Student freedom-of-information warriors

Here are the Creative Communications Journalism majors whose work you can read in Open Secrets, the annual co-operation between Red River College and the Winnipeg Free Press.

Thanks to Free Press staffers Mary Agnes Welch and Wendy Sawatzky for guiding and shaping the students’ work.

Photo by Wayne Glowacki, Winnipeg Free Press

Ho, ho, ho

Three rocks to which I flee for refuge from the annual orgy of hypocrisy and greed that threatens to drown us, even as our leaders espouse law and order except as it applies to them: yes, in a word, Christmas:

Hollywood is making a few movies for grown-ups, and one of the finest is The Descendants. A real story without special effects or car chases but with plenty of explosions, the psychological kind. Also, best portrayal of a woman a coma since Million Dollar Baby.

The Secret Mask by Rick Chafe, which premiered in November at Winnipeg’s Prairie Theatre Exchange. Wonderful acting and terrific writing that refuses sentimentality.

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt: Call it cowboy noir, revisionist western or “aching celebration of miscreantism,” it’s a ride just as insane as anything by my favourite crazy, Jim Thompson. And it’s great to see book publishers paying to create arresting cover art.

On the horizon, a couple more potential rocks: The Antagonist by Lynn Coady, Oliver’s Twist by Craig Oliver, Margin Call.

If those rocks crumble, I plan to crank up Satan is Real by the Louvin Brothers.

The News is dead. Long live the news

“I saw it on The News.”

“Which news?”

“Umm … I don’t remember.”

“CNN? Fox? CBC? CTV? The Daily Show With Jon Stewart and The Best F#@king News Team Ever?”

”Umm …”

(In an Instructor Voice) “There is no The News. Maybe there was, once, somewhere. Now there is just news.”

Bringing the wars home

Reading the Creative Communications Remembrance Day assignments is a highlight of my year as an instructor.

Students write short stories about a Remembrance Day ceremony. Many of these include interesting and touching details, such as an elderly woman fainting at one Winnipeg service.

Each student also writes about a person who has been affected by conflict. These stories are often memorable.

Instructors encourage students to interview members of their families. Often it’s the first time a grandparent – or aunt or uncle, even a brother – has spoken about the most tumultuous periods of their lives.

Together, the student and his or her family member or friend, or perhaps someone they had not met before this assignment, build new memories.

It’s up to the students to maintain these memories because often, the people they interview are in the last years of life.

Several of the students have made these experiences public by blogging.

Here is a sample: Good work by Allison Bench, Jackie Doming, Monique Pantel and Corinne Rikkelman.

For frustrated editors

Reached your politeness limit as an editor?

Wish you had a tool to express your frustration with the flabby and the mundane?

Here you go.

Courtesy of Armin Wiebe, who has polished a few nuggets in his time.

Ambassador Gary Doer, streaming Nov. 1

Gary Doer, Canada’s ambassador to the United States, will speak to Red River College Creative Communications students at 10 a.m. Central Time tomorrow.

Join us by viewing the live stream of this event.

Please note that this is a Flash-based stream and is not viewable on Apple portable devices such as iPod, iPad or iPhone.

Thanks to John Pura for setting up the streaming.

Lindsey Wiebe, the future of journalism

Following up on last week’s refreshingly retro journalism ideas from a couple of veterans, here are a handful of future-oriented suggestions from a younger member of the tribe.

Lindsey Wiebe, the energetic and readable social media reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press – “the least defined job I’ve ever had” – offered them to Creative Communications students on Oct. 20.

Wiebe, who graduated from CreComm in 2004, backed up her recommendations with her experiences in the unpredictable but rewarding field of journalism.

Do things that don’t seem like what you are supposed to do.

In 2009, a year of layoffs at most news media and closings at some, Wiebe wrangled a nine-month leave of absence from the Free Press, and moved to France.

Smart move: the newspaper saved her salary for almost a year, and then was able to take her back.

Get a wide skill set; learn anything you can.

Next week Wiebe is scheduled to manage the Free Press apps.

Pitch stories your employer isn’t doing.

Wiebe created a niche covering the environmental issues the Free Press hadn’t found a way to handle. She even got to eat local Manitoba food for a month and write about it. In November. Hmm … perhaps not her best choice.

But all this self-invention brings another benefit: confidence about the future.

Wiebe says she doesn’t know if her job will exist two years from now. But, she says, “I’m OK with that.”