TORONTO, Jan. 10, 2013 /CNW/ -

FEATURES

2012 J-Source Canadian Newsperson of the Year
We're accepting nominations for the 2012 J-Source Canadian Newsperson of the Year award. Check out a list of the nominees received so far and make yours today.

Checking your bias
By Nicole Blanchett-Neheli
Do your biases affect your journalism? American J-prof Sue Ellen Christian and reporters from across Canada talk about strategies to ensure balanced stories and how reflection and ethics are the keys to objective reporting.

Holding their administration to account: Concordia student journalists bent on investigations
By Eric Mark Do
When Concordia University's student newspaper, The Link, makes shocking revelations through investigative work, the impact spreads past campus borders and into the community at large.

Silence of the labs
By Kai Benson, The Ryerson Review of Journalism
Why the federal government's attempt to muzzle its scientists hinders public knowledge and damages science discourse in Canada.

There is 'no such thing as an uninteresting or insignificant life'
By Sandra Martin
You may think chronicling the lives of the dead is either the first or the last job you could have on a newspaper. In this excerpt from her new book, Working the Dead Beat, Sandra Martin reflects on how she applied her journalistic approach in pushing for context and insight into strangers' lives.

THE BIG ISSUE

The media, Chief Theresa Spence and Attawapiskat

It was a while before the Idle No More movement, which has criticized changes to legislation the federal government has proposed in Bill C-45, became the topic of mainstream political panels and front-page stories. But over the course of the movement and with her well-publicized hunger strike, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence became a "one of the most public and controversial faces" of the protest. On Monday, a third-party audit of Attawapiskat finances was leaked, revealing shoddy bookkeeping. The movement called it a "move to discredit" Spence as news stories questioned where millions of dollars were spent. Relations between the media and Spence took a turn. (READ MORE)

IN THE NEWS

• Toronto school board director Chris Spence admits to plagiarism in a Toronto Star op-ed
• The Canadian Journalism Foundation opens nominations for Lifetime Achievement Award
• Toronto Star publishes apology for unattributed material taken from The Globe and Mail
• Atlantic Journalism Awards call for entries
• Order of Canada recipients include journalists Andy Barrie, Stevie Cameron and Michael Enright
• Submissions open for the Canadian Hillman Prize
• Journalists to be able to tweet from Ontario courtrooms unless told otherwise
• J-Source and ProjetJ transition begins with call for potential new contributors

RECENT POSTS

• The sound of silenced scientists
• One photojournalist who doesn't want to die having never worked for a newspaper
• Photojournalist Mike Cassese remembered
• Sean Dunnigan: Calgary's talking judge
• Photojournalist John D McHugh launches new watermark iPhone app Marksta
• What have we learned from Newtown?

EVENTS CALENDAR

• Jan. 9-13: Canadian University Press NASH 75, ON
• Jan. 31: CJF J-Talk: Journalism, Disrupted: How to Create Media Innovation, ON

J-Source and ProjetJ are projects of The Canadian Journalism Foundation in collaboration with leading journalism schools and organizations.

CJF News: Take advantage of early bird rates for our upcoming J-Talk Journalism, Disrupted: How to Create Media Innovation on Jan. 31. Book your tickets now.

CJF Award:  Nominate your choice for the Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to journalism in Canada. Deadline is Jan. 28.

SOURCE Canadian Journalism Foundation