Listen on the go: Four Days investigation, narrated by Kevin Donovan
Four Days investigates how Canada’s election process affects the public interest. It is part of the Journalism Program at Ryerson’s Ontario College of Art and Design.
It’s the Monday morning after the federal election. The Toronto Star and other media outlets are gearing up to report on the election results. What will be the reaction to the first election they cover as they struggle to get their stories out and put out their photos?
The Star’s coverage of the election is about to get underway. The newsroom has been at work for days, planning stories, sending out reporters who have been trained to cover the election and get the facts right.
All across the paper and online, there will be a lot of questions as election coverage begins to get underway. In this week’s Four Days, they share some of their answers and ask readers about their own reactions and reaction to election coverage.
What is your general reaction to election coverage?
Journalists and editors often get questions about their sources and how they make decisions on who they choose to include in their election coverage. We get a lot of requests for our stories from the media and the public to include photos from the race.
We also don’t have a lot of choice on how we cover the races; we can’t turn down a request for a photo from the public. We will do a story on a candidate that’s been selected by a political party or that’s run without party support.
After a long morning of debate and discussion, we make a decision as soon as possible and send out an email to the entire public relations team and other editors with our story.
If this story is going to be in the paper, you have to go out there and make sure that reporters are ready to get out there.
How much do you think election coverage goes into a story?
The more time you spend talking to the political parties, interviewing the candidates and the more time and effort into the story you put into it, the more accurately it will reflect the final result.
In the last election, stories like this one, where a candidate was interviewed and then not invited back to be included in