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Research projects

Mike Gasher Mike Gasher
The Geography of News Project

Led by principal investigator Mike Gasher, the project posits journalism as a practice of cartography and is interested in studying the textual “maps” that journalists draw, how they constitute community, how they sketch its boundaries, which values and social norms they assert, and how they situate the community they serve within the larger world. To date we have conducted a series of news-flow studies of the Web sites of 10 daily newspapers and we are currently conducting textual analyses of news stories in a variety of newspapers. Our articles have been published in Journalism Studies, the Canadian Journal of Communication and Aether: the journal of media geography. This research program has received funding from Concordia University (2000-03), le Fonds québécois de recherche sur la culture et la société (2002-05) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (2003-08, 2008-11, 2011-14). For further information, contact Mike Gasher

 

David Secko David Secko
Concordia Science Journalism Project

This project was initiated in 2008 to establish a science journalism research and teaching platform in the Department of Journalism at Concordia University. The project looks to actively support, better understand and improve the role of science journalism in Canada. The approach to these interests is interdisciplinary and draws on efforts to bridge theoretical aspects of a rich history of study into science communication with a practical focus on science journalism and the constraints that shape it. The CSJP encompasses a variety of ongoing research projects and collaborations that are currently funded by Concordia University (2007-2010), Fonds de recherche sur la société et la culture, Établissement de nouveaux professeurs-chercheurs (2008-2011), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (2009-2010) and Genome Canada / Genome Quebec (2009-2013). For further information, visit our webpage or contact David Secko

Lisa Lynch Lisa Lynch
The Canadian Digital Newsroom Project

This project, funded by a seed grant from Concordia University, explores new media practices of Canadian newspapers in Montreal, Toronto, and Ottawa, including The Ottawa Citizen, Le Droit, The Montreal Gazette, Le Journal de Montreal, Le Devoir, The National Post, and The Globe and Mail. Through field interviews and survey assessment conducted with the help of graduate assistants, we will survey how journalists, photographers, editors, and web designers understand and negotiate the relationship between the print newspaper and the newspaper website. In other words, we will be looking at how audio, video, new forms of photo display, information graphics, and technological avenues for audience interaction are changing the ways in which news is conceived, scripted, and marketed to consumers. We will be tracking innovation in the newsroom -- such as the recent groundbreaking work in multimedia authoring and community outreach in Toronto’s Globe and Mail -- but also tracking resistance, frustration and skepticism among those who feel less inclined to change what has long been a successful model for both news producers and news consumers. For more information, contact Lisa Lynch

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