Canadian Journalism Foundation News: Forum recap, Tom Hanson award, ProjetJ
reception

TORONTO, Nov. 23 /CNW/ -  

CJF FORUMS »                        

MARK LUKASIEWICZ ON WHAT'S NEXT FOR BROADCAST NEWS?

Canadian Mark Lukasiewicz, NBC's VP of News Specials and Digital Media, spoke at a recent CJF Forum on the future of broadcast media, the technology trap and how jobs in TV news are changing. Here are some highlights from the talk:

On technology
The microwave oven was a fantastic idea — manufacturers sold a vision that the microwave would replace everything in the kitchen. The smart people at the time were not the engineers, not the ones that understood how the device worked, but understood how the kitchen worked. At the end of the day, the microwave is for popcorn and leftovers. The people who focused on the technology, ended up losing. So what do we bring to the table as journalists? It's when we take audiences into the lives of people, into history, making a policy human — that's where we do our jobs best. That's where television, particularly when portraying individuals and community, is so powerful.

On "free" information
It robs the producer and weakens the business. We need to make our consumers understand that journalistic work has value, and that the people that make it ought to be compensated for it, not just the people that invented the widget that delivers it to your iPhone. News business needs to be aggressive.

On the rise of "infotainment"
The idea that interest in celebrity is a new thing is not true. Audiences have been interested in celebrity all along. What's interesting now is the creation of niche audiences. Broadcasters had to worry about their content being broad enough. We did a feature on immigration for NBC which was a two hour live conversation. It attracted fewer viewers than Dancing with the Stars, but those who were interested could tune in. Before, we couldn't get a two hour spot. We're having more intellectual conversations than in the past.

» View the EVENT REPORT (http://cjf-fjc.ca/20101116.htm) for additional highlights, photos, webcast and more.                                         

COMING UP »
Join us at our next CJF Forum on January 18, 2011 with JOSHUA BENTON, Director of the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard; and DON TAPSCOTT, author of Growing Up Digital and founder of NGenera Insight business consulting. Details in the next CJF newsletter.

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CJF NEWS »

APPLICATIONS FOR THE 2011 TOM HANSON PHOTOJOURNALISM AWARD NOW OPEN

Applications for the second annual Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award are now being accepted online. They will be accepted from any Canadian photojournalist who has been in the business less than five years - from students to freelancers to photographers working at regional publications - until January 7, 2011.

Last year's winner, Adrien Veczan, completed a six-week internship with The Canadian Press at their head office in Toronto earlier this year.

"The Toronto life is vibrant and wide-ranging," says Veczan, a Montreal native, in his internship report, which features a slideshow of work for The Canadian Press. "The spectrum of what a photojournalist may be called to do is infinite. Within hours, I photographed both Queen Elizabeth II attending the Sunday service at church and a million revellers celebrating the gay pride parade."

» FOR Adrien's report and award submission info, visit the Tom Hanson Photojournalism Award page (http://cjf-fjc.ca/awards_tomhanson.htm)

LIVE COVERAGE ON J-SOURCE.CA

J-Source.ca has rolled out a new feature: live coverage using ScribbleLive. ScribbleLive is a live-blogging platform that allows multiple users to report simultaneously on an event, as well as share photos, videos, links and Twitter comments. Check out J-Source's first live blog of the CJF Forum featuring Mark Lukasiewicz to get an idea of what it's all about.

Want to know what else is going on in the world of journalism in Canada? J-Source publishes an events calendar that publicizes journalism events across the country. If you have an event that you'd like to add, simply email the details to [email protected] and we'll get it on the calendar. Also, if you'd like to see live coverage of your journalism event on J-Source, let us know! Send us the Twitter hashtag and the contact details for any contributors and we'll publish an edited comments feed in our live coverage section. Please send all inquiries to [email protected].

» Visit J-SOURCE.CA (http://j-source.ca)

PROJETJ.CA at the 2010 congrès de la Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec

ProjetJ.ca, the French sister site of J-Source.ca, is co-hosting a reception at the upcoming congrès de la Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec (FPJQ), on the evening of Saturday, November 27. If you are attending the conference, please stop by and say hello to our editors Michel Dumais, Anne Caroline Desplanques and Colette Brin, and committee member François Taschereau. A big thank you to Waste Management for generously sponsoring the reception.

The three-day congrès takes place at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Montreal and features professional development workshops for French-speaking journalists. For more information, visit the FPJQ's conference site.

» Visit projetj.ca (http://projetj.ca)

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LETTER FROM OUR CHAIR »

For three days in October, about 30 of Canada's news executives gathered in Toronto for the second year of the Media Management Executive Education Program, a co-production with the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto. The focus: Effective leadership in an environment of uncertainty.

One of the highlights of the program was Mark Coatney's talk about social media and journalism, which J-Source covered in a recent feature. Another was a panel discussion with Richard Siklos, Chrystia Freeland and Jonathan Goodman on critical issues facing our industry. We polled the participants ahead of time for their concerns -- these are just a few of the challenging questions that were raised and discussed:

• Demographic data on modern news consumers: Who are they? What kind of education do they have? What are they interested in? And are there any long-term demographic trend lines at work here? Also, who isn't consuming news -- what do we know about these people?                           

• What are the emerging revenue models/trends: What works and why?

• How can we manage the ever-growing number of media platforms all requiring different skill sets and business models?

• Now that publications track what content the audience reads, how is this changing the editorial mix and direction?

• How can we manage price erosion and declining revenues while needing to invest in growth and new technologies?

We hope the discussions during these sessions have stimulated innovation in newsrooms and boardrooms across the country. We're already using some of the resulting ideas and feedback to shape next year's program. If you missed out on it this year, keep us in mind for 2011.

Sincerely yours,

John Macfarlane
Chair, Board of Directors
The Canadian Journalism Foundation

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/NOTE TO PHOTO EDITORS: Photos accompanying this release are also available at http://photos.newswire.ca. Images are free to accredited members of the media/

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