This past semester, second-year master of journalism
students at Ryerson University spent six hours a week “saving journalism.” Or
at least that’s what everyone called “Journalism Workshop”. Some focused on foreign coverage,
while others tried new things every week, trying to figure out what would
stick.

Ann Hui, a Toronto Star reporter and about-to-finish
Ryerson MJ, wrote about her escapades on the Star’s intern blog. “Under the
guidance of our fearless leader, Ryerson professor Joyce Smith, we “brain
spa-ed” every Thursday, writing short stories based on classified ads,
sketching action figure-themed self-portraits at the AGO, inventing new sports
(yoga-ski, anyone?) and, in general, making asses of ourselves.

“But (I hope) we all understood there was a greater
purpose to the hilarity. There has never been a time when innovation, creative
thinking and new ideas have been more important for journalism.”

The point of the “how to save journalism” class (actually
called Journalism Workshop) was for students to work in groups and brainstorm
ways to jumpstart the biz and pitch their potential solutions to industry folk.
Hui kept mum on the actual pitches, but calls the experience a “wakeup call.”
She, like many other young writers “happy just to get paid” had been looking to
the big guys to save the industry.

“But, after talking to a few of those big guys in big
offices, turns out they’ve been looking to us to effect change,” she wrote.

“So
it’s up to us.”