Christie Blatchford on Jack Layton's death, CBC vs. Quebecor and Twitter: That's what you were reading about on J-Source this year. Here's our most-read stories of 2011:
Christie Blatchford on Jack Layton's death, CBC vs. Quebecor and Twitter: That's what you were reading about on J-Source this year. Here's our most-read stories of 2011:
- “The day I finally lost all respect for The National.”
Tim Knight wrote this piece criticizing CBC’s flagship news program’s coverage of the end of Canada’s involvement in the Afghanistan war. The National chose to place the story sixth in their line-up – after stories on Will and Kate, foreign crime and weather.
- Commenting on the dead: All in the timing?
After Jack Layton’s death, the family and NDP released a letter to Canadians that included one of the most quoted phrases this year. But among the media coverage, there was one column that stuck out from the rest: Christie Blatchford’s. Here, J-Source editor Ivor Shapiro followed the conversation (and controversy) that Blatchford sparked, the taste, timing and public interest of commenting on the dead and questions what is “journalistic” about opinion journalism.
- Welcome to Hell: Toronto Sun
J-Source alum Lauren McKeon kept this one short and sweet and let the Toronto Sun’s fiery and controversial front page speak for itself.
- Glen McGregor challenges Ezra Levant to disclose salary
As Quebecor fought to get CBC disclose the salaries of some of its employees, the Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor challenged Sun News’ Ezra Levant to disclose his on Twitter. Though Levant said no, the exchange furthered the conversation about whether or not journalists’ salaries and/or investment portfolios should be made public.
- Paywalls coming to New Brunswick, ending free access to online news
J-Source’s Kelly Toughill broke this story that Brunswick News would be putting up a hard paywall on the websites of all of its newspapers, effectively ending free access to online news in New Brunswick.
- Is there money in a journalism career?
The age-old question: This was answered by Jeff Gaulin in 2007, yet it was still among the most-read stories this year.
- Twitter: Journalists’ best friend and journalism’s worst enemy
Stephanie Brooks, a Carleton journalism student and a self-proclaimed “wannabe social media guru,” wrote of a trend she was seeing that she deemed alarming: People who tweet being used as legitimate sources in stories, and as using tweets as stand-alone quotes. The story raised a lot of discussion about the role Twitter should play for journalists.
- The top 27 books every j-student should read
J-Source asked you for your book recommendations and then added some of our own picks to bring you this list of great reads.
- Blatchford on Layton: Does she have a point, or was it plain bad?
This story by J-Source alum Lauren McKeon rounds up the initial reaction to Blatchford’s column on Layton (as discussed in story number two).
- She said, he said: two accounts of editorial independence in a B.C. community newspaper
Where does the line get drawn in newsrooms when it comes to the relationship between editorial and advertising? Mycah Luxen and Jon Manchester tell both sides of the story of a community newspaper in Kelowna.