Journal
of Young Investigators,
online peer-reviewed science journal
2002 - present
Features editor (Feb. 2002 - June 2002)
Senior Features editor and feature article Web layout (July 2002 - August 2003)
Advisor (August 2003 to present)
One
the biggest challenges I wanted to tacke with JYI while I was Senior Features editor was to publish feature articles that
felt like they were part of an online publication versus a print publication that puts its content
online. During my time posting feature articles online, the features
section evolved to include images (in multiple image sizes), side bars, pull
quotes and the presentation of feature articles in both HTML and PDF formats.
Online
publication examples: (layout and formatting all done by me)
Assignments
for NovaNewsNet, University of King's College, Halifax, NS
Around
Christmas 2001 I tried to pay for snacks at a movie theatre in Oakville, ON with
a new series $10 bill that turned out to be a fake. I later found out that fake
$10 were popping up around southern Ontario at approximately the same time. I
wondered if Halifax was having the same problem.
Only about 30 per cent of the background work I did appeared in this story. I
had to cut in order to stay focused. The other 70 per cent taught me to not be
seduced by great info or quotes that have nothing to do with my focus. I particularly
enjoy the pop up windows and links included in this story (note the images of
$10 bills comparing my fake bill to a real one). If I can "push" readers
off the Web space, because the links I have included take them somewhere new and
fascinating, then that 30 per cent of research was well used.
I
wanted to get more experience in "hard news" reporting and writing so
I chose to cover the Halifax city council. I learned a lot about where I lived
from just one council meeting.
I
attended a lecture given by members of the Raelian religion, a new religious movement.
With guidance from a professor of comparative religion, I was careful not to mock
what the Raelians had to say and to allow the attendees to ask the questions and
make the points readers are likely to have about Raelian beliefs. One area I could
improve on with this story, to ensure my credibility, is to eliminate ending on
a quote from another publication.
Outside
of school, I was doing a freelance story for a baking industry trade journal when
I learned of Geir Simensen's ambitions to join culinary Team Canada. Firstly,
he is an ordinary guy doing some extraordinary things. Secondly, the timing of
the story was good: he was about to try out for the team by cooking for them.
And thirdly, the hook was perfect: while most Canadians are absorbed with Team
Canada's Salt Lake City Olympic hopefuls, here's someone absorbed in becoming
a different kind of Olympian. If Geir makes the team, I think this story lends
itself well to a Web page documenting his time with culinary Team Canada, taking
readers somewhere they might not normally go.