Looking for a job in journalism this summer?

The Toronto Star Newsroom Summer 2011 intern programs

Application deadline is Nov. 19, 2010

The Toronto Star offers young journalists two internship programs.

Interns work with full-time staff in a challenging but supportive environment.

All Star internships are paid, contract positions.
We cannot accommodate volunteers, short-term placements or co-op students.
A driver's licence is required for journalist positions (Radio Room excepted).

The Radio Room
The Radio Room requires strong reporting and phone interview skills and the ability to work quickly and accurately.
Radio room reporters monitor emergency scanners, do police checks, monitor radio and television news and report stories that are often crime or trauma related. In addition to writing for the newspaper, radio room reporters file breaking news stories and updates to the website.
The radio room environment is often hectic, so successful candidates must be calm, well-organized, able to juggle several tasks at once; able to persuade sometimes reluctant officials to talk and prepared to interview victims of crimes or accidents, and family members of people killed or hurt in accidents or crimes.
The Radio Room is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week by post secondary students working eight-hour shifts. Several students are hired in late summer to work part-time during the school year; a second group of students is hired to work through the summer months. The radio room has proven to be excellent preparation for summer programs at the Star, other dailies and websites. Strong news reporting experience at university or community papers or websites is required; reporting experience at a daily is a strong asset.

The application deadline is Nov. 19, 2010 for the summer 2011 program.

Summer Program
This is a demanding program because summer journalists are hired on vacation replacement contracts - meaning that as full-time staff disappear on vacations, summer interns are expected to step up to the demands of replacing them.
The 12-week contracts for journalists are all general assignment positions and successful applicants could be writing features, covering crimes, courts, inquests, breaking news or health and education stories, in other words, anything that's happening. Summer journalists also shoot photos and must have multimedia skills.

The positions are open to college and university level students, (or college and university level journalists) or students who graduate in the year of the summer program they are applying for. Previous experience at a daily newspaper is usually required.
The program begins with orientation. Monthly seminars and volunteer mentors offer additional support.

The application deadline is Nov. 19, 2010 for the Summer 2011 program.

What we look for
Enthusiastic, talented, curious and intelligent journalists with a strong work ethic, a positive attitude and a passion for the profession, who will bring energy, ideas and new perspectives to the paper. Fluency in other languages and experience with different cultural and ethnic communities are assets. A strong portfolio of published or posted work is required. Photography and multimedia skills are also required.

Packages should contain the following collated material (in this order):
    •    Cover letter, state position applying for at top of page in bold type. Include email, street address and phone number.
    •    Resume
    •    References
    •    Material

    •    A range of writing with a strong component of news stories
    •    Proven ability to write well, report thoroughly, synthesize and organize information
    •    Reporting experience outside school assignments and a demonstrated commitment to journalism
    •    Photography and multimedia experience
    •    Strong people skills
    •    Life experience that contributes to your development/ability as a journalist

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS:

Please read the following instructions carefully. We thank all applicants for their interest. If you provide an email address, we will send a standard message that acknowledges receipt of your package. Applications and accompanying materials will not be returned. Once applications are in, we will be in touch only with candidates we would like to interview.
Application packages must include a one-page cover letter, resume, three references (names and contact numbers - both home and cellphone plus email addresses are sufficient but you may include reference letters if you wish) and a selection of six to eight published or posted pieces of work, a mix of news and features. If you are fluent in another language or have experience with diverse communities, please include that information in your resume. Applications are reviewed by a panel of two or three editors so we need three complete copies of your package, submitted together in one envelope.

Please send application packages for reporting positions to:

Roger Gillespie

AME, Visuals

Toronto Star

Editorial Department,

5th Floor 
1 Yonge St.

Toronto, Ont.

M5E 1E6

Application deadline:
Nov. 19, 2010 for the summer 2011 program.

The secret life of a 21st century journalist

By Sarah Millar

A blog post by former Star radio roomer Alex Posadzki got me thinking about what it means to be a journalist in the digital age.

In her post, Posadzki muses about her so-called "double life" — her professional one and her personal. She's so concerned about the two that she has two separate Facebook accounts, two email addresses, two different circles of friends.

And never the twain shall meet.

It got me thinking about how different being a journalist is today than it was even just 10 years ago.

While the Internet has made our jobs infinitely easier (for better or for worse), it also has made our lives a lot harder.

After all, journalists tend to be held to a higher accord than other people — they're supposed to appear unbiased, report the facts, keep their opinions in check. Sure, that was easy before the Internet — and social media — reared its ugly head, but now journalists are in trouble.

They're being disciplined or fired for things they say on Twitter. They're trying to decide murky, ethical issues (like should a source be friended on Facebook?). And on top of all of this, they're trying to create a personal brand in order to better market themselves in these tough economic times.

So what's a 21st century journalist to do?

There are no concrete answers. News organizations and employers have yet to figure all this stuff out for themselves — social media policies are almost non-existent or incredibly vague.

Is Posadzki right? Do we need two accounts everywhere in order to keep the personal, personal and the professional, professional? I'd wager no.

All these social media platforms come with privacy settings — Facebook can be customized any way a user wants. My advice is to get to know them and use them however you see fit. Personally, I keep my Facebook private, but my Twitter is open to all.

Is being a journalist harder in the digital age? It may just be, but that doesn't mean you should ever feel you have to hide who you really are for fear of being found out. It's who we really are deep down inside that makes us great journalists.

Sarah Millar is a web editor in the one-year intern program at the Star. While she won't friend you on Facebook, her Twitter account is open to the public.

Star's Allison Cross talks about Emmy win

By Sarah Millar

60 Minutes. Nightline. 48 Hours Mystery.

Those were the programs that Canadian students, including the Toronto Star's own Allison Cross, were up against for the outstanding investigative journalism in a news magazine Emmy.

Yes, an Emmy.

Imagine their surprise when they won.

"It was shocking," Cross says nearly a week after her win. "I'm still in shock. I'm not sure it will ever sink in."

The film was a 20-minute documentary about the global trade of electronic waste. It was done by Cross, along with nine other students and three instructors at the University of British Columbia's school of journalism as part of the school's international journalism course.

The documentary explored how electronic waste (such as old computers, cell phones, televisions etc.) is often disposed of illegally in developing countries, despite Canadian charities and recyclers offering to dispose of the materials safely. Workers in the developing nations often dismantle the electronics by smashing or burning them to access the metals inside and, in the process, poison themselves and the environment. The documentary aired on PBS' Frontline/Word in June 2009.

Cross says the idea came from a professor, Peter Klein. He had seen media coverage of a Chinese village dubbed the "e-waste capital of the world." Instead of the students redoing that story, they expanded on it — visiting other countries where e-waste is dumped, like Ghana and India, as well as China and Hong Kong. Being in a port city where much of the e-waste leaves the country, the students started their documentary in Vancouver, and then followed the products around the world.

While working on their documentary, they also discovered another problem with how e-waste is destroyed — the breach of data security.

"While in Ghana, members of the team purchased used hard drives from an electronics market. On the hard drives we found personal banking information, photographs and security contracts between the American military contractor Northrop Grumman and the U.S. government," Cross explains.

While the documentary may not have changed how e-waste is disposed of, Cross says working on the documentary definitely helped her as a journalist. She says it has given her the confidence to see what she is capable of achieving. It also piqued her interest in international journalism.

"After we finished the project, I went on to spend six months in Sierra Leone working in media development, a month on board a Canadian navy warship on the hunt for pirates off the coast of Yemen."

Winning — or even being nominated — for an Emmy never crossed the students' minds. Klein encouraged them to submit their work for numerous awards, which in and of itself was a lot of work. But, Cross says, she's now glad they did.

The award for outstanding investigative journalism in a news magazine was the first award to be announced, so the group spent the remaining two hours passing around the Emmy and taking photos with it. Then they got to make their phone calls. She texted her parents and brother first, then announced the win on Twitter.

As for what comes next or how to top an Emmy win, Cross isn't sure. 

"I think that’s why Emmys are supposed to come at the end of your career, and not at the beginning."

 

Sarah Millar is a web editor in the Star's one-year intern program. She has worked both in print and online at papers big, the National Post, medium, the Hamilton Spectator and small, the Kincardine News, a community weekly.

Wordstock 2010: Back to the basics

By Emmanuel Samoglou 

Few people would envy me right now.

I'm sitting in a little room at 4 a.m., listening to police respond to various calls around Toronto. One eye on the computer screen, the other on the spoon that I'm using to shovel cold, leftover lentils and basmati into my mouth.

Fewer people would understand why I would forgo the opportunity to rest before this bout with nocturnality.  Instead, I attended a writers' workshop to learn how to more effectively administer this perceived torture. At this point, they might think I’m bordering on masochism.

In reality, I just really enjoy telling people stories, and want to learn how I can do it better.

Roughly 120 people joined me at Wordstock 2010.  This year’s theme, “Back to the Basics” was a departure from previous years which have dealt primarily with new journalism tools and styles.  We went back to the basics this time round, focusing on writing, editing, and effective story telling.

It began with a keynote from the Globe and Mail's Ian Brown. Being the fantastic storyteller he is, the award-winning writer had the auditorium in hysterics as he wove a wonderful medley of tales from the field with advice on how writers can step up their game.  Advice ranged from the basics (“write what actually happens”), to calling out the industry on preserving the role of the editor in the writing process.

From there, registrants went to workshops on a wide array of topics, among them:  Packing great writing into less than 1,000 words, (re)discovering the joy of creative writing, and a module designed to help writers overcome their fear of writing about sex. 

It was hard not to feel inspired as we listened to a host of dedicated individuals talk about their craft with a passion.  It became obvious through the day that, along with natural talent, this was a chief ingredient in their recipes for success - An overwhelming desire to tell readers a good story and keep their attention for more than nine seconds.

Caring about how the story is told as much as the story itself, find the human connection, connecting with the reader...

Writing can be torture.  But as those that attended Wordstock can attest, it can be loads of fun.

 Emmanuel Samoglou works in the Star radio room. He is in his final year of the post-graduate journalism program at Humber College. You can follow him on twitter.

Former Toronto Star radio room reporter wins fellowship

By Allison Cross

Ottawa-based journalist Laura Stone, a former Toronto Star radio room reporter, has been named the inaugural recipient of Postmedia’s Michelle Lang Fellowship.

The year-long fellowship was established in honour of Lang, an award-winning Calgary Herald reporter who was killed last year while on assignment for Canwest News Service in Afghanistan.

Known for her tenacious reporting on the healthcare system, Lang was the first Canadian journalist to die in Afghanistan during this conflict.

“The fellowship honours the ideals that Michelle held up in her journalistic life: telling the untold stories,” Stone said. “It may sound obvious, but the stories that lie below the radar are the most difficult to find and do.”

The fellowship was open to recent university graduates who have a passion for writing and current events, and will include up to $10,000 in funding for Stone to pursue a special news project.

“Laura is a wonderful choice for this inaugural fellowship,” said Scott Anderson, senior vice-president, content, Postmedia Network Inc, in a statement. “Laura carries with her many of the great qualities Michelle exhibited in her work every day, which include a passion for telling stories that have gone unreported or unnoticed on topics of social significance.”

Stone, who began her fellowship on Sept. 1, will spend six months at Postmedia News in Ottawa and six months at the Calgary Herald.

Stone is a graduate of Carleton University, where she earned a master of journalism degree.

She also has a faculty of Arts and Sciences joint degree from Dalhousie University and King’s College in Halifax, and a bachelor of arts in English and History from Dalhousie.

In addition to her time at the Star, Stone has worked at the Ottawa Citizen, National Post, The Province in Vancouver and Canwest News Service.

“This business is all about people taking a chance on you,” Stone said. “When I was hired by the radio room at the Star during the summer of 2008, I had zero daily news experience. But they saw something in me and took a chance.”

 Allison Cross is a reporter in the Toronto Star year-long intern program. Earlier this week she won an Emmy Award for outstanding investigative journalism for the documentary Ghana: Digital Dumping Ground.