Student reporting receives Rawlco aid
Posted by: UR JSchool | On: 4th May, 2018 | NewsWith the launch of the Spring/Summer session, U of R journalism students are packing their bags for incredible reporting trips throughout the province and around the globe – and Saskatchewan-owned Rawlco Radio Ltd. is playing a major supporting role.
In September 2017, Rawlco CEO Gordon Rawlinson announced a $100,000 donation to the School. The fund helps support School equipment costs, as well as contributing toward student project costs. In the Winter semester, the funds aided students working on documentary and investigative projects liked Hooked, a report on opioid addiction in Saskatchewan.
With seven radio stations across Saskatchewan, Rawlco has been a longtime supporter of the School’s internship program, and an employer of many UR JSchool grads. “The backbone to any media, especially radio, is to provide good accurate local information,” said Rawlinson. “That’s the motivation behind our gift, supporting the kind of quality education U of R’s School of Journalism is known for.”
The Rawlco Fund assists students at all levels, including bachelor’s and master’s students. Students primarily self-finance their major projects through scholarships, personal savings and go-fund-me campaigns, and apply to the Rawlco Fund for supplementary support. Below are this summer’s Master of Journalism reporting projects that received a needed extra boost.
Control and Dissent
Journalist: Reza Babagolzadeh
TV Documentary
Reporting in Iran
Iranian politics has witnessed a complex conflict within its theoretic democracy. Populism is pushing the country towards a new democratic ideal yet the majority of the establishment is pulling it to conservatism. There is tension building between those wanting to maintain the conservative system, and those who strive for a freer society. This documentary investigates the state of social media in Iran.
66 Million Nights
Journalist: Janelle Blakley
TV Documentary
Reporting in Saskatchewan
Every day Indigenous children experience the impact of hundreds of years of oppressive colonial policies carried out by governments and institutional forces in Canada. Leaders have stood up and awarded financial settlement to survivors of the Sixties Scoop and apologized for residential schools, vowing that nothing like the residential schools would ever happen again. However, it is estimated there may be as many as three times more Aboriginal children in the care of child welfare authorities now than were placed in residential schools at the height of those operations in the 1940s. Over the years thousands of Indigenous mothers have been forcefully separated from their children; this is the story of one mother and her children.
Grasslands: Fight for a Prairie Commons
Journalist: Katie Doke Sawatsky
Multimedia Project
Reporting in Saskatchewan
Katie Doke Sawatsky is tackling the public debate surrounding prairie grasslands use and preservation. In the past decade, the province has sold 1.1 million acres of Crown land in the prairie ecoregion, while Ottawa has closed the Community Pasture Program. Katie will travel throughout Saskatchewan to document the views of ranchers, mixed farmers, hunters, pasture patrons, new leaseholders, naturalists and government officials. She will also delve into the economics and science aspects of grasslands, including mapping changes to the ecosystem since settlement. The results of her investigation will be published on a multimedia website that incorporates articles, videos, audio podcasts, and infographics.
The Red River Cart: Building a Nation of Cultural Identity
Journalist: Edrea Fechner
Photojournalism
Reporting in Saskatchewan
Edrea Fechner is preparing a photojournalism gallery exhibition centred on the Red River Cart. Her project will explore Métis culture through the contemporary narrative of a Red River Cart builder, George Fayant. Using images of the building process of a Red River Cart, she will bring the audience through the journey of the builder’s story as a Métis in Saskatchewan. Just as the medicine wheel is used for a variety of Indigenous teachings, the different parts of the cart will illustrate Métis teachings with the builder’s stories as concrete examples. The goal of this photojournalism gallery is to create a dialogue around Saskatchewan’s Métis culture and the role culture plays in resilience and reconciliation.
Grizzly Columbia
Journalist: Kyle Griffin
TV Documentary
Reporting in British Columbia
The Grizzly Bear impacts people in many different ways in the province of British Columbia. Whether it’s their spirituality, conservation efforts, activism, or simply a means of making a living, the film explores the significance and importance of the Grizzly to these individuals and the environments the bears inhabit.
kikâwiy love
Journalist: Ntawnis Piapot
TV Documentary
Reporting in Canada and the United States
Canada has historically been cruel to Indigenous mothers since treaty negotiations – the Indian Act, the implementation of Indian Residential Schools, the 60s Scoop and today’s foster care system. Yet there is an undercurrent of fierce resistance by Indigenous mothers to keep both their children and families intact. Nationhood is being built on the backs of these resilient mothers who refuse to give up their roles.
In My Lifetime: From Pastures and Pumpjacks to the Carbon Effort
Journalist: Laura Stewart
Nonfiction Book Project
Reporting in Saskatchewan
Laura Stewart is a journalist and environmental scientist who grew up in southeastern Saskatchewan and previously worked as an environmental assessor for the oil and gas industry. She is conducting interviews throughout southern Saskatchewan on people’s understandings and thoughts regarding carbon emissions. Her goal is to write a book of popular science journalism that draws on her encounters, and on her own experiences growing up in southeast Saskatchewan during a time of rapid transformation from agricultural to industrial land use. Her book project is intended to help people make informed connections between carbon cycle science and their daily lives.
The Missing Narrative
Journalist: Kyrsten Stringer
Radio Documentary
Reporting in Malaysia
In this age of globalization most media in the west are beholden to advertisers and the corporations that own them. In other places of the world, strict media regulations muzzle the free flow of information and governments try to restrict freedom of expression. Malaysia is the point of entry for this radio documentary and the concept of the missing narrative is basically this – that restriction of free speech and press freedom puts an artificial boundary around the sorts of stories journalists can tell without self-censorship or fear of penalization. This is one of many things that can lead to gaps in the knowledge and collective consciousness of a people.