On your mark, pitch, fire!
New Canadian Media is burning hot and we want you to be part of the action in 2020! That’s why we are kicking off the new year with a series of workshops to help you pitch, polish and publish stories that give a voice to our diverse multicultural communities and capture the pulse of immigrant Canada.
NCM has teamed up with The Walrus to present the NCM — The Walrus Professional Development Series for Immigrant Journalists, a series of workshops featuring some of Canada’s leading journalists reporting on the immigrant landscape. They will share best practices and expertise during information and mentoring sessions in 3 individual workshops focused to help you learn how to effectively pitch your ideas and write engaging stories about our shared immigrant experiences.
For more information on the event, contact [email protected]
Who will be involved?
We are pleased to announce that we have partnered with the Journalism Schools at Algonquin and Seneca Colleges in Ottawa and Toronto, respectively, and MOSAIC, a registered charity serving the diverse immigrant communities in Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley, to host the workshops. We are also excited to engage the services of Canada’s finest journalists reporting and commenting on immigrant issues to facilitate our engaging workshops so that we can enable our participants to hone their journalism skills. We look forward to engaging members of our NCM Collective as well as aspiring students at the workshops and encourage you to spread the word to aspiring immigrant reporters and writers.
What I can expect?
Participants will explore and discuss best-practices for generating and pitching story ideas, polishing them into unique perspectives, and honing their storytelling skills to take their reporting on immigrant experiences to the next level.
When will this take place?
The series will kick-off with our first workshop in Ottawa on Saturday, February 15, hosted by Algonquin College; in Toronto on Saturday, February 29 at Seneca’s Downtown Campus; and in Vancouver on March 14 at MOSAIC located at 5575 Boundary Road in Vancouver. Registration starts at 8:30 and workshops start 9 am sharp.
What will I get out of it?
Each workshop will feature three sessions facilitated by seasoned journalists from an immigrant background and will consist of a lecture combined with class discussion and an opportunity to get some mentoring. The lectures will focus on the following topics:
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- What Makes Canadian Journalism Different
- Giving Voice to the Voiceless: Advanced Reporting
- Moving the needle through commentary: Advanced Opinion writing
How do I register?
Please use the links above. Upon registration, each participant will be required to submit a story pitch on one of the following themes, examining them through an immigrant lens:
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- Family reunification
- Political engagement
- Canada: Preserving bilingualism + advancing multiculturalism
- Settlement agencies/integration
- Foreign credential recognition
Our Team
Mohamed Hammoud is NCM’s Chief Learning Officer. An exec with a tech company and consultant, Mohamed is a media commentator, community activist, multilingual facilitator and keynote speaker.
Joyeeta Ray is an NCM Collective Member and Convenor with over two decades of advertising and journalism experience in seven countries, including reporting for New Canadian Media.
Our partners:
This project has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage’s Collective Initiatives – Canada Periodical Fund and offered in partnership with:
…And with support from these venues:
photo by Max Andrey on Unsplash