Who am I?

I'm a journalist.

Tablet content editor

Toronto Star

Senior Toronto editor

Newzulu Canada

Digital journalism specialist

ScribbleLive

Reporter/editor

Argentina Independent

General reporter

Great West News

Book lounge intern

rabble.ca

Only one of these positions existed when I finished
high school.

What I really really do 

Take complex ideas

Reduce to elements

Make them interesting, relevant, and understood

Communication!

Everyone communicates.

I just help the process along.

Some older examples

Diving in to save money and the planet

Impeachment or Coup? Deciphering the Voices
in the Paraguayan Media

Out of control: Sewage continues
to spill into Ottawa River

How did I get here?

Where the heck did I start?

Plain ol' written storytelling.

High school

University

Being a reporter

And what I have learned

Being a reporter in B.C.

Lived in British Columbia, where I worked with rabble.

Who were my audience?

• Hippies
• Activists
• Advocates for social change
  

What I learned

Practice makes perfect.

Being a reporter in Alberta

Took a job as a reporter at the Westlock News

Who were my audience?

• Farmers
• Oilfield workers
• Military personnel

What I learned

Be bold. Be brave. Say what others won't.
Back up what you say with facts. 

Being a reporter, Latin America

Moved to Latin America, learned Spanish and region's history

Who were my audience?

• Locals
• Expats
• Activists
• Tourists
• Those with regional interests

What I learned

Don’t be daunted by the impossibility of a task.
Take it on. Make it your own.
If you want to write, write what you know.
Explain to your readers that you don’t know everything.

And now, Toronto . . .

It's complicated.

Here, I work with news and storytelling startups.

How many of you know what the internet is?

How many of you would have known 20 years ago?

Know it? Put up your hand.

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Google+

MySpace

Pinterest

YouTube

Vine

Snapchat

YikYak

TimeHop

Tumblr

Sam:)

Star Touch

Wakie

Tinder

Shazam

Flipboard

Have an account? Standup.

These are all ways that people are connecting, communicating, storytelling.

What kind
of newsy startups?

Complex idea

I'm a digital journalist who works on many different projects, including real-time engagement management, online community management, verification of freelance and crowdsource photography and video, and tablet design and layout.

Dumb it down

I help people find out the truth on the internet and get that story out as quickly as possible, in the nicest ways possible.

Make it interesting

You know what's happening in Syria? A war. I trained Al Jazeera’s reporters so they could tell the story better and faster.  ScribbleLive.

Know the Toronto Star? I work on their daily tablet
edition. Star Touch.

Remember the shooting in Ottawa? I helped major news organizations around the world find photos on the internet and made sure they were real. Newzulu Canada.

Examples

Liveblogging

Scribble Chat: How real-time media covered the Boston bombings

Photo/video crowdsource

More photos from Newzulu,
Ottawa lockdown

Star Touch

More on the app

What skills do I use?

Design

Heck, this presentation.

I used some basic
design elements
to make it.

Coding

I know some
HTML/CSS/Javascript/Python

Interviewing

Knowing how to talk to people is important.

Basic web/journo tools

• A camera, basic photography/videography principles

• Voice recorder, sound editing software

• Adobe Photoshop/Indesign/After Effects/Premiere Pro

• How to read EXIF data (Jeffry's Exif Viewer)

• Liveblogging tools

• Clip converter

• Code-writing programs (Sublime Text, Swift)

• FTP clients (like FileZilla)

• Chrome Dev Tools

• Slack

Writing

I pare elements down
to their basics. 

Communication

What it's all about.

In conclusion . . .