成人大片

With so much uncertainty happening around the world, here is a roundup of good news in the world of RSJ. The Hong Kong 360 team has won the , a journalism student has received the and grant and a RSJ TV Doc group has won a for Post-Secondary Youth.

A number of students, faculty and alumni have also been recently nominated for the , the , and . Several RSJ alumni have also been awarded the regional awards.

鈥淚 am thrilled for the many RSJ alumni who were nominated for awards and especially proud of the RSJ students who have had their hard work recognized through awards or nominations,鈥� said Janice Neil, RSJ Chair. 鈥淚t was a bright spot in a school year that ended in a way none of us could have expected.鈥�

In the summer of 2019, the RSJ鈥檚 Hong Kong 360 team traveled to Hong Kong as part of an international journalism course led by professor Adrian Ma. Today, they are being recognized for their work by winning the .

鈥淭aking on a reporting assignment in another part of the world is a high-pressure, demanding experience, one that can really push you to your limits as a journalist. And as proud as I am that they were able to put their reporting and production skills to the test, I'm prouder still of the fact that these students were so professional, respectful and genuinely appreciative of the people of Hong Kong,鈥� Ma said.

Using , they brought viewers to one of Asia's most dynamic and complex places to learn more about the efforts to preserve Hong Kong's heritage and culture. 

鈥淭o be able to travel is such an immense privilege, as is being invited to hear someone else's story. This award is a wonderful recognition of their hard work, but I believe the experience itself was already invaluable to them. Thanks so much to the RSJ and FCAD for supporting this program."

The EMA, sponsored and hosted by the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, celebrates and showcases the achievements of Canadian postsecondary students in journalism, photography, graphic design and communications. 

RSJ student Matthew Lemieux has been awarded a with the help of internship supervisor and RSJ instructor Sonya Fatah. His research work includes a partnership with the Cirque du Soleil Entertainment Group to explore the scope of live journalism for the performance company. 

鈥淭he MITACS award provides students with an excellent opportunity to pursue research about journalism while also getting paid for their efforts. In this case we are exploring new opportunities for engagement with audiences using live journalism,鈥� Fatah explains. 鈥淪ince exploration with this medium of journalism isn鈥檛 a fundamental part of the journalism curriculum at the moment, this research grant provides the student (Matthew Lemieux) with an exciting co-curricular opportunity to explore this area while also deepening his research skills.鈥� 

On April 17, Amnesty International announced the winners of the 25th annual . RSJ students Sarah Chew, Katie Swyers, Martha Currie and Stephanie Liu won the Post-Secondary Youth award for their documentary film . 

The piece explores the reality of human trafficking through the real-life stories of two survivors of sex trafficking.

Judge Samantha Fink said that while many pieces were able to eloquently portray an important human rights issue, this film鈥檚 ability to promote the victims鈥� agency, empower their audience, and reach suggestions of a solution were the main reasons for their choice. 

鈥淲e believe the creators did an excellent job of guiding their viewers into the corners of this local, yet often hidden, significant human rights story.鈥�

The documentary film has also been nominated for the CAJ awards.

RSJ alumni and CBC producers Jennifer Fowler and Erin Byrnes also won an Amnesty International Canada Media Award for long-form audio. They were part of the team along with reporter Justin Ling.

The podcast is a gripping account of how Toronto Police allowed deep-seated, decades-long prejudice against the city鈥檚 gay community impede their investigation into Bruce McArthur鈥檚 shocking serial murders.

And now turning to nominations. Last week, the CAJ released the list of finalists for the 2019 Awards program and the RSJ has quite a few students, faculty and alumni on this list. The CAJ runs an annual awards program that recognizes the best in Canadian journalism鈥攚ith a particular focus on investigative work.

Here are the 2019 nominations:

Student Award of Excellence

RSJ students Sarah Chew, Katie Swyers, Martha Currie and Stephanie Liu

RSJ Doc / Ryerson University

Trafficked is a documentary produced by RSJ students about human trafficking. In this documentary, viewers learn about the human trafficking system through the real life stories of Karly Church and Beatrice Wallace, who are survivors of sex trafficking.

RSJ students Trevor Green, Katie Li, Vartan Bzdikian and Daniel Drigo

RSJ Doc / Ryerson University

To Die For explores the experience of a few Canadians who have requested Medical Assistance in Dying (or MAiD,) and have been denied, because they didn鈥檛 meet the specific criteria outlined by the government. Physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients became legal in Canada in 2016, and in many ways, the health care system is still grappling with related complicated and controversial issues. In order to qualify for MAiD, patients must have a 鈥済rievous and irremediable medical condition with a reasonably foreseeable death.鈥� The main challenge has been trying to implement a standardized system to carry out these requests, and some patients have been denied this end-of-life service 鈥� for various reasons, including mental competency (patients with Alzheimer鈥檚 or dementia have been denied, for example.)

Open Media

RSJ alum Wendy Gillis 

  

Toronto Star

Data journalism award

RSJ alumni Anu Singh, Joseph Loiero Sian Lloyd were part of the team along with Andreas Wesley, Caitlin Taylor, Dan Taekema, David Common, Ellen Mauro, Jorge Barrera, Valerie Ouellet

CBC News

Institute for Investigative Journalism and media partners

IIJ / Toronto Star / Global News / Le Devoir / Regina Leader-Post / National Observer

Nearly 20 students and alumni from the RSJ were involved with researching, reporting and writing stories about Ontario鈥檚 drinking water as part of a .

The students along with Robert Cribb, RSJ instructor and investigative reporter at the Toronto Star, were part of the largest journalistic collaboration in Canadian history with more than 120 editors, reporters, students and faculty members from 10 media organizations and nine universities contributing to the Tainted Water investigation.

Dozens of articles and broadcasts have featured the work of RSJ students and alumni. The investigation has also been nominated for the .

Online Media

RSJ alumni Michelle Shephard, Kathleen Goldhar, Ilina Ghosh and Arif Noorani were part of the team along with Mitchell Stuart, Judy Ziyi Gu, Tanya Springer, Leslie Merklinger and Amy Husser

CBC News 鈥� Investigative podcasts

Daily Excellence

RSJ alumna Briar Stewart along with Adrienne Arsenault

CBC News 鈥� The National

RSJ alumnus Paul Workman

CTV National News

RSJ alumnus Blair Crawford was part of the team along with Elizabeth Payne, Kelly Egan, Jon Willing, Shaamini Yogaretnam, Taylor Blewett, Joanne Laucius, Wayne Cuddington, Julie Oliver

Ottawa Citizen

JHR / CAJ Award for Human Rights Reporting

RSJ alumna Emma McIntosh along with Mike De Souza

National Observer

CWA CANADA / CAJ Award for Labour Reporting

RSJ alumna Kimberly Ivany was part of the team along with Timothy Sawa, Mark Kelley, Loretta Hicks and John Badcock

CBC News 鈥� The Fifth Estate

JHR / CAJ Emerging Indigenous Journalist Award

RSJ alumna Rhiannon Johnson

CBC News 鈥� Indigenous 

The CAJ awards committee has been working on an alternate, online means of announcing and sharing the recipients of these awards for 2020.

The also announced shortlists last week. The award honours a Canadian news organization that embodies exemplary journalism with a resulting impact on the community it serves.

The following two of the five finalists for the large media category had stories produced by RSJ students, faculty and alumni:

Toronto Star for its 16-part immersive digital series 鈥淯ndeniable: Canada鈥檚 Changing Climate鈥� that covered the impact of climate change in every corner of Canada, including:

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RSJ alumna Emma McIntosh also has a story in the series on the .

Institute for Investigative Journalism for the consortium鈥檚 鈥淭he Tainted Water鈥� investigation that uncovered a pattern of secrecy at all government levels across the country about tap water tainted by lead, with stories such as:

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Each year, the Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF), in association with the Canadian Women鈥檚 Foundation celebrates a journalist who provides greater profile to women鈥檚 equality issues, recognizes exceptional research, analysis and presentation through a gender lens in print, broadcast or online news. 

RSJ alumni Molly Hayes, Elizabeth Renzetti and Annie Burns-Pieper have been shortlisted for the . 

Here is a little bit more about them and their submissions:

Annie Burns-Pieper, a freelance investigative reporter at the time of her submission and now managing editor for the Institute for Investigative Journalism, freelance investigative reporter, for her work in The Globe and Mail, revealing the prevalence of sexual violence against Canadian public transit passengers:

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Molly Hayes, crime and justice reporter for The Globe and Mail, for her articles exploring intimate partner homicide and femicide, focusing on a case in rural Ontario:

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Elizabeth Renzetti, columnist and feature writer with The Globe and Mail, for exploring issues such as biased design in space, the lack of female political leaders and why ideologically-motivated killing of women isn鈥檛 treated as terrorism:

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On Wednesday, SABEW announced the for the 6th Annual Best in Business Awards competition, recognizing outstanding business reporting published and produced in Canada in 2019. A number of RSJ alumni were finalists. SABEW hopes to be able to hand out the awards once Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted.

In the meantime, here are the RSJ alumni finalists for this year鈥檚 awards:

Audio or Visual Storytelling

RSJ alumni Sean Stanleigh, Stephanie Chan and Tara Deschamps were part of the team along with Laura Regehr and Ann Lang (The Globe and Mail)

Breaking News

RSJ alumni Josh O鈥橩ane, Jeff Gray and Rachelle Younglai were part of the team along with Alex Bozikovic and Tom Cardoso (The Globe and Mail)

RSJ alumni Christine Dobby, Ian McGugan and David Berman were part of the team along with  Emma Graney, Jeffrey Jones, Carrie Tait, Kelly Cryderman, Gary Mason, James Bradshaw, Andrew Willis and David Milstead (The Globe and Mail)

Feature (Long-Form)

RSJ alumni Joe Castaldo and Alexandra Posadzki were part of the team along with Jessica Leeder and Lindsay Jones (The Globe and Mail)

Feature (Short-Form)

RSJ alumna Danielle Bochove (Bloomberg News)

Investigative

RSJ alumni Joe Castaldo and Alexandra Posadzki were part of the team along with Nathan VanderKlippe and Jessica Leeder (The Globe and Mail)

Personal Finance and Investing

RSJ alumnus Victor Ferreira (Financial Post)

RSJ alumnus Tim Shufelt (The Globe and Mail)

RSJ alumna Sandra E. Martin was part of the team along with Mark Brown, Julie Cazzin, Chris Richard and Daisy Barette (MoneySense) 

Scoop

RSJ alumna Rachelle Younglai was part of the team along with Niall McGee (The Globe and Mail)

Trade Article

RSJ alumna Kelsey Rolfe (Benefits Canada)

Rise of the machines

Lastly, the regional awards were announced yesterday. RTDNA Canada Honours the Best in Radio, Television and Digital journalism. The annual awards competition attracts entries from across Canada. Congratulations to alumni and their colleagues in newsrooms and shows across the country recognized by this year鈥檚 awards.

A big round of applause for all of the RSJ students, faculty and alumni for these outstanding achievements!