Media Monday Edmonton: Update #16

Another week off! Can you tell it’s summer? Here is my latest update on local media stuff:

• Everyone was covering today’s sad news that NDP leader Jack Layton had died.
• As reported previously, ACCESS is being rebranded as CTV Two. The changeover is scheduled to take place on August 29.
• In Karen’s latest Edmonton New Media Roundup she takes a look at local podcasts. Let her know which are your favorites! I’m glad to see there are a few locals finding success with podcasting. Maybe of these days I’ll get back into it.
• Don’t miss The Unknown Studio’s episode on Festival City.
• Congrats to local men’s magazine Shave on scoring a partnership with Howzit MSN.
• Analog television broadcasting will officially be out of fashion on September 1, but Shaw says analog signals will be around in Edmonton for quite a while.
• The recipients of the inaugural CTV Citizen Of The Year Award are: Mr. Issa Kamara, and Mr. Amson Saintime. The award was created by CTV Edmonton in partnership with the Edmonton Heritage Festival Association.
• From the Edmonton Examiner: “Competition over young music fans is heating up on Edmonton’s FM radio dial.”
• Old news perhaps but I only mentioned part of it in my last update: The Edmonton Oilers and Corus Radio reached a new host broadcaster agreement that will last through the 2013/2014 season. Corus has broadcast every Oilers game since 1995.
• Speaking of local radio, Marty Forbes has the scene covered.
• Again, I’m late with this one but will mention it anyway – CJSR is looking for DJ’s, Reporters, Producers, & Designers!
• I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this article at Slate. “According to media scholar Brendan R. Watson, bloggers writing about local public affairs do not rely primarily on established media for most of their source material.” I certainly try to link to as many original sources as possible.
• As I mentioned yesterday, the Edmonton Police Service recently launched a series of weekly videos called the Community Crime Update. Stay tuned for new episodes.
• I can’t seem to find anything online about this, but an ad in the Journal congratulated Marta Gold on winning the Excellence in Features Writing 2011 award from the Society for Features Journalism. The paper itself also received some kudos, as it was one of North America’s top 15 newspapers to earn “Best Features Section”.
• CTV’s Fall Preview Tour is travelling across Canada right now, and will be in Edmonton at City Centre Mall from September 15-17.
• In case you missed it: Sandra Sperounes wrote about the local edition of BalconyTV a few weeks ago. Hosted by Cheryl Wiwat and Jon McLellan, the concept was brought to Edmonton by Sean Martell.
• Here’s the latest edition of BalconyTV Edmonton:

I want to finish by highlighting a couple of posts from the edmontonian. If you don’t read their daily headlines, you’re missing out. Here’s a great discussion from August 10:

Newsrooms could also have mentioned to their audiences the Journal had a story about a late-night bus on Whyte, and worked on their own stories the rest of the day. Instead, they assigned reporters, editors, producers, video editors, and camera operators to produce the same story for Tuesday night and Wednesday.

One of the topics I love to rant about. Those same newsrooms will in the same breath complain to you about how times are tough and resources are stretched.

Here’s another great one from August 17:

The race to get the story into the news machine first damages everyone involved. It hurts the credibility of the media outlets who commonly treat factual inaccuracies as no big deal, and it fails the citizens who trust these outlets for information that shapes their reactions to the world around them. Reporting the news is a tremendous responsibility, and not just a game of  ‘who had what story first.’

Couldn’t have said it better myself. That’s why I linked!

You can follow Edmonton media news on Twitter using the hashtag #yegmedia. For a great overview of the global media landscape, check out Mediagazer.

So, what have I missed? What’s new and interesting in the world of Edmonton media? Let me know!