Thomson Reuters offers the chance of a lifetime

During the week of October 12 to the 16th, journalists from diverse backgrounds involved in media within the First Nations Community took advantage of a pilot project offered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation designed to assist indigenous journalists to update their skills in multi-media journalism.
The course, “The All-In One Journalist - Multimedia Reporting in the Digital Age ” was held at the Thomson Reuters Toronto Office under the instruction and guidance of Timothy Large, Director of Journalism and Media Programs and former Editor-in-Chief of the Thomson Reuters Foundation who was especially flown out from London and was attended by five people who included Willow Blasizzo media student at Confederation College and web administrator for Sandy Lake First Nation, Jaydon Flett a reporter for APTN, Daisy Fannin, Communications Officer for Temagami First Nations, Asha Said ,Freelance Journalist /Documentary Film Maker and Geoff Shields a Freelance Journalist.
The course which covered diverse subjects such as: What is Multi Media, Tools of the Trade, Visual storytelling-the still image/ moving image, Interview Techniques and Words-Writing for Pictures / Recording Your Voice, was accompanied by a lecture in Professional Photojournalism from Thomas Szlukovenyl, former head of Reuters Pictures and an instructive ‘story telling without borders’ by guest speaker Robert Steiner, Director, Fellowships in Global Journalism, Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto.
Also included in the activities was a tour of the Globe and Mail Offices and the Reuters Newsroom where students were given the opportunity to meet with executives and journalists with the opportunity to ask questions in relation to Digital Media.
As part of the course each attendee was asked to do a media video project of their choice that produced a wide variety of interesting subjects, which were presented to the class for review on the last day.
Large explained how the course was evolved.
“We have never done anything in Canada before on the media development front, usually we focus on developing countries that are in transition or coming out of conflict, that kind of thing so this is a real first, but we wanted to do something for First Nations media.” He continued, “This is a program designed to help journalists who are perhaps familiar with print and a bit of photography, who want to do more in the online space, to tell interactive visual stories combining various types of media to multi media training so we have covered everything.’’
He added it’s a pilot program, a bit of an experiment and I think it has been extremely successful. It’s demonstrated to me that there is both appetite for such a course as this multi media journalism training and I think a need for it so I am hoping we can replicate on a small scale in Toronto this week on a much larger scale in Canada in the future.”
For the students it was time well spent. Fannin commented.“ I feel very fortunate, it’s an incredible opportunity and I really benefited from all the training they offered and can bring that new set of tools home and serve my community. I think there are so many young minds out there that have great ideas and great imaginations and I hope that the program continues many times to serve the needs of the many indigenous people out there with more training.”
Blasizzo added, “I thought it was really great, I learnt a lot of really valuable practical skills that I am going to be able to use working and I am going to be able to apply those skills that were shared throughout the week.” She continued, “I think it’s great that a large corporation like Thomson Reuters is reaching out to First Nations and indigenous community journalists in Canada. It is the first time that they have done something like this in Canada and I hope this is something they continue to do and offer more training for our indigenous communities.”
Flett shared,“ At the beginning, I wasn’t sure what I would learn from it, because a lot of people came here to learn how to shoot video and do interviews which is what I am quiet comfortable with in my job, but I found that I was challenged in a way and it was tailored to what I wanted to learn from it and by the end of it I came out learning loads of important things that were useful for my career going forward.”
Said concurred, “I really liked it, I learnt a lot about how to tell a story, theory of storytelling and different tools that really enhance stories to be more interactive and to give audiences more of an experience. The course is very inspiring in regards to being more innovative and experimental and really taking your stories to the next level using these resources that are part of our industry.”
Shields concluded,“ To me the course was an inspiration to continue in my journalistic goals. I learnt so much and credit must be given to our guest speakers for being so helpful and instructive and to our course instructor for his kindness, guidance and expertise.”
Large summarized, “I really enjoyed meeting all the people in the course. We had people from all over Canada who attended and it’s been absolutely fascinating, a privilege and a pleasure for me to not only spend time with the participants but to hear the actual challenges they face in their everyday environments which are so very different from mine and other places I have seen around the world.”