Francine Pelletier wins Michener-Deacon fellowship for journalism education

 By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor

Montreal journalist Francine Pelletier was awarded the Michener-Deacon fellowship for journalism education.

 By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor

Montreal journalist Francine Pelletier was awarded the Michener-Deacon fellowship for journalism education.

The annual fellowship allows an industry professional to spend time teaching students at a Canadian journalism school. Pelletier will use the fellowship to explore data journalism and how it can be taught to students at Concordia University in Montreal.

“There’s no end to the things you can do with big data,” she said in a post on Concordia’s website. “I wanted to study it sufficiently to develop an approach that will make sense for most journalists. Ultimately, I’d like to bring it down to an ABC level in terms of what you can do with it.”

Pelletier has worked as a reporter and columnist for La Presse, Montreal’s The Gazette and Le Devoir as well as a parliamentary correspondent in Quebec City for Radio-Canada’s Le Point and co-host of CBC’s the fifth estate. 

“It’s a great opportunity to delve into something very interesting,” she said. “Especially with the ability to take advantage of all of the resources of a university, which, as a working journalist, you just don’t get to do.”

Pelletier will be presented the fellowship on June 11 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa.

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