This is a presentation I made at the 2009 Ontario regional meeting of Canadian University Press, which was hosted by the Fulcrum.

1. REPORTING ON HIGHER EDUCATION: ADVICE FROM THE EXPERTS Presented by NICK TAYLOR-VAISEY

2. FINDING AND REPORTING NEWS FROM STUDENT JOURNALIST TO BEAT REPORTER WHY HIGHER EDUCATION IS WORTH COVERING TODAY’S MENU

3. THE PANEL Elizabeth Church f Joey Coleman f Sheena Goodyear f Carson Jerema f Tony Keller f Erin Millar

4. THEIR WORK The Globe and Mail National Post Cap Courier Maclean’s Toronto Star The Manitoban Winnipeg Free Press B.C. Business Canadian University Press The Silhouette The Muse

5. ... is a door for many to greater prosperity and it is often the first place where young people get a taste of the wider world and people who come from other backgrounds and other parts of the country. Increasingly, it is also becoming a key player in the country's economy. Governments are looking to colleges and universities to solve the answers to big questions through their research and to educate people for a new economy. — Church HIGHER EDUCATION

6. WHY IS HIGHER EDUCATION EVEN WORTH COVERING?

7. no business reporter has ever spent as much time inside a financial institution as the average person has spent inside the educational system. — Keller has far more experience with education, including higher education, than with almost any other area we could be covering as journalists. Each and every one of us Think about it :

8. [PSE] is one of the few beats that is unlimited in story potential. — Coleman Anyone who believes [PSE] is boring is suffering from a major failure of imagination . — Millar Universities are no longer the far-off ivory towers they once were. They are pillars of communities. — Goodyear

9. The key is to not get lost in stories about student politics... — Keller Some news is too particular – campus politics or very local stories – and so unless there is something special about the issue ... I tend to stay clear . — Church I have the luxury of writing for OnCampus, which allows me to write a lot of geeky inside ballgame stories that would never make the print magazine . — Millar [Student politicians] think you are the enemy and just want to tell you to fuck off. — Jerema There are some stories which are inside the ballpark and the general public will not be interested . — Coleman

10. Stay in tune with the student body. That means good, old-fashioned chatting and eavesdropping. — Goodyear HOW TO GATHER NEWS

11. Getting people in stories is key, no matter what you are reporting. — Church We need to paint pictures ... and create evocative scenes . — Millar How will tomorrow be different from today? — Keller

12. Ask dumb questions . — Keller I am always looking for trends. — Church Student journalists ... will find stories that other media will not. — Millar Is this interesting enough for other people to read? — Jerema

13. I often focus on professors who are actively involved in many disciplines and the community. — Coleman I talk to a lot of people. I try to get out to campuses as often as I can and I usually come back with a few ideas. When I go I talk to administrators and students. — Church Student journalists are in an incredibly advantageous position to find the most interesting stories, being on campus and in contact with the university environment constantly. — Millar Call people. Ask dumb questions. — Keller Look at the big issues affecting other campuses, and see how they apply to yours. — Goodyear

14. No one will wrap it up and deliver it to you, the journalist. You have to find it and that isn't really about writing or reporting, it's about reading and asking questions and thinking. Mostly you need to walk around and be smart enough to ask dumb, basic questions. — Keller

15. BEATING SPIN There is an inherent difficulty in reporting on a machine that runs as smoothly as a university: it is easy to fall into the trap of not pursuing dissenting voices. The sophisticated PR machines are there because they want to control the message. They can make your life so easy that PSE reporters have to be careful to not turn into mouthpieces. University leaders are often trained to deal with media like politicians. — Millar

16. I tend to be more relaxed when interviewing an academic and give them more time to explain the message they wish to convey. Faculty often have less media experience than an administrator. — Coleman Researchers and profs are generally enjoyable interviews because you're usually asking them about their work, which they love to talk about. — Jerema AVOIDING SPIN

17. DECONSTRUCTING SPIN Think-tank people are good, because you are just looking for analysis. I sometimes just call them with no intent of quoting them, but just to get my head around a topic. — Jerema Often, when speaking with a think tank, the main ideas they have to share are contained in published research. I focus on getting them to decode jargon and complex statistics. — Coleman

18. I realized that the student perspective was lacking in other local media, and that I could fill that gap. — Goodyear THE BIG TRANSITION

19. It's difficult to convince an editor that you are the right person to write a gripping feature about violence on native reserves or national politics when you are relatively inexperienced. But being able to position myself as a specialist in PSE allowed me to build important relationships with editors at magazines where I wanted to work. Now, having established myself a bit, I'm able to pitch those bigger stories. — Millar

20. Education is a great niche because there is a shortage of education reporters in Canada , in my opinion. — Millar who could demonstrate a level of competence. — Jerema It is an area that few Canadian journalists are assigned

21. Everyone wants the youth perspective. Milk that while you can. — Goodyear REMEMBER...