By Ben Cohen After working at Ryerson for most of February, visiting professor Colette Brin is gearing up for a talk on digital news Mar. 1 where she discussed new findings on trust in media, donation models for newsrooms and generational differences in news consumption. Brin worked on last year’s Reuters Institute Digital News Report, an annual survey that looks at how people in 37 countries consume digital news. She was responsible for the summary and analysis of Canada’s data. The report, which is based on research from 74,000 individuals, focuses on how people use online news platforms, whether they…

By Benjamin Cohen Imagine the smell of barbeque filling a theatre as you listen to descriptions of the South Korean dog meat industry. Dogs rescued from slaughterhouses are onstage while a video interview with the activist who saved them plays on a screen overhead. A journalist onstage reads their original reporting on the industry — it’s an engaging spoken piece, but maintains journalistic integrity and factuality. Meanwhile, graphs, sound bites and on-location footage accompany the story in real-time. These are some of the ideas floated at a focus group for a live journalism concept, co-hosted by the Ryerson Journalism Research…

By Ben Cohen A new event series intended to foster interdisciplinary discourse had its inaugural session last month. Weaving together clinical psychology and journalism, “Grads Gab” was an evening of discussion emerging from two seemingly disparate research areas. The event was organized by the Ryerson Journalism Research Centre and supported by the Catalyst. Coordinator Laura Howells said she created the event because, as a former master of journalism student, she only really interacted with students in her own class. “That felt so limiting – the university has so many students doing fascinating research, and there’s so much value in discussing…