I know the blog has been nearly deathly quiet this month, but I have a good reason: university. I’ve been reading a lot and studying and keeping up with papers, presentations, and various deadlines. Part of life as a Communications Major is studying the mass media and examining media and our media systems critically.

NewsWatch background information:

“Newswatch Canada began as Project Censored Canada (PCC) in 1993 as a collaborative project of the School of Communication at SFU, the University of Windsor and the Canadian Association of Journalists.  It was renamed NewsWatch Canada in 1998.”

One of the upper-level Communications courses is NewsWatch Canada: a semester of independent research on the diversity and thoroughness of news coverage nationally and globally for students interested in media-monitoring studies. They take a different theme for each year—such as representations of gender in the news, global warming, provincial elections, etc.—and this year was the top under-reported stories by traditional media sources.

Why this is important:

To quickly summarize, in the past 30 years, the mass media has slowly been consolidating to the point where (in America) 6 companies own 90% of the media.

This means that those six companies decide what stories get told, what angle they tell, and what doesn’t get reported on. There used to be strict ownership restrictions (I’m speaking from a North American perspective) where the owners of certain media secrots could not go into other sectors. The restrictions decreased and dropped away with the rise of the neoliberalist perspective of that free media (free as in liberated, not cost-free) would increase competition and therefore the diversity of offerings. In fact, it did the opposite of this.

The open structure led to a monopoly and concentration of ownership. The convergence of media is visible for example in Disney — they have television stations, films, books, toys, etc. For example, in Canada, Bell owns CTV and all their subchannels such as CTV2, Comedy Network, The Sports Network, The Discovery Channel, and E!; Bell Mobility for mobile, wireless, and internet; CHUM Limited including CHUM Radio, MuchMusic, MTV, MTV2, A Channel, Bravo!, Space; and national paper The Globe and Mail. [It's hard to keep track, so: Source]

If you’re interested in learning more, here is the Wikipedia article for Concentration of Media Ownership, or there is a neat infographic by FrugalDad (mostly US data).

NewsWatch Canada’s 2011 Report:

Read the rest of this entry »

I really should be sleeping—I’m going to need it—so here is an update in point form:

• This weekend is The Word On The Street book and magazine festival. It happens simultaneously in cities across Canada and although I had a decreased role this year, I’ve still been involved. Not to mention the festival programming has been expanded to three days. I will be at Library Square in the Info Tent / Merchandise Booth near the Mainstage. Come say hello (and bring me coffee)!
• Academie Duello is having an Open Barn to promote their Cavaliere program (swordplay on horses!) and a fundraiser for the Richmond Pony Club. I’ve been debating getting involved in that aspect, since I already love to ride. I’ll be at Red Colt on Saturday afternoon to help with the demos and our display booth. Duello is also having a member only party to celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Princess Bride. So that’s also on the agenda for this weekend.
• School is going well. Lots of readings to keep track of, tutorials to engage in, and lectures to attend. Handed in a literary analysis today for The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor, so you can expect a review on the blog shortly. We also had our first Gender Debate earlier this week. So things are picking up and before long it will be midterm time (mid-October).
• I’ve begun contributing to SFU’s student newspaper, The Peak. I’m really excited in this opportunity and looking forward to expanding the literary coverage in the Arts section.
• Last night I went to the book launch for Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery by Leanne Prain (published by Arsenal Pulp Press). Leanne is the co-author of Yarn Bombing: Knit and Crochet Graffiti and so I was really excited for Hoopla. I made sure to head down to Spool of Thread sewing lounge and get my copy signed!
• Somehow I seem to be confirming more freelance design clients now that I’m back in school. This is an odd turn of events but I’m just trying to juggle everything. Watch me go nuts in about 3 weeks.

What have YOU been up to?

As I’ve mentioned, I’m back to school this fall. I’m doing my BA, majoring in communications. I’m attending Simon Fraser University and they have a specific requirement that you take a certain number of credits outside your major. So this semester I’m taking two Communications courses, an English course and a Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies course. I just thought it would be fun to share my reading lists (non-technical).

• Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway
• The Night Wanderer by Drew Hayden Taylor
• Red: A Haida Manga by Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
• Twilight by Stephanie Meyers
• Angel Wing Splash Pattern by Richard Van Camp
• Kynship: The Way of Thorn & Thunder by Daniel Heath Justice

I’ve read Twilight and oddly, since the movies have come out (and Breaking Dawn), I’ve come to dislike the series even more. We’ll be discussing it in our Gender Studies class so it should be interesting in the least. It’s bothered me that Bella never took control of anything herself and was always the damsel in distress, but as it’s been pointed out before, Twilight is kinda brain candy.

I’ve also read Red and absolutely loved the illustrations. Most of these books are for my English course (Intro to Fiction) and the professor is taking a First Nations approach to the semester. I’m looking forward to reading more books and expanding my horizons.

Have you read any of these books before?

I cannot believe it’s already the second week of July! It feels like time is flying by fast. I’ve been up to nothing much, but at the same time a lot. Do you ever get the feeling you’re accomplishing nothing, but are constantly busy? I’ve been feeling like that lately even though I’m moving in the right direction.

But, I’ve got some big news! I am going back to school full-time in September. I will be doing a bachelor’s degree in Communications at Simon Fraser University. I am very excited because the degree sounds perfect for my career goals. I will miss working on awesome events full time, but I think this is the right step for me. I registered for classes this morning!

Other than that, I’ve just got some summer plans and camping trips in the works. I don’t know if I’ll get to do any travelling (I had wanted to drive around BC and Alberta) due to saving money for university.

I’ve been knitting:

The pattern is Gaenor and the yarn is Unwind Yarns: Throwing Sheep into Rainbows which I bought at Gibsons last summer. This photo was taken at wenchlette’s Wedding Send-off party and I was just beginning the decrease rows. Therefore: it is halfway done!

I have some other secret things on the needles and I’ve been test knitting for my friend Carmen, so personal knitting is on the back burner. Speaking of Carmen, I went to go visit her studio (she is MelonHead KnitWear) a couple weeks ago and brought cookies:

Yarn Cookies!!

I’ve got several books I haven’t reviewed—including Up Up Up by Julie Booker—so stay tuned for those. I’m already on book 3 in A Song of Ice & Fire series (Game of Thrones) and recently received an ARC for Marina Endicott’s new book, The Little Shadows.

Also speaking about books, I’ve been using GoodReads more and LibraryThing less. I am finding more people on GoodReads that I know and hence gravitating towards it so that I can see what they’re reading. Find me on GoodReads if you’d like.

Anyway, I must be off to bed. My car is in the shop (because it failed AirCare) and I need to make sure I’m up if the mechanic calls. P.S. Sorry for the downtime on the website. My blog was migrated to a new server so I could upgrade to WP 3.2.

P.P.S. Circle me if you’re on Google+, or let me know if you want an invite.

I haven’t been blogging much because… well a number of reasons. One of which is that I am in my final course for the SFU Writing & Publishing Program. I am in a certificate program for editing. While looking through some notes to complete my project, I came across a print out one of my instructors shared. I thought it would be appropriate to share it here.

A good editor will pick every nit. No use accusing them of nit-picking. It’s their job. — Margaret Atwood

What kind of person makes a good editor? When hiring new staff, I look for such useful attributes as genius, charisma, adaptability, and disdain for high wages. I also look for signs of a neurotic trait called compulsiveness, which in one form is indispensable to editors, and in another disabling. — Arthur Plotnik

Good editors are not obsessed with commas, spacing around headings, or parallelism. We are obsessed with readers and their ability to understand printed words and thoughts as effortlessly as possible. — Mary J. Scroggins

If you do not tolerate a certain level of anxiety over a considerable length of time (say, an entire career), then you are probably not constituted to be an editor. — Gerald Gross

The writer’s job is to write while the editor’s job is to worry. — Gregory Clark

If you look at any list of great modern writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, and F. Scott Fitzgerald, you’ll notice two things about them: (1) they all had editors; and (2) they are all dead. Thus we can draw the scientific conclusion that editors are fatal. — Dave Barry