CJF-CP News Creator Fellowships Final Report

What I didn’t understand, and the best thing I could have learned, walking into this six -week fellowship is what it feels like to match the speed of news. The Canadian Press is responsible for setting the pace of our country, by confirming every new event, announcement or tragedy that happens within our country’s borders. The speed is overwhelming, but watching the exceedingly talented journalists work in person in the Halifax, Ottawa and Toronto bureaus has leveled up my understanding of what it means to do good journalism.

I know now that community connections are everything. Producing a YouTube Short every day, with variety of voices, a nuanced angle, and editorial balance is a challenge already. But to try and attempt this without a wealth of knowledge about my neighbourhood, about the people doing impactful work in the community, and about the challenges that are frustrating people most would be impossible. Working with the Canadian Press reaffirmed for me that you need to be the most community-oriented person on and off the job to stay grounded in how people feel about nationally relevant stories.

In these six weeks, I was thrilled to cover stories near to my heart, like the deployment of Nova Scotia’s firefighters to the Manitoba wildfires, or canine therapy dogs being introduced to the justice system in Amherst, N.S. But interestingly, it’s also some of the stories that I knew little about going in that thrilled me most to cover, like Canada paying $8.5 billion more to buy F-35 fighter jets, or the implications of Bill C-2 on refugees who are fleeing from gender-based violence. It goes to show that to look closely at any story is to care about it, and to want others to do the same.

What I struggled with most in the fellowship is keeping perspective on my stories. I love to delve deep when I interview people, which often led to 30-45 minute interviews that then needed to be cut down extensively. I can be too precious with the words of my subjects, and wanted to honour their time as best as I can with a nuanced story. Unfortunately, the time constraints of Shorts are strict, and this forced me to be more creative and cutthroat in my editing process. I know now how to make the first three seconds of the story as bold as possible to prevent my audience from looking away.

I am leaving this fellowship with a stronger understanding of the responsibility that journalists carry. To be timely, accurate, interesting, meticulous, skeptical, curious, and always informed on what’s new. I don’t know how journalists, like my desk mate in Halifax Michael MacDonald, or the luminous Tanya Talaga from the CJF awards, have been able to sustain these traits for three decades or more.  But I am undaunted to try and be like them.

I am so grateful to the CJF and the Canadian Press for giving me this invaluable start to my career.

THANKS TO THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF SPONSORS YOUTUBE CANADA AND THE GOOGLE NEWS INITIATIVE