in Afghanistan By Jesse Kinos-Goodin here is this old adage,” says CBC reporter Brian Stewart, “that generals fight the war based on the lessons of the past. Well, the same goes for journalism.” This saying is more than appropriate coming from Stewart, host of Inside the Mission and seasoned veteran of international conflict coverage. He eagerly shared with Convergence his opinion of current criticism on Canadian mainstream media coverage of the war in Afghanistan. As with any conflict, there are two sides: the supporters and the critics. “With media it’s always a body count, how many soldiers died or prisoner detainees,” says Angela Hoyt of the Canadian Red Cross, an organization that has had members in Afghanistan for 30 years. “It’s never about hospitals getting more supplies or malnutrition or a food crisis, but I guess those things aren’t newsworthy.” Hoyt’s sentiments aren’t lost on Canadian independent journalists, who are now more than ever answering the battle cries. In the first Iraq war, Arthur Kent made his name as NBC’s “Scud Stud,” and has since turned his attention to Afghanistan using his news website Sky Reporter. “When I got (to Afghanistan) I thought I’d do the Afghan story for six or eight weeks on Sky Reporter and then open it up into Iraq,” he says from Calgary. “It’s such a deep trough of vile and venial corruption and Western-sponsored, anti-democratic practices, that I’ve been going at it everyday since March.” Paul Jay, former producer of CBC’s counterSpin and a Genie award-winning documentary filmmaker, started the international news website The Real News. “Mainstream media take the fact that the U.S. strategy is to have geo-strategic control of oil. That’s okay, you can’t question that,” he says in the Toronto newsroom. “We’ll ask ‘what do we think people need to know that they aren’t being told already?’ ” Clearly, Arthur and Jay think mainstream media is leaving a gaping hole in the coverage of the war. The decision to start pooling coverage this year has become a focus for media critics. “We’ve all been spending an awful lot of money there,” says Peter Kent, deputy editor at Global TV News. Now, with pooled coverage, “anything that’s shot will be available to all networks, which 14 Convergence Winter 2008
cuts costs by about three quarters for most of us. But it cuts the quality of the coverage because you’re only getting one perspective.” Stewart, who says the cost of covering Afghanistan has the potential to be “ruinous,” suggests a positive effect of this trend. “Reporters are now able to travel more than they could before and not have to worry about it, because Kandahar will be covered no matter what,” he says. “Canada has the best set up. They can go in and be embedded but then they can go off on their own.” While Kent says some reporters have been
“With media it’s always a body count, how many soldiers died or prisoner detainees ... never about hospitals getting more supplies.” - Angela Hoyt, Canadian Red Cross
blocked from the embedding system for doing negative stories, his brother Arthur Kent, and Jay at the Real News suggest getting into bed with the coalition is not the best way to get the most balanced story. “Any responsible news organization, as well as having journalists in embedded positions with the military, would balance that by having free roaming, independent coverage teams, and therefore you’d have more than just one perspective of the
“In a time of war,” he says, “the news media must be most skeptical, most adversarial — they should accept nothing and question everything.” This is territory that independent media claim to cover. “It’s not popular to offend patriotic opinion and to offend the government, especially if they finance you or if you’re worried about them in terms of regulatory authority,” says the Real News’ Jay.
NATO troops fire rounds in Afghanistan, where the cost of coverage has the potential to be “ruinous”, says CBC reporter Brian Stewart.
“To our everlasting shame: the Bush administration … Stephen Harper has ceded all political, diplomatic and military big picture command
Photo/Brad Farrow
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conflict,” suggests Arthur, who has also been embedded with the Canadian forces. He says the experience was generally positive. The CBC’s Stewart concedes there is room for improvement. “News is just cut back everywhere. Corporations are not in it to expand philanthropically the knowledge of their audience.” As glaring examples of gaps in coverage, Arthur Kent points to the absence of Canadian news bureaus in Kabul or Islamabad, two key strategic points in this war. For Toronto Star columnist and author Linda McQuaig, the weakness is one of attitude rather than logistics. “Overall, you see a booster-ism in Canadian mainstream media,” she says. “There is this focus on supporting the troops when the actual role of the media is not to rally support, but to accurately reflect what’s happening, and even more importantly, to raise questions.” James Winter, media critic, mass communication professor and author of numerous books on the subject, agrees.
Hype
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Check the stats
Where do Canadians get their information? By Simon Yau
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liché as it may sound, the medium is the message. And, since we’re talking about control, the medium of choice may be the ultimate influence on what message we receive. How Canadians receive that message is measured in detail by marketers, polling services and businesses. The media landscape has changed vastly over the past decade, and the audience is inevitably evolving along with technology. But in a world of push-button e-mail and RSS feeds, traditional media outlets are staying more than just relevant; they remain an important source of daily information for many Canadians. Meanwhile, digital media is gathering momentum. So, the question is, where are these messages coming from?
Newspapers 2006 Total Circulation (100 Daily Newspapers): 4,753,070 sold per day nationally 31,075,551 sold per week This is a 3.3 per cent decline from 2004 – 2006 (both daily and weekly) Radio About 900,000 people listen to CBC1 for at least 15 minutes a week nationwide Nearly 1.2 million people listen to AM680 for 15 minutes a week nationwide
Illustrations/Jason Loo
Television (weekly) 1.63 million Canadians watch CTV news 1.3 million viewers watch Hockey Night in Canada (CBC) 996,000 viewers watch Global National News 2.6 million viewers watch House
Internet CBC.ca: more than 3 million visitors monthly (April 2006 – March 2007) CBC.ca: average audience grew by 30 per cent in 2006/07 Globeandmail.com: 280,000 visitors per day; roughly 400,000 per month Facebook: Canada has 7 million active users Canadian Facebook users average 5.9 hours of usage per week
Sources: CNA, BBM Canada, CBC, Globe and Mail, Facebook.com, Ipsos Reid.
and control to the least competent power in the world, the Bush White House.” - Arthur Kent, journalist, founder of Sky Reporter
Winter 2008 Convergence 15
Billboard battle Rami Tabello and the fight against illegal advertising
W
hen it comes to combatting visual pollution in the city, Rami Tabello is no paper
tiger. He’s a paper warrior. On a recent gusty day in Toronto, Convergence found the activist gathering fresh ammunition for his next bid to become the biggest adversary of billboard salesmen and their friends at City Hall. “They’re putting it up,” he says excitedly. “Here, get a photo of them putting it up.” He’s stopped along a busy stretch of Bloor Street in the heart of Toronto, pointing to a billboard being erected across the side of a white-washed brick building. An afternoon stroll down bustling Bloor Street with Tabello is a sightseeing tour of the city’s most notorious advertisers. “The height restriction on wall signs is four stories and the size restriction is 25 square me-
16 Convergence Winter 2008
tres,” he says. Within the span of one city block, Tabello has already encountered four illegal signs, including a monstrous H&M advertisement that covers 12 stories of a University of Toronto building at the corner of Bloor and Huron Streets. “The billboard lobby is a very powerful lobby, they do a lot of schmoozing of councillors,” concedes Toronto Councillor Howard Moscoe. “The billboard industry makes millions and millions of dollars off their affairs and can afford to hire people to lobby for them. Of course, as councillors, we’re supposed to be immune from all that.” Tabello is the founder of illegalsigns.ca, a website with a small group of volunteers who are dedicated to reclaiming the streets of Toronto and ridding them of illegal visual signage. The stipulations for rendering a billboard illegal
are numerous and include the type of sign being posted, the size of the sign and its placement. Tabello estimates that there are about 4,000 billboards in Toronto, “and about half of them are illegal.” Statements and revelations to this effect, over years past, have prompted various cities across the world to propose rules and enforce regulations when it comes to the advertising industry. São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, implemented the Clean City Law at the start of 2007. The act enforces a complete ban on billboards as well as advertising on public transit, including taxis. No flashing signs, no scrolling text, no skyline domination — it has all been banned in South America’s most populous city. Regulations and limitations on storefront signs are also part of the Clean City Law. Four U.S. states have a ban on billboards: Vermont, Maine, Hawaii
“It’s not so much somebody controls the message, it’s more the assumptions brought into the situation in Afghanistan … (such as) if you
Photo/Lauren Den Hartog
By Ashley Hampson
Hype
8 and Alaska. Further south, Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires — inspired by São Paulo’s bold move — are seeking measures to combat outdoor ads. It’s an encouraging trend for the Toronto anti billboard guerillas, whose website claims the groups’ “hobby is destroying illegal billboards with the rule of law.” Tabello says the victories have been modest thus far: about 60 billboards have been taken down, but at least 40 of those have gone right back up. “Generally the time between a sign coming down and going back up is just a couple weeks,” Tabello says. Though 60 billboards may seem insignificant given the figures, it’s not for lack of trying. Tabello and his volunteers have raised more than a few eyebrows when it comes to their work, particularly among advertising companies and city councillors who don’t see the issue as a priority, but they’ve also gained the support of activists around the world and politicians at home in Toronto. But Tabello points out that billboard companies can apply to city council in an attempt to legalize their illegal billboards. The resulting application is called a variance. “A variance process is permitted for minor deviations from the by-law. For example, a sign may exceed the roofline of a building by a few feet which is a technical violation of the law,” Tabello says. “The variance process was designed to allow signs that meet the intent of the law but are in technical violation, but (this process) is being abused to allow signs that have no relation to the intent of the law.” While this law exists, Tabello explains how advertisers are able to obtain variances through underhanded means. “It is against city policy for a city councillor to accept money on behalf of himself or his ward in exchange for supporting a sign, but what they (advertising companies) do is offer donations under the table,” he says. “For example, a councillor may favour a particular charity or may want a small capital project funded in his ward. This happens all the time and many councillors don’t even know there is such a policy.” Tabello’s response to this has been to launch paperwork guerrilla warfare. Illegalsigns.ca was slapped with a letter in January 2007 from City Clerk Ulli S. Watkiss, restricting the group’s access to new billboard permit information. Tabello says his group had submitted 650 access to information requests over a 12 month period, 500 of which were completed. The remaining 150 were denied. He says freedom of information inquiries,
targeted at the city Buildings Department, have revealed permits for more than 400 signs that do not comply with regulations. “Now that we’ve found this out, the Buildings Department would like this whole problem to just go away,” he says. “He (Tabello) made some claims and we’re investigating them. Certainly they have to be
Photo/Lauren Den Hartog
“The billboard lobby is a very powerful lobby, they do a lot of schmoozing of councillors.” - Councillor Howard Moscoe reported back so we can verify exactly what is going on with these abuses,” Moscoe says. Following a motion passed by Moscoe at a city council meeting in September, the Buildings Department will investigate signs identified by Tabello’s complaints, and will subsequently have to report on their actions. As to the question of whether the Buildings Department has been reporting their findings up until this point, Moscoe says, “they don’t normally, no”. “I can’t speak for what the councillors deem necessary,” says Jim Laughlin, the deputy chief building official with the Buildings Department in the Toronto and East York district. “(But) if community council in this case decided on its own judgment to request various information back from the chief building officials, then we as
staff will provide that to the best of our ability.” Those opposed to Tabello can be broken down into two categories: those who unanimously disagree with what he and his illegalsigns.ca volunteers are doing — in essence, calling out the practices of the government and ad agencies in an attempt to reclaim the streets from illegal advertising — and those who believe his approach and concern are excessive. “It’s turned the issue into a circus and has reduced the Toronto-East York community council into a council with a fetish about signs, rather than one dealing with development and other issues that are far more important than signs,” says Toronto City Councillor Kyle Rae, one of Tabello’s main opponents. Tabello, however, is unmoved by the complaints. “The only reason community council keeps on dealing with signs is because variance applications are continuously made to legalize illegal billboards in Kyle Rae’s ward, and Kyle supports them,” Tabello says. “The cumulative effect of the variances granted in Kyle’s ward, contrary to the Planning Department’s recommendations, is the nullification of the signs by-law in Ward 27. This creates a ward-specific planning regime for signs where the only thing that matters is not the by-law but what the local city councillor thinks about this or that sign. It’s ad-hoc planning.” Convergence’s numerous attempts over several weeks to contact three major advertising agencies — Titan Outdoor, Abcon Media, and Pattison Outdoor — proved fruitless. “Pretty much all of the (billboard) advertisers (in Toronto) are repeat offenders,” Tabello says.
An illegal billboard, spotted by illegalsigns.ca, once filled this frame on Queen Street West in Toronto.
don’t have a foreign presence the place will go to chaos.” - Paul Jay, journalist, CEO of The Real News
Winter 2008 Convergence 17
All you need is LOVE
By Rosanna Araujo
18 Convergence Winter 2008
“The message is tightly controlled by the military ... a lot of it is coming out of the UN. I don’t think Canada knows what the hell they
Photos/courtesy of LOVE
Rexdale community fights violence with photojournalism
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Photo/courtesy of LOVE
R
exdale is tough turf: home to 14 shootings in 2007 at the time of writing. It’s not usually associated with LOVE, but this summer a crew of dedicated students and volunteers set out to soften the image of one of Toronto’s hardest neighbourhoods. Armed with digital cameras and the newfound knowledge of how to handle them, young adults from the Leave Out Violence (LOVE) program hit the streets to capture their community. The outreach program may be new to North Toronto, but it’s been around since 1993; the brainchild of Twinkle Rudberg, who founded LOVE in response to the murder of her husband in Montreal. Since then, it has expanded to other North American cities, targeting youngsters in schools, community housing projects and community centres. Program Director Suzanne Shulman says it is all about offering a chance to heal kids who have encountered violence. “We are not just asking them to come and talk about and deal with their own issues,” she says. “We are giving them the goal to be reporters on youth violence and to communicate their beliefs, their thoughts, their ideas and this gives them a strong sense of self worth.” Since communication is at the heart of healing, it was a natural step to engage students in the art and technique of photojournalism. Expertise came from Toronto photojournalist and educator Anne Zbitnew, who together with Jackson Hayes, a journalism student of
hers at Humber College, met the group of 20 students twice a week. Digital cameras were donated by Henry’s Camera Store. Students were also taught lighting techniques and the use of Adobe Photoshop. “Once we got onto the computers it was like you couldn’t peel them away, they loved it so much,” says Zbitnew. “They learned how to express themselves in a way that is non-violent and not harsh, but is more gentle and more introspective,” she adds, “and how you can say a lot with an image and with words.” Shulman agrees. “One really therapeutic component of the program is that the youth form a support system with other youth that have had similar experiences, and who are now making positive choices, and who are on a path of nonviolence in their lives.” For the participants, the results were more tangible. “I like taking pictures of people, I like taking pictures of situations,” says student Donna (not her real name). “When you take a picture of something you see in an urban setting, you can remember everything that happened that day. You can remember what you ate, what the weather was like, what you were wearing.” Caitlin Etherington, LOVE’s program coordinator, describes the emotional payoff: “Little moments will happen where somebody will put something out there and it will be allowed to be out there without it being judged. I think
those are the moments when you think that something really special just happened ... two months ago that’s the kind of thing that would really be judged.” Etherington agrees with Shulman, “Not all youth that we work with are at the point where they want to sit down and confront the things they have been through head-on. It (LOVE) gives them a way of thinking about what they have been through in a supportive environment, but not in a way where they have to say it out loud.”
“LOVE has taught me to be more tolerant.” - Donna, LOVE participant Shulman says, “Whether it’s through rap, poetry, or art, we focus on photography and journalism in general because we believe that it empowers them to communicate a message.” For Donna, that message is about redefining the image of tough kids in a tough environment. “LOVE has taught me to be more tolerant and to respect people’s points of view more … because you have to grow accustomed to other people’s likes and dislikes.” Shulman and Etherington plan to run LOVE at Humber College again. For their next project, they’re hoping to work with the Radio Broadcasting program.
are doing over there. We’re not getting the full story on all of this.” - Fred Shore, assistant professor, Native Studies, University of Manitoba
Winter 2008 Convergence 19
Famous is as famous does The allure of gossip blogs By Moya Dillon
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n August 24, 2007, Cuban president Fidel Castro was pronounced dead — by gossip blogger Perez Hilton. The announcement turned out to be premature: Castro was actually alive and well in Havana, but enough people read the blog and speculated about its accuracy that mainstream news outlets such as CNN and The New York Times ran items refuting it. The fact that the inaccurate information spread so quickly and so widely indicates the enormous web traffic his site gets — he claims a record 7.1 million views in 24 hours. That is enormous power for a celebrity gossip blogger, and Hilton isn’t the only online gossip source. Canadian Elaine Lui, or “Lainey Gossip”, began her career sending daily e-mails to her girlfriends, recapping the day’s entertainment headlines in her trademark, slightly derisive manner. This led to the creation of her website, which captured the attention of television and radio companies, landing her correspon-
dence gigs with CTV’s eTalk and radio stations like Toronto’s Flow 93.5. “Gossip is immortal,” Lui says of the public’s current fascination with celebrity gossip blogs. “Five hundred years ago people were gossiping in the court of Henry the Eighth and conspiring to behead Anne Boleyn. Fifty years ago, people were gossiping about the White House. These days it’s just au courant to gossip about celebrities.” The immediacy of blogs reflects a concept that professor Mark Federman, a researcher at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and former chief strategist for University of Toronto’s McLuhan program, refers to as “ubiquitous connectivity” or “pervasive proximity”. The concept is that celebrity gossip is so widely and instantaneously available that it makes celebrities more relatable, and we begin to live vicariously through them. “As we read about these people, see their videos, hear people talking about celebrities
of joy and a little bit of distraction into what was a bleak existence in North America and Europe.” Federman looks at the popularity of gossip blogs today as indicative of the new kind of celebrity spawned by reality TV, namely the people who are famous for nothing more than being famous. He thinks gossip blogs offer escapism, but with a heightened sense of schadenfreude rather than vicarious glamour. “For an ordinary person, it’s nice to see that with all the money, all the fame, all the glory comes a very dysfunctional lifestyle. People pay the price,” Federman says. “Celebrities become far more vulnerable to having their human flaws revealed and highlighted and equally they become far more enabled to use their status for good and for change.” This sense of delight in celebrities’ shortcomings is what Lui believes draws audiences to gossip bloggers, and since they are wholly independent of corporate restrictions or relationships, they are free to say what they please. “I think that people got more savvy somewhere along the way and traditional mainstream outlets were missing that. They’re always presenting the angles celebrities want you to know as opposed to, let’s say, the truth,” Lui says. Mainstream media is so keen to integrate gossip bloggers into their programming because they realized they missed the mark on what audiences wanted, she says. “I think now mainstream media outlets are beginning to realize that … they need to fill that void in representing gossip that is palatable to the discerning gossip reader. In the
“Fifty years ago, people were gossiping about the White House. These days it’s just au courant to gossip about celebrities.”
... we are actually proximate to the celebrities. We’re right up next to them,” says Federman. “The fascination with celebrity continues on in the medium that allows us to stay connected with what’s going on in the world anywhere, at any time, and that’s the Internet.” Although gossip columns have existed in some form for many years, Federman believes they reflected escapism to an extent. “In the ‘30s and ‘40s, during the Depression, celebrities brought a tremendous value to the public,” Federman says. “They brought hope, they brought a little bit of happiness, a little bit
20 Convergence Winter 2008
old school, people were just content to think of celebrities as perfect. It’s not that case anymore.” Jason Ford, supervising producer at MuchMusic, puts it simply when asked why they decided to bring gossip blogger Perez Hilton on as a contributor to their daily music and entertainment show, Much On Demand. “It’s what our audience demands. We know our target, we know what our audience wants, and we deliver it to them,” Ford says. “If a blogger becomes really big and a blogger is the new celebrity, then we want to be a part of that.”
“No one controls the message ... (but) the people who give the accreditation to be embedded have some control
Photo/courtesy
- Elaine Lui (“Lainey Gossip”, online gossip writer)
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Superstats The sensory overload of sports broadcasts
Ratings over the last two years - 2007 Monday Night Football (MNF) season, through 12 games ... 8.4 rating / 8.1 million households / 10.9 million viewers per game. - First season of ESPN’s MNF in 2006: 9.9 rating / 9.1 million households / 12.3 million viewers per game. - MNF was averaging 1.4 fewer million viewers per broadcast in 2007.
Illustration Simon Yau
By Adam McLean Are you ready for some football?! The raucous cry blasts into living rooms and bars across North America each Monday night during the NFL regular season like a guns-ablazin’, “Yee-Haw”. Millions of armchair quarterbacks huddle around their televisions with snacks and drinks in hand, ready to spend the next four hours soaking in the pumping juggernaut of sensory gluttony that is Monday Night Football (MNF). Dipped in testosterone and served complete with bouncing cheerleaders, F-14 fly-bys, celebrity appearances and an abundance of statistics; MNF is much more than just 60 minutes of pigskin. This is a battle; a competition for attention between sports and statistics. “We have a lot of people watching the show who aren’t avid football fans,” says Monday Night Football director, Chip Dean. “So we feel that we need to be a little bit bigger than just the game and offer a high level of entertainment.” Despite this high level of entertainment, the broadcast’s high level of viewers is shrinking. According to Nielsen Media Research, Monday Night Football is currently suffering some of its poorest ratings in decades — on October 15, 2007, a game between the Atlanta Falcons and New York Giants produced an all time ratings low with only 8.48 million viewers tuning in to watch. But still, in Dean’s spirit of upping the amusement and appealing to a wider demographic, planned celebrity appearances have become a regular occurrence on many Monday Night broadcasts this season. Vince Vaughn, Charles Barkley, and Jimmy Kimmel have all sat down for a couple of shots in the broadcast booth. And this growth of entertainment to wrestle in new viewers has also led to a growth in statistics to maintain the average football fan. But, if more statistics doesn’t necessarily bring more viewers, why bother? “Money,” says Toronto Star sports media columnist, Chris Zelkovich. “You get these stats during a game and it will be the Taco Bell quarterback completion report. Because these spots have been sold, even if there is nothing to report
they end up on the air.” Two teams fighting over an oblong ball run the risk of becoming background noise as statistics begin to fight analysis and the viewer’s concentration becomes stretched. “This is known as divided attention span,” says University of Toronto cognitive psychology professor, Bruce Schneider. “Unless the information on the screen is highly integrated with the commentary, what you (the viewer) are doing is processing two different streams of information.” This North American style of broadcasting remains just that: very much North American. While Canadian broadcasts for NHL and CFL games might not be as overproduced as games south of the border, they are starting to be influenced by American television, says Ralph Mellanby, author and former executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada. “It’s a problem on both sides of the border,” he says. “(Producers) have too many toys to play with now ... you don’t need 26 cameras to cover the Grey Cup.” International sports broadcasters, like those for soccer or rugby, use a different approach where stats are secondary and reading the game becomes paramount. “My job is to interpret the play, not to tell you what’s going on, because you can see what is going on,” says Toronto FC commentator Nigel Reed. Reed, a Briton who spent 20 years calling English soccer before making the move to Toronto, says the statistical approach in European sports is much more simplified than it is across the Atlantic. In Europe, most stats aren’t regarded as consequential. “Its just not part of our
culture, it is as simple as that. It never has been,” says Reed. “The only statistic that’s important is the final score really. We don’t care about how many saves were made or how many fouls, barring the score line, the stats don’t matter.” The contrast between these two styles of broadcasting can be striking at times, and Zelkovich sees it as a reflection of the perceived intelligence of the viewers who are tuning in for a particular game or match. “In Europe the approach is ‘you are a rugby fan, you are a soccer fan. You know the game, you know what is going on, we are going to tell you what you can’t see’. While here (in North America) the general feeling is ‘you are not a fan, but we want to make you a fan. We are going to explain this game to you and we are going to tell you all about it and we are going to do the thinking for you’.”
over who gets in, and on the ground, some control over which journalist sees what.” - Peter Kent, deputy editor, Global TV News
Winter 2008 Convergence 21
I first started at CBC Newsworld,” says Robinson, a member of the Haisla and Heiltsuk First Nations from Kitamaat and Bella Bella, in Northern British Columbia. “I would have loved to feel a sense of belonging.” Robinson, who began her journalism career in B.C. as a reporter for BCTV News and as a writer for national magazines such as The Rez and Dreamspeaker, says she was always happy when she would discover another native journalist working in Toronto. But trying to cover aboriginal issues in Toronto has proven more difficult for her than it was in western Canada. “Vancouver has a more visible native community, but in Toronto our population kind of gets swallowed up,” she says. The lack of visibility and CBC’s neglect of native issues frustrated Robinson. “I told the CBC about a year ago that I felt isolated and that other native journalists likely felt the same way,” Robinson says forcefully. As a result, the CBC held a large conference last June to brainstorm ways to improve its coverage of native stories. “Things began to change slowly when I started hosting the First People’s Edition (of Absolutely Canadian on Newsworld),” she says. “I began to see a few more native reporters in the regions telling local news stories focused on aboriginal people and communities.” Despite the positive movement, some critics believe the CBC isn’t living up to its job as a public broadcaster when dealing with native issues.
Carla Robinson, aboriginal news anchor, stands outside the CBC buildings in Toronto.
Lost stories Aboriginal portrayals in mainstream media By Jeremy Dickson 22 Convergence Winter 2008
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sk Carla Robinson to sum up her first day in a big city newsroom and she uses one word: “Lonely.” It wasn’t just that she was a new face. That came with the territory. But Robinson’s was a face that didn’t belong. That was nine years ago and since then, the first aboriginal television news anchor in Canada to work for the CBC has never quite gotten over that sense of being an outsider. “It was quite lonely and isolating for me when
Brenda Chambers, an award-winning aboriginal entrepreneur and independent television producer based in Vancouver, is a Tlingit and a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations in the Yukon. She spent 20 years trying to tell positive news stories about Aboriginal Peoples through a number of programs, including Venturing Forth. Broadcast on the Aboriginal People’s Television Network (APTN), it is first and only national television series dedicated to showcasing aboriginal success in all regions of Canada. “My whole life has been dedicated to telling aboriginal stories of hope and inspiration,” says Chambers, who helped create a media network across Northern Canada that led to the development of the APTN. But Chambers says she is not impressed with the mainstream media’s coverage of native stories. “The CBC is an absolute dismal failure in terms of their portrayal of Aboriginal Peoples,” she charges. “I’ve known Carla Robinson for quite some time and I know the challenges she’s faced with the CBC, but I really think the CBC has not engaged
“Stephen Harper is trying to control the message, the Canadian military is trying to, the media is trying also, but who is winning?
Photo/Lauren Den Hartog
STRONGLY INDEPENDENT
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b any kind of mandate that could or should make a difference,” she says. “They are a public broadcaster and I don’t think they are doing enough.” STRUGGLES Robinson says many challenges need to be addressed to change the general population’s perception of aboriginal stories. “There’s a certain culture that has built up stereotypes of who is acceptable and who’s not,” she says. “Then the media reflects this and people become entrenched in these patterns.” Robinson, who won the Norman Jewison Award for Journalism for Native Canadians in 1995, says other networks, such as CTV and Global, are only now trying to learn how to support and communicate with First Nations. “They don’t see it as a priority to reach out to three per cent of the population, but I think Canadians want to know about Aboriginal People, our knowledge, wisdom, our views on global warming. Who has been asking us about that?” NEW HORIZONS If numbers are an important component of coverage, then a trend developing in Western and Northern Canada might provide part of the solution to concerns of media marginalization of native peoples. A 2005 Statscan study, Projections of the Aboriginal Populations, suggests Aboriginal People’s will account for roughly 4.1 per cent of Canada’s population by 2017 and is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 1.8 per cent, more than twice the rate for the general population.
Photo/courtesy
Susan Aglukark on Aboriginal issues and the media
“The number of kids in the West is just scary,” says Dr. Fred Shore, an assistant professor at the University of Manitoba who specializes in Métis history and political issues of the Inuit, First Nations and Métis People. Shore says it is unfortunate that the mainstream media, in many cases, still associate Aboriginal People with negative things like alcoholism. “News-people tend to report what sells and
“The stories that our students get are from the grassroots,” she says. “They can get access into the reserves, whereas a lot of mainstream journalists can’t get that.” The FNTI program is based on the journalism diploma developed by Toronto’s Humber college, with courses adapted to reflect the aboriginal experience. Sero, a Mohawk, says students are taught to
“The CBC is an absolute dismal failure in terms of their portrayal of Aboriginal Peoples.” - Brenda Chambers, televison producer understand why particular native issues become stories in the media. “They get to the root of why bad things happen and then ask ‘what is the opposite?’ There are a lot of positive stories about Aboriginals that people don’t tell, but they’re not as sensational I suppose.”
the bottom line is we have a lot of issues that involve confrontations.” But that may be changing. Robinson says many young people are doing great things in their communities and their stories are being told: “CBC’s Duncan McCue (an aboriginal reporter) did a story recently on a group of youths in Kugluktuk, Nunavut, who have been fighting for a ban on alcohol in their community to stop their parents from drinking.” Up-and-coming Aboriginal journalists are also telling unique stories of their communities. Students enrolled in journalism at the First Nations Technical Institute (FNTI) in Ontario’s Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory are benefiting because the school’s facilitators and teachers are mostly aboriginal and come directly from the media industry, says Wendy Sero of FNTI Student Support.
Improving this balancing act in mainstream coverage will greatly affect the next generation of native youth, says Shore. “If these children keep seeing negative stories on their own people all the time, it’s not going to do them a whole lot of good in the long run.” At her desk at the CBC, Robinson agrees. “If the population is that high by 2017 and the media try to keep that many people down, something’s got to give, something’s got to happen.”
Inuk singer-songwriter Susan Aglukark has sung songs of hope and inspiration to large audiences around the world, including performances for Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth, Jean Chretien, Jacques Chirac and many other dignitaries. She is a three-time Juno award winner and a recipient of the Order of Canada in 2005. Most recently, Aglukark has become a sought after motivational speaker and her self-esteem workshops are currently in demand. Convergence: How is your relationship with the media in Canada? Susan Aglukark: I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve had good relationships, for the most part, with television, radio and print. I do write about social issues and occasionally on political issues, but I do understand both sides. I see good sides of the media and from my experiences in entertainment, the media has used its voice fairly to speak on behalf of aboriginal people. C: How do you react to aboriginal news stories in the media that focus on conflicts? SA: We all know that aboriginal issues are real political hot potatoes, but to react to them negatively is unfair because they are unresolved issues. I very much stand behind the Aborigi-
nal Community because the more you educate yourself on the underlying issues, the more you appreciate why aboriginals make the stand that they do. C: How important is it for the media to report the “how” and the “why” of an aboriginal issue? SA: It’s critical because the aboriginal tradition of telling stories is such a big part of our culture’s survival. When I relay an issue via a song or story, I have to keep all that (tradition) in mind. And when it comes to sharing stories, it’s critical that we bridge the tough issues, such as suicide, abuse or colonization, with the good sides. C: How will the aboriginal population boom affect native relations in Canada? SA: It is scary when I think about it because we have young kids becoming parents when they aren’t ready to be parents. How will this impact these children and what will these children be like in 15 years? These are the kids that we are trying to get through the education system so there will be many layers to work through. It’s important for us to go out and find the young people who have had an incredible foundation from which to stand on: those with solid families who have sheltered them from the abuse that we all too often hear of.
RISING STORM
The military and government are succeeding in convincing Canadians that we should be there.” - Carla Robinson, anchor, CBC Newsworld
Winter 2008 Convergence 23
Shaila Kibria teaches students in Ontario how to recognize hate sites.
World wide weapon Two decades from its inception hate still thrives online
E
very day at least one person will contact Anita Bromberg to report an instance of online hate. “I remember receiving one message that said I should die,” she says, “and then it called me a ‘fat rat.’” Bromberg works for B’nai Brith Canada, a Jewish service organization, and says her job — as both the director of the legal department and the human rights co-ordinator — makes her a target for hate-mongers. “I try to take it with a sense of distance, I suppose, but it’s hard some days,” she says. “It’s disturbing. It gets right to your very core … you’ve 24 Convergence Winter 2008
got to hesitate some days, when you’ve got kids that you’re responsible for. How is it going to affect your family?” Since the mid-’90s, her group has run an annual symposium on Internet hate, a form of hatred that has become more pervasive than ever, according to Bromberg. A decade ago, the group had about 400 hate websites on its list. Today, that number has inflated to 5,000, and it keeps growing. In 2006, the group received 253 reports of Canadian web-based hate activity, an increase of 54 per cent from the previous year. As early as 1985, before the Internet became
mainstream, extremists were posting on bulletin boards such as the Aryan Nation Liberty Net. Since then, those tasked with policing the net say hate has become a mainstay, with promoters starting to spread their messages and build their ranks through virtual communities and social networking sites. On Stormfront, a white pride Internet forum, users have warned each other to be cautious of Abbee Corb, who they refer to as a “cyber sleuth”. Corb is the open source intelligence operations specialist for the Hate Crime/ Extremism Investigations Team (HCEIT), a collaboration of 11 police services from across
“The White House. That’s obvious, I thought. Canadian media? We are all puppets of the Americans. Everyone else is afraid of America –
Photo/Lauren Den Hartog
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b Ontario. She says extremists post information online that they want people to see, since anyone can view a web page. The real danger of online hate stems from social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, and emerging virtual communities such as Second Life and IMVU, where users can interact through personalized 3D avatars. “Law enforcement is starting to really get into these areas,” she says. “They’re becoming more problematic and scarier to the people in the real world.” When it comes to monitoring hate groups, HCEIT places an emphasis on the prevention of violent acts. Investigators track the online
“It’s healthy for people to be reminded every once in a while of what kinds of views a few fringe lunatics in the country hold.” -Wayne Sumner, professor and author footprints of groups that are “of interest” so that police are able to prevent a crime from happening, says team leader Sgt. Don McKinnon. However, McKinnon acknowledges there are challenges to monitoring online hate, partly because Internet lowlifes rarely have histories of violence with police agencies. “But, they are seeds of violence (within) the community,” he says. “Policing is still miles behind the cyber world, but the cyber world is quickly crossing over into the real world.” And no longer is this a community where hatemongers are mainly skinheads. “There’s black versus white, white versus black, white supremacist, anti-Jewish, antiFirst Nations, the First Nations that are antiwhite, anti-establishment, Muslim sites, Arabic sites … the Internet is a big place.” Online hate can also appear in more subtle forms, such as misinformation. The site martinlutherking.org presents itself as a “true historical examination” of King, but then gives a list of racist articles and invites students to take a quiz based on a revisionist version of King’s history. Shaila Kibria, a self-described “community worker” from Mississauga, Ont., has stumbled upon sites that appear to be reputable pages on Islam, but end up criticizing the religion and providing false information. She says this becomes a problem when non-Muslim people want to learn more about the Qur’an, but encounter the wrong information, such as the idea that Islam allows wife beating.
Kibria has many roles in the activist world — she is a public speaker, children’s author and the founder of Students Against Islamophobia (SAI) at the University of Toronto — and she shares her knowledge of these pseudo-sites with students across Ontario. After she established SAI, white supremacists started posting her photo online and calling for Canada to remain a white country. “If you type in ‘Shaila Kibria’ on Google, you’ll see the blogs,” she says. “They’re like, ‘Where’s the country gone? The country that our grandfathers fought for?’” Though she believes in free speech, Kibria says hate groups use this as a shield. “The truth is, as human beings, we can tell when someone is being hateful,” she says. “So, let’s get rid of all these terms — hate speech, freedom of speech — and just come to the basic fact … you know when someone is being rude to you … let’s stop the acting. Under our skin, we all have the same red blood.” In Canada, hate-mongers can be punished if they violate section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act, which bans the use of the Internet to transmit hate messages. Punishment ranges from cease-and-desist orders to fines, such as that imposed on Jessica Beaumont, a Calgary woman who was fined $1,500 in October by a Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) tribunal for posting hate messages against minority groups. Wayne Sumner, a University of Toronto philosophy professor and author of The Hateful and the Obscene: Studies in the Limits of Free Expression, disagrees with the CHRC’s decision to issue cease-and-desist orders against hatemongers. He believes hate speech shouldn’t be regulated unless it incites people to commit hate crimes. “It’s healthy for people to be reminded every once in a while of what kinds of views a few fringe lunatics in the country hold,” he says. “We’re better off if it’s out in the open … rather than suppressed.” Prosecuting hate-mongers simply creates martyrs and more publicity for their causes, he warns. B’nai Brith’s Bromberg says it saddens her when hate-mongers wrap themselves in the flag of free speech: “They’re the ones that are upholding our constitution and charter rights? If that’s the world we’re in, then I despair. “What I find particularly sad is that when my parents were young, despite all their problems, I think they held on to the hope that all this was going to be gone one day,” she says. “But, with terrorism and hate on the Internet and everything else now, I can’t imagine anybody holding onto that. The sad part is, when I look at my kids, I can’t promise them a better world. And for that … I find that an unforgivable situation.”
A Tool for terrorism How can we explain the connection between extremist websites and acts of terrorism? To help answer this question, Convergence spoke to Stewart Bell, senior reporter for the National Post and the author of Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the World. Convergence: How does the Internet help nurture terrorism in Canada? Stewart Bell: A confused young Canadian can now sit in his bedroom in Montreal or Toronto or Ottawa and completely immerse himself in the jihadi subculture. He can get radicalized, trained and tasked the same way he would have a few years ago at Khalden Camp or al Farooq Camp (military training camps in Afghanistan that were allegedly run by al Qaeda). The Internet has allowed extremists to engage in virtual networking — individuals in Canada can link up with likeminded radicals in the United Kingdom, Bosnia, Sweden and all over the world. They feed off each other’s ignorance and anger and in some cases, come together to plan acts of terrorism. Terrorism is not just violence. It is violence with a message. In the past, terrorist groups used to set off a bomb and then drop off a statement at the office of a news agency. Now they use the Internet for that. C: How difficult is it for police to find these password-protected forums, shut them down or catch the people who are posting? SB: It’s easy to find and penetrate these groups. It’s easy to figure out who is on them by tracing their IP addresses. But why would police want to shut them down? These forums allow police and intelligence to keep track of who is radicalizing and whom they are linked with. And even if they did make arrests, what crime would they charge them with?
all the media. The only media that’s truthful is alternative media.” - Shaila Kibria, community worker, children’s author, public speaker
Winter 2008 Convergence 25
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Votes are in
Viewers choose their own adventure By Will Cottingham
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udiences are demanding power over the television they watch, but not all of the players in the process believe this is a good idea. Reality shows such Canadian Idol and Dancing with the Stars have made audience voting and interaction common practice, but the prospect of NBC’s Origins — a spin-off from the successful Heroes franchise — is adding something new to the mix. Planning to start sometime in 2008 — as of the time of writing, the series has been delayed because of the Writers Guild of America strike — Origins will introduce a new character each week. With the completion of all six scheduled episodes, viewers will have the opportunity to vote on a new ‘hero’ to join the permanent cast. While it seems like networks are putting more control in the hands of the audience, the Toronto Sun’s television columnist, Bill Harris, says it is just a crafted illusion. “No producers are going to give the audience an opportunity to choose something that the producers themselves haven’t already thought of as a possibility,” he says. “It’s like the old lawyers’ mantra: never ask a question to which you don’t already know the answer.” It isn’t feasible to give the audience any kind of real say, Harris explains. “If you’re running a show, just for practical purposes, you can’t hand over control of the show to fans, because then it’s not your show anymore. But you can come up with ways . . . to make the fans feel as if they somehow are involved.” The producers of TVO’s Diamond Road believe they have come up with such a way. After viewing the television program, fans are 26 Convergence Winter 2008
encouraged to log on to Diamond Road Online, a program that allows users to create their own online documentary from project footage — included in both the original production as well as additional film — and make recommendations to future users. “We wanted to facilitate an experience that actually belonged online,” says Diamond Road Online co-producer David Oppenheim. “Something that took the ideas and the content of the television series, the documentary, and fundamentally involve the audience in that.” By allowing viewers to manipulate footage from the television broadcast, the website offers users a sense of control over the material, he said. The online manipulation does not affect the official documentary. While Oppenheim says Diamond Road Online is different, he admits most audience interaction is done for marketing purposes. Charlie Keil, a professor of cinema history and a media trends expert at the University of Toronto, says there is an obvious payoff to giving audiences some perceived level of control over television. Any long-running series must be able to change, he says, and as actors are faced with unpredictable factors — such as illness, pregnancy, and death — the potential for modifications to occur in the script exists. However, Keil says there are complicated reasons why producers refrain from giving the audience real control. “I think it’s quite problematic when you think about something as a finished product,” he says. “Because then, what degree of intervention can you entertain before the whole thing just becomes this Frankenstein monster of different
kinds of intervention?” A single idea rarely emerges from discourse involving many people, but what may be worse, he says, is that a very important voice is usually lost — the voice of the artist. “If you’re an audience member, it’s power to the people,” Keil says. “If you’re a creator, you could say that it’s pernicious meddling (by) the audience in the creative process.” John Bourgeois, program co-ordinator for the Acting for Film and TV program at Toronto’s Humber College, is best known for roles in Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and Queer as Folk. He says actors shouldn’t mind where scripts come from. “From an acting point of view it’s all the same to me,” Bourgeois says. “An actor is hired to bring life into a character in a script, and if they don’t feel happy about the script or they don’t like the script, or they don’t like the story they are telling, the actor simply has to refuse the job.” Orm Mitchell, an English professor from Trent University, is a member of the Writers Union of Canada, and lectures on creative writing and Canadian literature. “I think if you are a serious artist, the last thing you want to do is become a victim of your audience,” he says. Mitchell believes if audience voting had been used on television series in the past, then groundbreaking shows such as M.A.S.H. and All in the Family would never have been created. It “makes it that much more difficult for an institution, like Hollywood, or for television programs to actually create something that is exciting, and is genuinely new and that does in fact appeal to a fairly large audience,” Mitchell says. “They don’t give themselves that chance.” That homogenized product, he says, isn’t art. “I am a romantic in this area,” Mitchell says. “I believe the artist is someone who has a sensibility that can see more, or see in a larger way, and use an art form to express that vision. And if that creative sensibility starts to listen to what an audience wants — why bother?”
“The fact is that’s the job of the government and within foreign affairs; it’s not the job of the military. The military goes off and does what
Phtot/Courtesy Diamond Road Online
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Amid the marches Censorship and control in Burma By Anupa Mistry
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Mizzima, says that although Internet communication has waned since the recent crackdown — he used to receive between 300 and 400 e-mails a day from inside Burma — Mizzima’s stringers and sources are finding other ways to transmit information, including satellite phones and voice messaging centres, he says over the phone from New Delhi. Foreign journalists who managed to stay in the country were documenting the iconic images of the protest, but Myint also credits citizen journalists for helping break the barriers. “People inside the country … they use the Internet very effectively to transmit news and photos and videos to the outside world,” he explains. “They know how to overcome the government restrictions on the net … they’re using proxy, they’re using external servers.” At the same time, cheap and abundant satellite dishes have been smuggled into Burma from China and Thailand, beaming unfiltered news into Burma where, Myint laughs, the people saw themselves protesting on CNN. From his vantage in Toronto, activist Wynn applauds the high tech solution, but says it’s not the answer for most Burmese. In a largely agrarian population that speaks seven languages, radio is still the ultimate equalizer. The Internet “is only for those who can read English and mostly the elite class … but radio is very effective,” Wynn says. Aye Chan Naing, co-founder of the Oslobased Democratic Voice of Burma describes how the junta tried, unsuccessfully, to jam international radio signals in 1990. “Radio is the best way to spread information because the price of radio is getting cheaper and cheaper,” Naing says. “Lots of people can afford Minthura Wynn, a Burmese activist, moved to Canada after living in the jungle along the Thai-Burma border. to have short-wave.” DVB has also expanded into television after voices to circumvent the 45-year-old military re- it’s a problem of access.” Although newspapers, television and radio are state-run within Burma, 15 years of operating a radio service. gime’s iron-fisted attempts at silencing debate. Technolgy is helping change the information Wynn details how information is relayed to Brossel hints at the existence of private, albeit landscape, despite the draconian efforts of the émigrés and back through networks of family censored, magazines. Run by Burmese exiles living in New Delhi, junta to stifle debate, says Naing, who left the and acquaintances using satellite phones and proxy servers to bypass surveillance filtering. India and Chiang Mai, Thailand, Mizzima News country 20 years ago. “When I was in Burma I was almost halfway “People have been squashed and controlled for Agency has been operating since 1998. Along a long, long time,” he says nonchalantly. “It’s not with monthly English-language publications brainwashed . . . You don’t even know what is surprising, people have alternative ways (of get- circulated for Burmese in India, native language true and what is right.” editions are smuggled into Burma hand-to-hand Myint says with insight, “Without an indeting information).” In September 2007 these channels of infor- or via CDs. Mizzima’s websites are also filtered pendent media, democracy cannot be sustained and without democracy independent media canmation were further sealed when state-controlled by the regime. Soe Myint, editor-in-chief and co-founder of not be established. We have to work for both.” Internet and mobile phone services were cut off
Photo/Lauren Den Hartog
ess than 20 years ago Minthura Wynn was living in the jungle, hand-rolling flyers embossed with democratic messages to evade government censorship in his Burmese homeland. Living today in Toronto’s concrete jungle, Wynn and his colleagues at the Canadian Campaign for Free Burma can still mobilize dissent in his old and adopted homelands with no more than the click of a mouse. Looking like the archetype of an activist, sporting a hemp necklace and shaggy black hair, Wynn says he was tired of sneaking around and using a fake passport. After living in the jungle along the Thai-Burma border for two years, he moved to Canada in 1994. “Now I have Canadian citizenship status,” he says proudly in accented English, “so I can support more.” Even in Burma, also known as the Union of Myanmar, technology is allowing some dissdent
sporadically for indeterminate periods of time. Foreign journalists were banned from entering Burma out of fear the country would receive bad press, which may have been spurred by photos of the unlikeliest demonstrators — swarms of usually apolitical, red-swathed monks — being globally broadcast. Shortly after, Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) released its 2007 Worldwide Press Freedom Index: Iceland and Norway tied first for press freedom -- Burma was at the other end of the scale, 164 out of 169 countries. Vincent Brossel, RSF’s Asia Desk officer, is optimistic despite the ranking. “Burma is not North Korea,” he says from RSF’s Paris-based headquarters. “(Censorship) is much worse in North Korea than in any other country.” He estimates that access to information in Burma is at 70 per cent in comparison to Kim Jong Il’s iron fortress where “it’s not a problem of censorship,
it’s told to do and wins the bloody war, but shouldn’t get involved in ... trying to convince Canadians.” - Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie
Winter 2008 Convergence 27
Dying for truth Honouring a Somali-Canadian journalist By Kate Wilson
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t was a dusty August afternoon in Somalia when Ali Iman Sharmarke took his last ride. He and three friends had just left the funeral of a murdered colleague when a sudden blast rocketed their one-anda-half-tonne vehicle into the air. In the searing heat and black smoke created by the remote-controlled bomb, Sharmarke died instantly. The Somali-Canadian was one of eight journalists killed in the East African country in 2007, making Somalia the second deadliest country for journalists behind Iraq according to Reporters Sans Frontieres. In 1999 Sharmarke left the comfort and security of life in Canada to return to his homeland with Mohamed Elmi and Ahmed Abdisalam Adan. With the dream of creating change through media, the three established the country’s first independent media outlet, HornAfrik. Beneath the glittering light of massive Two of three HornAfrik co-founders: Ali Iman Sharmarke (left) and Ahmed Abdisalam Adan (right) in Mogadishu. chandeliers, the bright-eyed 11-year-old appraches the podium. Tara Singh Hayer Award, which recognizes Cana- year-old men don’t cry, but that night I crawled Watching his every move is a packed into my bed and I just cried. I cried and cried.” crowd of Canadian media brass, journalists and dians for courage in journalism. As Liban bounces away to talk to others at the guests, gathered in downtown Toronto for the 2007 World Press Freedom Awards. The boy end of the night, Sahal’s mood turns quickly from Sitting in a cozy Toronto coffee shop with the needs a box to reach the microphone, but there’s that of a proud and smiling father to one more combined sounds of spoons clinking against reflective and somber. cups, the whir of milk being turned into foam nothing diminutive about his message. Sahal sat behind Sharmarke in the car that and jazz playing over quiet chatter, Toronto Star “Reporters have a lot of courage and determination,” says Liban Abdulle, son of Reuters fateful afternoon less than three months earlier reporter Michelle Shephard opens her laptop to find e-mails written between her and Sharmarke. journalist Sahal Ab“I can’t bring myself to delete them,” she says dulle, to the crowd. as she reads through the handful of brief messag“All they want is to es. She laughs when she sees one where he refers make a difference, to her only as “Shephard.” to educate people She knew Sharmarke little more than a year on what’s going on before he died — they met when he toured the in the world. That’s Star newsroom and he later helped her when she exactly what my - Sahal Abdulle, Reuters journalist travelled to Somalia’s capital city Mogadishu on uncle Ali Iman was assignment — but she considerd him to be a dear trying to do. He was friend. trying to educate “He was a person you instantly connected Somalis about the world. Can you believe some- and was seriously injured. He knows what a great with. He was so warm, so personable and he just one could be killed because they wanted a better cost this profession now carries. “You lose a lot,” he says quietly. “You lose a loved journalism,” she says. “He wanted to talk world, a more educated society?” about journalism all the time.” Liban and his father have joined other family lot.” He remembers returning home after surShephard was not the only one who had been and friends to see Sharmarke honoured posthumously for his work — he is the recipient of the viving the attack. “I’m 45 years old, and 45- welcomed and helped by Sharmarke. She says 28 Convergence Winter 2008
“In some ways, because the situation is dangerous, we have a lot of reporters who are embedded with the military ... often now we see
Photo/Judy Jackson
“I’m 45-years-old, and 45-year-old men don’t cry, but that night I crawled into my bed and I just cried. I cried and cried.”
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Photo/Kate Wilson
there was not a foreign journalist in Mogadishu who didn’t know of him. “Not only was he telling the story (of Somalia) for HornAfrik, he was helping foreign journalists to tell it in their papers,” she says. Shephard remembers being amazed at the dichotomy of images she saw in Mogadishu: a beautiful waterfront and architecture from the days of Italy’s occupation, torn up by years of ground fighting. People were warm and hopeful despite the crippling poverty. This same optimism inspired Sharmarke. “He just cared so much about his country,” Shephard says. “He was realistic, but he was never cynical. He always had hope that one day his country would find peace. “For all he saw, that was pretty amazing that he could hold onto that.” This is why his death was so devastating for Shephard. “He just seemed like one of those guys who always survived, no matter what happened.” Journalist and filmmaker Judy Jackson knows Sharmarke and the story of HornAfrik well. In 2003, she released the film Talk Mogadishu: Media Under Fire, which tells the story of Somalia’s first independent media outlet. In October she was asked by the Frontline Club in London to screen the film, which drew her into Somalia again. “Sahal came over (to present the film) and afterwards, about five other journalists who had to leave Somalia came to the screening,” Jackson says. She recalls one conversation with a journalist who, after receiving death threats, had to flee Somalia. “He trekked across Somalia and had to leave his family in a displaced people’s camp,” she says. “He couldn’t cross the border, it took 10 days, but in the end he made it to England and sought political asylum. He still doesn’t know if his family is alive.” For Jackson, the death of Sharmarke is only one sad circumstance in a much larger story. “I’m glad tonight we’re honouring (Ali), but we’re not looking at the big picture of why this is happening,” she says. “I mean I am very, very happy Darfur is being looked at, but we have another situation (Somalia) that we’re just not looking at … it is too late.” A transitional government, with the support of Ethiopia and the United States, wrested power from the fundamentalist Union of Islamic Courts in the last days of 2006. In the wake of what many view as an invasion, an Islamist insurgency has taken root, turning the capital of Mogadishu into a crucible of instability and violence. The situation has escalated into what Ahmedou Ould-Abdullah, UN secretary-general’s special representative for the country, says is Africa’s worst humanitarian crisis. In the battle for control, journalists have become targets. Many remaining journalists are
threatened and radio stations continue to be has returned to Ottawa where he lives with his shut down. Since Sharmarke’s death, the acting family and runs a Somali restaurant, the situation director of another radio station, Radio Shabelle, in Somalia is not an uncommon one. “So many groups, they don’t want the truth to has been killed. The National Union of Somali Journalists has also reported that new legislation be told, so every time you tell the truth somebody drafted by the government would see new mea- wants that truth to be hidden or not to be told to the public or the international community so you sures to control the media introduced. “Everybody knows where you live and journalists in Somalia are getting paid $50 a month, but you can’t go to the police when you get a death threat,” Jackson says. “There’s no one to turn to, to report it to. Basically you’re watching your back all the time … and I said that must be the issue now because Western journalists can’t go to Somalia and it’s very brave people who are risking their lives on the ground to do this work.” In early December, Mohamed Omar Dalha, deputy speaker of Somali parliament, announced Liban Farah, stepson of the late Ali Iman Sharmarke, receives that 145 out of 159 Somali MPs his stepfather’s honouring at the 2007 Press Freedom Awards. voted in favour of a new media law to become a target, you’re stepping onto their toes,” regulate the media nationwide. That was bad news for press freedom, since Elmi says. He is confident, even optimistic, about the it made reporters and editors from independent news agencies accountable for publishing so- media’s presence in his homeland. “Somali media has reached a level that probcalled ‘false information.’ ably it will be difficult to silence all (of it). HorLiban Farah, Sharmarke’s stepson, remembers a nAfrik and other media outlets in Somalia will be particular time while growing up when his moth- institutions, and institutions normally last more er wouldn’t let him go to the movies. Disappoint- than individuals,” he says. “Ali and others have aled, the young Farah went to bed to find a surprise ready lost their lives. But this legacy (media outwaiting for him. Under his pillow there was an lets) will remain.” Part of that legacy is continuing to train a new envelope that included money for the movie and generation of journalists, Elmi says, which Horna note that said, “Don’t tell your mom.” “He was a wonderful man,” says Farah from Afrik has done by establishing an independent his home in Ottawa where he studies at Algon- centre for media training and development. The quin College and owns a clothing store. “I can’t centre, which has been operating for four years already, has been renamed after Sharmarke. say one thing I didn’t like about him.” Farah and his mother, along with Sharmarke’s He says the relationship he had with his stepfather was more like a relationship between best friends across the globe, are also developing “The friends. Even when Sharmarke left Canada, the Sharmarke Foundation”. two continued to speak often on the phone. They would usually talk late at night, before Farah would go to sleep, when it was morning in SoThe situation in numbers malia. It was like this when the two men spoke for the last time. Farah went to bed and woke up 5 million — population of Somalia seven hours later to the news that his stepfather 1 milliom — estimated number of people had been killed. who have been displaced The shock was so great he passed out. 2 million — population of the country’s Farah admits he wanted Sharmarke to return capital city Mogadishu to Ottawa, asking him “to leave that place,” and at 600,000 — people who have left Mogadishu first did not realize how important his stepfather’s 8 — journalists killed in Somalia in 2007 work was for the people of Somalia. This is what 8 — times Radio Shabelle has been shut down he wants people to remember about him. 159 — Somalia’s ranking on the 2007 World “He was doing it for the people, for the people Press Freedom Index published by who couldn’t really have the spotlight or talk. His Reporters Without Borders (out of 169 whole mission was to bring the truth out of a corcountries ranked) rupted situation.” 17 — years Somalia has been without an effective central government For HornAfrik co-founder Mohamed Elmi, who
Afghanistan through the Canadian military’s eyes, which gives them an element of control.” - Michelle Shephard, staff reporter, Toronto Star
Winter 2008 Convergence 29
Courage under fire CJFE awards fearless Afghan journalist By Abby Blinch
“Y
ou know this is Afghanistan,” the minister of justice warned Afghan journalist Farida Nekzad five years ago. “This is my advice to you … don’t write these kinds of stories,” Nekzad recalls of the warning she received from the Afghan politician. Otherwise, he threatened — shaping his hand like a gun and pointing it at her — you could be shot. “BANG!” Undaunted, Nekzad wrote the human rights story she had come to speak to him about, and made sure to note his unwillingness to co-operate. But his threat, like the many she received during 2002 and 2003, left her shaken and constantly on guard.
Nekzad is the editor-in-chief of the Pajhwok News Agency, the sole independent news agency in Afghanistan. She is also the recipient of the 2007 International Press Freedom award, an honour conferred annually by Torontobased Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE). She made her first trip to Canada, just four days after her wedding, for the November awards ceremony. It also happened to be her 30th birthday. “It was so soon, so exciting, everything,” she says in her soft voice. She describes the whirlwind week as “happy days.” Nekzad looks older than her 30 years — her
“I wanted to prove that if a person wants to be strong, she can do it, it’s not just he.” - Farida Nakzad Nekzad continued reporting, but altered her work schedule — sometimes staying as late as midnight or arriving as early as 6 a.m. — to make sure her location was hard to predict. And instead of sleeping, she spent most nights worrying that someone might come and kill her. “Mentally I was not okay,” she says, “especially because I did not sleep for a long time.” The June 2007 murder of female reporter Zakia Zaki, the head of a radio station in Kabul, became a catalyst for renewed threats to Nekzad. She got a menacing call on her cell phone 30 minutes after arriving at Zaki’s funeral. The caller threatened not only to kill her, but to leave her unrecognizable. 30 Convergence Winter 2008
face beginning to show the strain of her role as a leader among Afghan women. Still, her large brown eyes are welcoming and her smile calming. A deferential, almost shy demeanor camouflages a strong-willed, courageous spirit. “For me, she is the personification of what these awards are all about,” says Sally Armstrong, one of the jurors for the CJFE awards and an award-winning journalist herself. “And on top of that she is a woman.” Armstrong herself has spent much of her career reporting on Afghanistan. She sees the role of the female Afghan journalist as integral to changing the country, but knows this is not an easy task. “Their lives are very difficult because the
fundamentalists don’t want them writing what they write,” she says, “they don’t even want them working.” Nekzad dreamed of being a journalist from a young age, and with the encouragement of her father, she persevered. In 2003, she wrote a story for the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR), in Kabul, on women’s rights. She received numerous threats and was told to cancel the story or her life would be in jeopardy. Instead, she wrote a 3,000 word investigative report that had international journalists asking her how she managed to get the story. “From that time I was very interested in writing more tough stories that nobody else could write,” she says. She explains that after the fall of the Taliban, a wave of courage swept through journalists in Afghanistan. For many this fearlessness faded quickly, but it never left Nekzad. “I wanted to prove that if a person wants to be strong, she can do it, it’s not just he.” Her current goal as editor-in-chief is to help other female journalists. She explains that even male editors try to make things difficult for their female reporters. “I want to solve all these problems,” she says. Nekzad’s eyes glistened at the CJFE banquet when she accepted her award, which she said gives a message of support to all female Afghan journalists. But she’s a realist. “Generally women are targets…,” she says. “But especially as a journalist and especially as a leading female journalist. In Afghanistan there is one thing you know: there is no guarantee for a woman journalist.”
“The (Afghanistan) government is the most powerful, they are controlling all the information. The policy of the government is different
Photo/Abby Blinch
Farida Nekzad, editor-in-chief of the only independent news agency in Afghanistan, accepts the 2007 International Press Freedom award in Toronto.
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Trapped in a “madhouse”
Russian article leads to incarceration By Tabitha Venasse
Portrait /Elizabeth Reilly
I
t was supposed to be nothing more than a routine trip to the doctor. But as Larisa Arap waited patiently for the doctor to return with her clean bill of health, he was in the back, making a phone call to the police. Moments later, Arap found herself in an ambulance on the way to the psychiatric ward of a Russian hospital. What spurred this incarceration in July was not outrageous or erratic behaviour of the kind associated with lunacy. It was, allegedly, an article Arap published a month earlier as an activist with the United Civil Front opposition coalition. The article, entitled “Durdom” (“Madhouse”) accused mental institutions in Murmansk, Russia of subjecting child and adolescent patients to electroshock treatment and sexual abuse. Publishing this article enraged the mental institution’s doctors and caused Arap 46 days of terror, according to multiple press releases. She intended her July 2007 visit to the doctor’s office to be a quick stop to obtain forms. Russian law demands that drivers must have forms showing they are mentally stable when renewing licences. She was “asked by the doctor if she was the woman who had written the article. She answered ‘yes’,” explains Nina Ognianova, Europe and Central Asia Program Co-ordinator for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) “The doctor told her to wait, so she waited. The doctor disappeared and called the police; they showed up and apprehended her, loaded her into the ambulance and drove her to the nearest psychiatric ward.” Ognianova says an independent commission examined Arap and decided she had been illegally hospitalized and was not in need of treatment. Though doctors at the hospital deny the article was the reason for her confinement, many civil rights activists and members of the Independent Psychiatric Association continue to
make allegations and demand the issue be investigated. Both during and after her incarceration, Arap claimed she was abused by hospital personnel, saying they tied her to her bed and used unidentified drugs to sedate her. “She reported to the CPJ that someone tried to suffocate her,” Ognianova adds. Ognianova says witnesses at subsequent hearings believed the judges were not interested in hearing Arap’s side of the defence and continually favoured the views of the staff at the Murmansk hospital.
Russian journalist, Larisa Arap, spent 46 days in a mental institution after writing an article entitled “Durdom” (“Madhouse”).
In a letter to the Russian Human Rights Ombudsman, Vladimir Lukin, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression President Arnold Amber pointed out that the hospital ignored Russian law concerning the family’s right to be informed of Arap’s situation within 24 hours of being hospitalized, and their right to see the diagnosis. “Right now Larisa is trying to sue the people
from the independent media.” - Farida Nekzad, editor- in-chief, Pajhwok News Agency, Afghanistan
who unlawfully put her in custody at the Murmansk mental hospital,” Ognianova says of recent activity. “The court officials keep returning to the case because of ‘technical difficulties’ with documents.” The situation echoes USSR-era punishment where psychiatric incarceration was often used as a weapon to stifle and discredit dissent. The Arap case has raised fears that corrupt hardliners are looking for more subtle ways of controlling the press than headline-grabbing violence. According to the CPJ, 14 journalists have been murdered since Russian President Vladimir Putin came to office, and only one of these cases has resulted in a conviction. Peter Tsykov, a member of the board of directors at the Russian-Canadian Cultural Aid Society, believes that the media crackdowns have nothing to do with the government itself. “I don’t think it is because of political reasons,” Tsykov says. “No, mostly this is a question of money, not politics. Many of them (the media outlets) are involved in money scandals, laundering, whatever. Today’s government has enough money to shut up everyone who is speaking wrongly.” Professor Peter Solomon, a member of the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies and of the department of political science and the faculty of law at the University of Toronto, has similar thoughts. “The journalists that were murdered generally were about to — or did — expose things people did,” he explains. “More often than not it’s private business. For the president and those surrounding him, these murders aren’t what they want.” He adds that accusations of the government’s involvement tend to be caused by a predisposed mindset that those in power orchestrate everything happening. He agrees with CPJ’s concerns, however, and says that life for journalists in Russia, specifically investigative journalists, is becoming increasingly more dangerous. “This (Russia) is not a place that rewards serious investigative journalism,” Solomon points out. “If you write something that offends someone in the military or the government, there could be reprisals. It’s a very tough world out there.” Ognianova says that Arap’s daughter was forced to leave her job working in the legal department of a Russian bank. The reason for her dismissal, she says, was for talking to the media about her mother’s case. Arap and her supporters are still fighting for legal recognition over what they are calling Arap’s illegal detainment. Winter 2008 Convergence 31
Forgotten continent
Lack of resources leaves Africa in the dark
W
hen Stephanie Nolen goes to work she’s surprised to bump into colleagues from her homeland. The Globe and Mail’s Africa correspondent has a territory that covers all 53 of the continent’s countries. And she is Africa’s only bureau staffer, from any of Canada’s national newspapers, who is on the beat. That’s a huge problem for Gaaki Kigambo, a Rwandan-born journalist and former reporter for Uganda’s The Daily Monitor. He says of the seven continents, Africa is the one most mired in conflict, yet is the one least reported on. From his temporary desk at Metroland’s Scarborough office, where he has just completed a three-month scholarshsip, Kigambo talks 32 Convergence Winter 2008
about his frustrations with the Western media. He has lived most of his life in Rwanda and Uganda, but is now able to see the lack of coverage first-hand. Kigambo says while Canadian journalists should cover local and national news, it should not be at the expense of in-depth, on-the-ground coverage of events outside of Canada’s borders. His concerns are echoed by many Canadian journalists and critics, who complain that the expense of coverage, a disengaged audience and editors’ demands for quick hits by “bigfooting” correspondents, creates a deficit in Western media’s international conflict coverage. “When you look at the continents, Africa is
the one more diverse,” Kigambo says. “There is a feeling (among Westerners) that Africa is one country. So, the communities in Uganda live the same way as they do in Rwanda, as they do in South Africa, as they do in North Africa, which is different.” Nolen says it’s difficult to cover continuing conflicts, such as the 20-year-long war raging in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), because audiences find these stories redundant. In October, the Eastern DRC underwent another wave of violence, forcing thousands of civilians to flee their homes. “If reporters like me call up their news desk and say we have to do something on the DRC,
“It’s a healthy debate … (but) I think Afghanistan is getting fair coverage.” - Gaaki Kigambo, Rwandan-born journalist
Photo/Jeff Bower
By Michelle Singerman
CJFE
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Photo/Courtesy
the response is ‘well, why this?’ ” Nolen says over the phone from her home in Johannesburg, South Africa. She explains that a “sense of sameness” plagues stories like those on the Eastern DRC and other long-term conflicts. People think “ ‘oh my god, I’ve heard this 10 times before,’ or ‘I don’t understand’ and turn the page.” Nolen says there is room for more in-depth reporting, but it’s costly. There is also a tendency by the media to fall into “racialized stereotypes” when reporting African conflicts, says Amanda Grzyb, University of Western Ontario associate media professor, at a lecture on the media representation of the Rwandan and Darfuri genocides. “In general, Western media on Africa remains entrenched in ideas of colonization,” Grzyb says. People look at these wars and view them as unavoidable tribal conflicts, she continues. “The stories we get from Africa in the ‘90s are about the inevitability of suffering.” This feeling, she says, makes audiences view the problem as out of their hands, causing compassion fatigue. Grzyb says though some conflicts reach the media radar, it is often brief coverage of a complex situation. “There is a difference between awareness and understanding,” she says. Kigambo, having lived and worked in both Rwanda and Uganda, understands the intricacy of certain situations and the difficulty in reporting these stories accurately. “You don’t fly a guy into Rwanda when the conflict (genocide) is at this stage, then (he) has two days in the country and expect him to contextualize the conflict, to understand the differences between Hutus and Tutsis and to make an objective report without wandering through … stereotypes,” he explains. “The point, is if you don’t understand the conflict and you have to file a story in a set time, you have to file a story.” Kigambo is not asking for Canadian media to abandon coverage of international events
Amanda Grzyb, associate professor at the University of Western Ontario, dedicates her life to informing her students and the public about worldwide atrocities and biased media.
that resonate at home. “Canada has soldiers in Afghanistan. So what happens in Afghanistan is very important to Canada, which is very legitimate.” But he asks what happens in countries — Gaaki Kigambo, Rwandan-born journalist where Canada doesn’t have soldiers. “At the they’ll pay for your transport, they’ll pay for end of the day, journalists are forced to write a voice for those who do everything. On top of that, they’ll pay for your not have it,” he says. “If the people in the Congo insurance …” He says working with a journalist who is aldo not have the voice, the journalists should ready on the ground, who knows the country’s provide the voice.” infrastructure, is cheaper and more efficient. And there are consequences to silence. Kigambo gives the example of a man in At the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, Belgium flew reporters into the country to cov- Darfur whose home has just been bombed. er an evacuation mission of its citizens. Later, “Because the person is in distress, (he) is not the news organizations were criticized for cov- able to express himself properly.” He says that ering only the angle deemed of consequence to with each level of interpretation or translation, their readers: the escape of their fellow citizens. the message value is diminished or changed. He’s not holding his breath for an improveWhat went largely unreported was a geocide in ment. Faced with competition from alternative the making. At Grzyb’s lecture on media representation, media, such as blogs and citizen digital journalStuart Laidlaw, faith and ethics reporter at the ism, traditional media in the developed world Toronto Star, says he spoke with one of the Bel- is moving towards infotainment style of reportgian journalists. The Belgian woman told Laid- ing in order to maintain audiences, he laments. law that they faced unpublished stories if they “I think they (Western media) are largely moving away from a broad journalistic responsibildidn’t report what the editors wanted. ity to concentrating on survival.” “If you’re on the ground and you file something different from what the newswires say, your editor will ask you why you don’t have that same story,” Laidlaw says. “And so, essentially, you’re in the wrong.” To Kigambo, excuses of lack of time and money in an increasingly competitive media environment, demonstrate lack of imagination. A solution, he says, could be to establish more partnerships between African-based media, and their foreign counterparts. If conflict does break out in Africa, the partnership will allow reporters on the ground, who have grown up in the situation, to do the reporting. “If this guy (editor) is going to send you to Uganda, the thing is salary and money,” Kigambo says. “They’ll pay for your accommodation,
“... journalists are forced to write a voice for those who do not have it. If the people in the Congo do not have the voice, the journalists should provide the voice.”
“The message is the military source … and the media allow themselves to willingly be manipulated.” - James Winter, media critic
Winter 2008 Convergence 33
Where are they now? Convergence caught up with Media Studies alumni to ask them about their careers. These are their stories.
John Hinnen Radio Broadcasting, 1972 After graduating from Humber’s Radio Broadcast program in 1972, John Hinnen landed his first job at CKLB in Oshawa. Today, Hinnen is the vice-president of Radio News Programming and vice-president/general manager of 680 News. He is responsible for news operations at 51 radio stations from coast to coast. He says the best aspect of his job is that he has watched 680 News rise from the ashes into what it is today.
Franca DiNardo Package Design, 1984 Franca DiNardo, a graduate of Humber’s Package Design program, is currently one of the partners at LOGOSBRANDS, a strategic brand development firm in Toronto. There, she oversees all things creative for the firm, which allows her to partake in her favourite aspect of the job — working with highly creative individuals. She credits her experience at Humber for giving her a strong professional foundation to jumpstart her career.
Michael Hainsworth Radio Broadcasting, 1991
Michael Hainsworth graduated from Humber’s Radio Broadcasting program in 1992. He made his way to CTV News, where he says working as a business reporter allows him “to take complex financial concepts and make them understandable.” Hainsworth loves his job because of “the opportunity to find news behind the numbers and tell an interesting story that otherwise might have been lost.” He says of his time at Humber: “It helped me hone the performance aspects of what I do everyday, (and learn) the importance of not just storytelling, but the way in which you tell it.”
34 Convergence Winter 2008
David Timms Fundraising and Volunteer Management, 2004 Graduating in 2004 from Humber’s Fundraising and Volunteer Management program, David Timms began his second career — as a senior development associate at Carleton University — oceans away from his previous career. “I was an officer in the Canadian Navy for about 20 years,” he says. “I quite accidentally stumbled into the area of fundraising and Humber’s program really helped me learn the nitty-gritty of how things are done.” Timms credits the depth of the education he received and the practical aspect of the program with making the difference in his career.
Tricia Piasecki
Advertising and Graphic Design, 2001
For the last two years, Tricia Piasecki has been a member of the Humber College Advertising and Graphic Design Advisory Committee. After graduating in 2001, and interning at Echo Advertising and Marketing, Piasecki landed a job as art director for both Labatt and Starbucks. She worked there for two years before moving on to be an art director for The Marketing Store. She is currently working in the promotions department at Blitz Direct and Data, a division of Cossette.
Valencio Cardoso
Jason Cook
Interactive Media, 2005
Post Production, 2007/2008
Valencio Cardoso’s job, as a designer at Organic Inc., involves long hours. “I’m really passionate about it,” he says, “so I don’t mind staying late.” At Organic, a digital marketing agency, Cardoso creates concepts for online advertising campaigns. While at Humber he designed posters for the HSF, and says his program director is “the main reason why I actually got into the industry.” Since then, Cardoso’s clients have included Lavalife, General Motors and Bank of America.
Jason Cook describes his decision to enroll in Humber’s post-grad PostProduction program as “the smartest thing I’ve ever done”. He is currently an assistant editor at Panic & Bob, a Toronto-based editing company for television commercials. Cook interned with Panic & Bob while in school and was called back as an assistant editor. He has many roles at the firm and calls this “a dream come true”.
Ashley Carter
Lyndsey McDonald
Journalism, 2007
Interactive Multimedia, 2005
Ashley Carter graduated from Humber’s threeyear journalism program in spring 2007. She writes film reviews for Exclaim! Magazine, is a staff writer at Torontoist.com, works as the online editor at to411daily.com and does freelance writing around the city. “I’m actually making the freelance thing work,” says Carter, adding that she is exactly where she wanted to be after graduating.
McDonald graduated from Humber’s Interactive Multimedia program in 2005 and is currently employed as a Web designer with Kaboose — the largest independent family-focused online media company in North America. “The thing I love about my job is working where my skills and ideas can grow,” she says.
Otilia Pop
John Stahl
Interactive Media, 2005
Radio Broadcasting, 1969
As the only web designer with The Travelweek Group, Otilia Pop says that, in many ways, she is her own boss. Pop, who graduated from the postgraduate interactive multimedia program in 2005, says she enjoys the freedom of her job, which involves designing and maintaining the travel industry publication’s main website and also doing work on the company’s sister sites. While she learned the necessary technical skills at Humber, she appreciates the networking and internship opportunities the college provided. “Humber has a good reputation and when employers saw Humber on my resume … the program really helped me.”
As a student of the Radio Broadcasting program in 1969, John Stahl was general manager of Humber’s campus radio station. Within the year, CKEY 590 AM offered him a job as a technical producer. After working at CFRB 1010 for 15 years and covering stories such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Persian Gulf War, Stahl became a political specialist in 2000 for the 680 News morning show. He currently broadcasts stories to Rogers radio stations across Canada. “Humber introduced us into the environment of radio,” he says. “(The school) provided us access to jobs.” Winter 2008 Convergence 35
Media Studies Portfolio Students from the various programs at the Humber Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, School of Media Studies & Information Technology, go out prepared with working knowledge and experience in their chosen fields. The portfolio section is a compilation of their work, and only a small sample of the potential they hold.
Journalism
Humber Et Cetera, student newspaper Humber school of journalism
Convergence Magazine Humber school of journalism
36 Convergence Winter 2008
Creative photography
Dishohn Walker
Ashley Watson
Joseph Voci
Winter 2008 Convergence 37
Advertising and graphic design Nik Firka
Sarah Lott
Multimedia design and production
Anthony Laksmana
Daniil Deryk Hitesh
38 Convergence Winter 2008
Package design
Brian Rendon
Jessie Olsen
Tammy Beharry
Winter 2008 Convergence 39
Visual and digital arts
Sarah Mousseau
Stephanie Davidson
Winston Lew
40 Convergence Winter 2008
3D Animation
Mike Waliczek
Karl Juhlke
James Murchison
Winter 2008 Convergence 41
Back
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Norman Mailer 1923-2007
A
merican writer Norman Mailer seemed larger than life, but even someone of his stature could not outrun the inevitable. On November 10, 2007, he died of kidney failure at the age of 84. Remembered as a lion, a giant, a slugger and a legend, Mailer was a constant and vibrant voice in American culture for nearly 60 years. As a novelist and journalist, Mailer’s own life was full of outrageous stories that would make great fiction. Topping those memorable moments were colourful renditions of when he head-butted rival writer Gore Vidal, chewed off part of actor Rip Torn’s ear and stabbed one of his six wives with a dirty penknife he found in the street. Mailer was never timid about saying what he thought of others. To him, former president Dwight D. Eisenhower was “a bit of a woman,” Timothy Leary, fellow 1960s counterculture icon, was “a bland asshole” and, according to a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, President George W. Bush is “a spiritual terrorist.” So taken was he with his own strong personality that he often invaded his own writing as a character in his non-fiction work. Norman Mailer Kingsley was born on January 31, 1923 in Long Beach, N.J. and grew up in Brooklyn. When he entered Harvard University in 1939 he hoped to become an aeronautical engineer. But by the time he graduated, he was determined to be a writer. The Naked and the Dead, based on his experience in the Second World War, was published when Mailer was 25. Mailer was a prolific writer, publishing 40 books. According to The New York Times, he was writing a sequel to 2007’s That Castle and the Forest at the time of his death. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice — first for the 42 Convergence Winter 2008
non-fiction anti-war protest account The Armies of the Night in 1969, and second for The Executioner’s Song, the story of death row inmate Gary Gilmore published in 1977. Mailer also helped found The Village Voice in 1952, which provided an outlet for the American counterculture movement that took root following the Second World War. Despite the recognition he received for his non-fiction, Mailer liked to think of himself as a novelist first. “I think the novel is a higher form,” he said in a 2006 interview with Entertainment Weekly. “An earl does not want to be called a count.” Never a shrinking violet when it came to evaluating his own worth, Mailer wrote in 1959 that he wanted nothing less than to make “a revolution of the consciousness of our time,” with his achievements having “the deepest influence of any work being done by an American novelist in these years.” Near the end of his life, Mailer seemed to have been more willing to let history determine his value as a writer. “The question of how good are you is one that really good novelists obsess about more than poor ones,” Mailer said in an interview with The New York Times after his final novel was published. “Good novelists are always terribly affected by the fear that they’re not as good as they thought and why are they doing it, what are they up to? “It’s such an odd notion, particularly in this technological society, of whether your life is justified by being a novelist. And the nice thing about getting older is that I no longer worry about that. I’ve come to the simple recognition that would have saved me much woe 30 or 40 or 50 years ago — that one’s eventual reputation has very little to do with one’s talent. History determines it, not the order of your words.”
Photo/ Courtesy of Mario Geo, Toronto Star Photo/courtesy
By Kate Wilson
Winter 2008 Convergence 45