University or college? Try both

A Winnipeg Free Press article yesterday has sparked a vigorous debate.

Got the degree … Now what? by Sarah Petz features five graduates from Winnipeg’s three universities and one from Red River College.  Check out the comments section under the story.

The burden of Petz’s piece is that many university graduates are learning that their education does not translate into an immediate job.

I didn’t think that was news, but I guess it is, at least once a year at convocation season.

On the other hand, Pamela Wankling, the RRC grad– from the Creative Communications program, in which I teach journalism – is already working in her field of public relations.

That’s not news, either. Thirty-five of the approximately 70 CreComm students who will receive their diplomas next week (that’s half of them, or 50 per cent, for the math-challenged) are already working in their fields. Many are employed in Manitoba, while others have landed jobs in Ontario and Alberta.

Based on the market demand, instructors are confident that many of these students’ fellow grads will be working in their fields soon.

I can’t resist an aside. To those people who have been announcing that journalism is dead: Think again.

Graduating CreComm journalism majors are grabbing jobs in television, radio, newspapers and online, in traditional companies and in brand-new ones.

That means a college diploma is “better” or more valuable than a university degree, right?

Not really. They’re different creatures.

A university education encourages critical thinking and broadened interests. A college diploma builds job-specific skills. Together they make an ideal combination.

Want a job in journalism or in almost any other field? Get a university degree. Then come to college.

I’m an Ally for LGBTT*

This week I became an official ally of gay people.

With about two dozen colleagues from Red River College (all but three were women … hmmm) I spent a day with Brad Tyler-West, a healthy-sexuality educator from Winnipeg’s other RRC, the Rainbow Resource Centre.

Brad took us through a quick history of the oppression and liberation of gay people.

He provided definitions, including distinctions between gender, gender identity and gender expression.

So what on earth is LGBTT*? Well, it stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and two-spirit people.

The asterisk denotes people elsewhere on the spectrum of sexual orientation. That means all of us.

Most compellingly, Brad laid out his history of growing up gay and repressed in Australia, then coming out in Winnipeg. He has a 20-year-old daughter (no, she is not adopted).

My colleagues and I made commitments to challenge homophobia. We promise to be safe persons and to provide safe spaces for people to discuss sexual orientation or gender identity issues.

To proclaim our orientation, we post rainbow Ally cards in our work spaces. On the first day of each of my courses I will explain this commitment to my students.

None of this is difficult for me. I am not converting to anything or from anything.

I have seen the barriers placed in the way of the gay men and lesbians in my family and among friends, and I want to help remove those barriers.

Besides, there is a strong connection to the gay community among Creative Communications students and graduates.

Just check the official Pride Winnipeg Festival Guide. The editor, Scott Carman, and all three listed contributors, Braden Alexander, Brenlee Coates and Chad Smith, are grads of our program.

The guide is packed with interesting photos, stories and ads, including a map of the world that highlights lesbian and gay rights.

Want to feel your skin crawl? Check out the five countries in red that mandate the death penalty for same-sex acts.

Or consider the good burghers of North Carolina, who have just approved a state constitutional amendment that bans same-sex marriage and civil unions.

Canada, of course, is a world leader in acceptance of gay rights.

Or so it seemed until a couple of weeks ago, when Raymond Taavel, a former chair of Gay Pride events in Halifax and an editor for Wayves magazine, was beaten to death by a man who used homophobic slurs, according to witnesses.

So we have a way to go.

But U.S. President Barack Obama declared his support today for gay marriage.

So it’s looking good for the Allies.

Afghanistan? What’s that?

Heard anything from Afghanistan lately?

 If you follow Canadian news media, probably not much.

Canadian soldiers have ended their combat role in Afghanistan, but some are still there, pursuing the worthwhile goal of trying to help Afghans build a civil society that will survive after they leave.

Canadians need to hear more about what we are doing there. We need to understand what we have achieved in the decade in which 158 members of the Canadian Forces and four Canadian civilians have been killed.

There has been one recent piece of news: The father of Sgt. Marc Leger, one of our first soldiers killed there, now wonders whether his death means anything.

And Gwynne Dyer, one of our clearest-thinking columnists, told Canadians this week, “The Taliban is obviously winning the war in Afghanistan now.”

That’s a sobering conclusion, and one that Canadians need to discuss.

But while most news media are backing off, it’s heartening that journalists and the soldiers themselves are creating documentaries and publishing books about this most important story of our time.

Canadian Press reporter Murray Brewster has published The Savage War: The Untold Battles of Afghanistan, a detailed, dramatic and thought-provoking account of his 15 months over several years on the ground.

Lt.-Col. Mike Vernon, a soldier and former CBC journalist, has released Desert Lions, a 60-minute documentary. Although the doc has received the approval of the Canadian Forces, it is not mere government propaganda. Its soldiers are real people with real frustrations and fears.

In addition, we are seeing more books written by the soldiers themselves. March Forth by Trevor Greene and Debbie Greene recounts the slow recovery of Trevor Greene, horribly injured in Afghanistan in 2006. On April 7 I reviewed it in the Winnipeg Free Press.

In 2002 we sent our soldiers to Afghanistan with noble rhetoric and, I think, noble intent. The results have been less than satisfactory.

Our news media need to keep exploring this story.

See no evil? Not on TV in court, anyway

Another judge has forbidden Canadians to watch what happens in our courts.

The Canadian Press reports today:

A Manitoba judge says allowing cameras to broadcast the sentencing of disgraced former hockey coach Graham James for sexual abuse would turn the highly charged case into a spectacle and could violate the sex offender's privacy.
Judge Catherine Carlson denied an application Monday by a media consortium to set up two live TV cameras in the Winnipeg courtroom where James will learn his fate Tuesday.
"This case is highly charged enough. It's not going to become a spectacle," Carlson said in her ruling.

A spectacle? I thought the courts were open to the public.

The problem for the public is that few of us can take time away from caring for children, working, studying, whatever occupies most of our days, to head down to the courthouse.

Media lawyer Bob Sokalski made this argument clearly, though not successfully.

Even if we can afford to attend court, the courtroom is likely to accommodate only a few spectators.

This is a perfect setting for live television coverage, particularly in a case of tremendous public interest such as this one.

It’s not as if television is some strange new medium.  It’s at least  85 years old; that's older than any judge now sitting in Manitoba (I hope).

Television was demonstrated in 1927; the opening of the New York World’s Fair was televised in 1939.

Courts, including many in Manitoba, routinely allow journalists to cover cases through much newer media such as Twitter.

In fact, this ruling barring a nearly-century-old medium was all over social media and news websites moments after it was delivered.

I generally support judges against criticism that they are out of touch with the public will. In my experience, judges are hard-working, honest and fair, concerned above all to be able to deliver clear reasons for their decisions.

So this is not a personal criticism of Judge Carlson. No doubt she has carefully considered all aspects of this question.

But surely the time has come for senior judges and the provincial and federal governments to say the public must be invited more clearly into the court system.

That means televising court proceedings.

Covering sports? Don’t uncover any news

From online media to old-fashioned television, radio and print, sports coverage besieges us.

So you’d think a story about a professional league revealing last week that players on one of its most prominent teams were paid to inflict game-ending injuries on their star opponents would be a big deal.

Wrong.

Sure, there has been a bit of coverage of bounty hunting in the United States National Football League. ESPN, for example, said:

New Orleans Saints players and at least one assistant coach maintained a bounty pool of up to $50,000 the last three seasons to reward game-ending injuries inflicted on opposing players, including Brett Favre and Kurt Warner, the NFL said Friday. "Knockouts" were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs" $1,000, with payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs. The NFL said the pool amounts reached their height of $50,000 or more in 2009, the year the Saints won the Super Bowl.

But sports reporters are spending much more energy covering hockey, curling and golf, and even baseball training camps, than on chasing the disgusting details of this headhunting.

Why?

Robert Lipsyte, in his highly readable 2011 memoir An Accidental Sportswriter, argues that journalists are simply too dependant on the people and teams they are supposed to cover.

Scribes learn early never to attack the sport that gives them work; you can trash most athletes, some officials and owners, a few rules and conventions, but systemic criticism is for “rippers” with other sources of income. (page 216)

And while I’m poking sports journalists, let me express my discomfort with publications and broadcasters that climb into bed with the teams they cover: “news media partner of Team X.”

Media that climb under the covers with teams in this way, hoping to amass advertising bucks, are no different from people who climb under the covers with others for money.

One bold exception to this harlotry is The New Yorker, from whose advertising sports enterprises are notably absent. Considering the NFL’s bounty admission, the magazine says today:

In any event, any business that evolves a workplace culture where dozens of people from top to bottom collectively lose sight of the difference between fair competition and corruption deserves to fail.

Sports may be the most over-covered human activity, but for my money it’s also the most under-covered.

Story Monday, Story Funday

Yesterday I asked the Creative Communications Journalism majors to propose stories in a traditional “story meeting,” then research and write them the same day.

Story Monday, in CreComm-speak.

I also assigned them to use Twitter in their research or writing, posting at least four tweets during the day.

The resulting topics ranged from curling to polar bears (Canadian, eh?) to senior citizen benefits and International Mother Language Day.

So how did the students use Twitter?

Some used it to seek interviews, successfully or not. Some reported their whereabouts during the day, GPS-like.

Some teased their stories. “Did you ever wonder how teams get seeded for the mens prov. curling champs? I'm finding out today, stay tuned for more,” tweeted Terryn Shiells.

As I followed the students’ Twitter feed I noticed several graduates of our program, now professional journalists, tweeting during their assignments.

As soon as I mentioned them online, I was deluged with “Me, too” tweets from other grads. Naturally, I had to retweet those messages.

Story Funday, student Emily Wessel called it.

The take-away? Work + social media = fun!

Heart of brightness

Since contact between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans, Canada’s story has been immigration.

Today the Winnipeg Free Press recognizes the diverse and fast-growing community of immigrants and refugees from Africa.

The Africa Edition: Our City, Our World contains dozens of stories and pictures – highlighted by Ruth Bonneville’s beautiful front-page portrait – of Africans in Manitoba and Manitobans in Africa.

Among the intriguing tales: Altona feels like home and African restaurants score Jets business.

It’s heartening to find these previously untold stories in the Free Press, and to see the newspaper emphasizing its competitive strengths against other news media.

Despite falling readership and advertising for their dead-trees editions, newspapers retain large pools of trained, experienced, well-paid journalists.

Rather than reporting only the daily grind of news – crime, press releases and sports – newspapers are uniquely positioned among for-profit news media to research and display major projects such as The Africa Edition.

Good on the Free Press for telling us the latest chapter of our Canadian story.