Category: Winter 2013

Walking into the Cottage Life offices—located in a repurposed house in downtown Toronto—you are immediately greeted by two large Muskoka chairs. Sitting in these chairs encourages you to lounge back, relax and take in all of the products surrounding you. Everything from Cottage Lifesweaters, towels and baseball hats to cottage-themed chess sets, decks of cards and… Continue reading Cottage Life 2.0

[Text contains three clarifications to original article as published in the RRJ print edition:] When I started my journalism studies at Ryerson University, I naively thought I would be learning how to be a good reporter from the professors and practitioners visiting my classroom. Boy was I wrong. It isn’t the classroom that provides the answers to how to… Continue reading Rob Ford: Professor of Journalism

We begin in Germany during the 2006 World Cup of soccer. There are thousands of fans inside the main stadium at Dortmund, watching Brazil take on Ghana for a berth in the quarterfinals. The majority support Brazil. They won’t be disappointed; within six minutes the South Americans are up 1–0. The stadium erupts as fans dressed in yellow,… Continue reading Fixated

Few shoppers here are in a hurry. It’s a hot, late-August afternoon, and Carrot Common is dappled with shade. Two young women sit outside with organic takeout boxes, their feet sporting charity-chic Toms shoes. To their left, a bulletin board advertises holistic nutritionists and alternative health therapies. To their right, a juice bar churns out murky green detox smoothies and blood-red beet juice. At… Continue reading The media diet

It’s May 2012, and I’m visiting my grandparents in Karachi, Pakistan. Though it’s spring, the city has been hit with a heat wave. Luckily, there haven’t been any power outages in the past few hours; my hair is off my neck in a loose bun at the top of my head, and I can feel the light breeze from a ceiling… Continue reading In memoriam