Battling trolls on the net Frames

Transcription

A production of the College of the North Atlantic Journalism Program
Battling
trolls on
the net
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Da ree
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Godzilla is coming!
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F est !
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Troubadour spring/summer page 2
This issue of the Troubadour is dedicated to the memory of Don Murphy. Don was
a broadcast journalism instructor with the College of the North Atlantic for almost
30 years until he passed away from cancer in November. Murph, as he was fondly
called, had a deep love for his students and left a legacy that will stay with the
college and the journalism department for many years to come. He is sorely missed
by students, instructors and staff.
The Troubadour is a co-production of the College of the
North Atlantic’s Journalism and Graphic Production and Printing programs. The stories contained within are the product
of the authors and not necessarily the opinion of the college
or the journalism department. The publication was produced
in-house at the Bay St. George campus in Stephenville and the
Prince Phillip Road campus in St. John’s.
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Between the covers
Artist’s sculpture has
deep family roots
Danger
tree
By Rudey Downey
S
culptor Morgan
MacDonald has stood at
the foot of the Danger
Tree, which marks the spot
where dozens of Newfoundland
soldiers died during the First
World War battle of Beaumont
Hamel.
“As you walk over this grassy
field, you’re hit with this sense
of reflection and sadness to
think of what happened,” said
MacDonald recalling one of
his trips to Beaumont Hamel.
“At the centre of this whole
field is the danger tree, which
marks the spot of the death
of dozens upon dozens of
Newfoundlanders...It’s more
than a tree; it’s a marker and a
sacred piece of Newfoundland
history.”
Beaumont Hamel is a field
just outside the town of Picardy
in southern France. MacDonald
has taken many trips to the field
where the first day of the Battle
of the Somme raged so many
years ago.
“When you go to Beaumont
Hamel, you’re walking out into
a mass graveyard of missing
soldiers that never came home,
who were killed by machine
gun fire,” said MacDonald.
Working in bronze, the
St. John’s-based artist has
memorialized war veterans in
his past works, but nothing hit
home like his most recent piece
– the Danger Tree.
The original Danger Tree
is thought of as a significant
marker from the battle. It was
a tree in the middle of the field
where about 80 Newfoundland
soldiers were killed.
While his great-grandfather
Joseph Babstock never fought
in the battle of Beaumont
Hamel on that dark day on July
1, 1916, the connection still
remains. The bloody battle left
710 of the 801 soldiers in the
Newfoundland Regiment either
killed, wounded or missing.
“It’s kind of sad wondering
what my great-grandfather
would have said about the
war; it’s sadder
knowing that I’m
left with this quiet
reflection about
him and without
actual answers,” said
MacDonald.
MacDonald’s
first cousin, Frank
Gogos, has some of
those answers.
The family
historian and a
war historian in
general, Gogos
released his first
book in November
of 2009. The book
is called Known
unto God, a novel
dedicated to the
men from the Royal
Morgan
Newfoundland
Regiment who died
during the First
World War but have no known
headstones to mark where they
lay.
Gogos has invested 20 years
of research into his greatgrandfather’s life and his time
in the Royal Newfoundland
Regiment. He has made it his
mission to track Babstock’s life
from start to finish with no
stone left unturned.
“Between the smells and the
(incessant) bombardments on
the field and the point where
you almost wished that a
bullet had your name on it, the
whole thing must have been a
nightmare for him,” said Gogos,
“If you know how much a
nightmare can upset you in the
middle of the night, imagine
living there for 13 days like my
great-grandfather did at times.”
Gogos helps MacDonald some
MacDonald
days at the foundry the young
artist owns in St. John’s, where
he makes all his sculptures.
MacDonald has made 13
different sculptures since 2005
dedicated to famous moments
of war which are scattered
throughout Newfoundland’s
history.
“The idea is to bring this
history alive for students and
the greater public to realize that
this place exists and these things
happened,” said MacDonald.
“The danger tree is really
something we want to highlight
and keep that memory alive.”
MacDonald says the idea for
a sculpture of the Danger Tree
came from Dave Higdon of the
Forget Me Not Foundation.
MacDonald was on board with
the idea right from the first time
it was mentioned. The Forget Me
Not Foundation is a volunteer
organization in Corner Brook.
The group raises money to fund
MacDonald’s bronze sculptures.
The Danger Tree’s eventual home
will be in Corner Brook on the
property of Sir Wilfred Grenfell
College.
“The idea is to bring this
history alive for the public
to realize that these events
happened in the memory of our
servicemen,” said MacDonald.
For MacDonald, the statues he
creates are about remembering
the soldiers who fought for the
province in the First World War
such as his great-grandfather.
The artist’s great-grandfather
fought in six battles in the
First World War starting in
1916. He was overseas for three
years as a soldier in the Royal
Newfoundland Regiment.
At one point during the war,
said Gogos, he was captured by
the Germans and feared for his
life.
“There’s a passage in his journal
where he was under captivity for
four months and he was sure he
was going to die,” said Gogos.
At times, Babstock’s writings
turn Gogos’ stomach.
“In one of the German prisoner
of war camps during the First
World War, he was so hungry
that he had to eat rats to stay
alive,” said Gogos.
Joseph
Babstock
Gogos asked Babstock’s
daughter (his grandmother) if
there were ever any stories her
dad told about the war; there was
only one thing he ever said.
“My grandmother looked at me
and said that they starved him.
After that, she burst into tears.
That was the only time I ever saw
my grandmother cry; she never
showed any emotion besides for
that moment.”
After the war, Babstock
moved back to his hometown of
Eastport and settled into a life
as a jack of all trades. He owned
a general store, built houses,
farmed and fished. He married
and had one daughter after
settling back in Newfoundland.
Babstock’s granddaughter Kay
King is still alive today. She has
lived in Eastport her whole life.
King remembers her
grandfather as a quiet man with
a very sensitive side.
“He was definitely the softie
of the family,” said King. “I
remember when it came time
to kill their chickens that my
grandmother had to do it. He
was so gentle that he didn’t have
the heart to kill a chicken.”
While Babstock settled into
home life in Newfoundland,
Gogos said it seemed he never
fully left the war behind.
Babstock died in 1982 at the age
of 86.
“Like a lot of the returning
soldiers, he suffered over the
years,” said Gogos. “There were
times over the years where he
would disappear for a few days
and when he returned it was
clear that he was dealing with
some kind of trauma.”
Years after Babstock’s death,
Gogos went to clean out his
great-grandfather’s fishing
shack. He found all kinds of
empty liquor bottles dated for
a certain time of year. Gogos
thinks they piled up each year
when a certain anniversary of
the war would come up.
“I’m certain he had some
form of post-traumatic stress
disorder,” said Gogos.
Tragedy and pain didn’t
leave her grandfather after he
returned from the war, said
King. When Babstock’s daughter
became terminally ill with
multiple sclerosis in her midforties, the veteran who had
seen so much was left shaken
and distraught.
“He idolized my mother. As
the illness got worse, he used to
go into her room and cry all the
time, all day long,” said King.
Gogos says that while he’s on
the way to writing his second
book about the war, the study of
his great-grandfather’s life will
never end.
Babstock suffered a massive
heart attack in the middle of his
daughter’s terminal illness. He
had the option to survive with a
pacemaker or die without one.
He chose death.
“My great-grandfather died a
soldier’s death in the end,” said
Gogos.
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W
ith grotesque features and gaping,
drooling mouths, trolls are creatures of
Scandinavian folklore that live in caves
and forests. But online anonymity has
given the troll a new place to thrive.
Behind a veil of anonymity, they skulk through the
shadowy cyber world and post comments in a bid to
cause grief, bait people into arguments or deliberately
spread misinformation for their own twisted form of
entertainment.
Anonymity at various news sites has allowed trolls
to thrive and it has led some sites to simply close
down their comment sections.
Online commenting on news articles provides a
venue for viewers to give their opinions and views on
events that affect them in various ways. However, they
can also be misused to spread misinformation and
insult other users.
The Huffington Post shut down its anonymous
commenting in September.
Arianna Huffington, founder and editor-in-chief
of the Huffington Post, said the move was designed
to cut down on the amount of trolling in the online
publication’s comments section.
“Freedom of expression is given to people who
stand up for what they’re saying and who are not
hiding behind anonymity,” said Huffington in a press
conference.
Readers now have to connect their Facebook
accounts to the Huffington Post website in order to
comment.
Dozens of sites, including Techcrunch, Global
Post and more than 50 Discovery Network websites
have switched to the Facebook commenting system
and have seen a decrease in the amount of trolls
commenting at their sites because names are
associated with the comments.
Robert Warner has been in the journalism business
for 25 years working in various positions. Up until
May 2012, he was editor-in-chief of Brunswick News
and led the chain through a major revamp of its online
presence. He also changed the way journalists there
used social media tools to report the news.
Brunswick News is the largest news organization
in Atlantic Canada, with three daily newspapers, and
more than 19 community papers and magazines as
well as a website containing online versions of the
publications.
From 2007-2010, Warner was the managing editor of
the Ottawa Citizen.
“When you write a letter to the editor in a traditional
newspaper, you have to verify that the letter writer is
the letter writer when they publish it,” said Warner.
“They won’t publish something that is known to be
false.”
Online or off, Warner believes the standard should be
the same.
“If you’re not willing to put your name to a comment,
you don’t really belong on the website,” Warner said.
The issue, he says, is accountability.
“When you go on websites, you see certain threads
deteriorate into vile and sometimes hate-filled messages
because people can say whatever they want and there’s
no accountability.”
In traditional newspapers, letters to the editor
sections, said Warner, are held to a higher standard.
“That rigor has always existed in the newspaper
industry, except in the online world,” said Warner.
“Many good newspapers don’t, and can’t, really enforce
that kind of rigour to online commenting.”
Warner says it can be difficult for websites to deal
with offensive online comments, which is why many
news websites close their comments sections altogether.
“Newsrooms today are not in a position to easily
be able to filter that without investing significant
manpower.”
Gameof
Trolls
By Andrew Aylward
Shutting down comment
about free speech.
sections or making the users
“But I think most times that
accountable is a growing trend
is abused because people sit
amongst publications.
behind a computer screen and
The magazine Popular Science
they lose their social standards,”
shut down its comments on
said Nippard.
all articles last fall because of
The Brunswick News websites
trolls. The magazine said some
require a paid subscription for
of the comments were “bad
users to be able to view and
for science” and “even a
fractious minority wields
enough power to skew a
reader’s perception.”
In Canada, CBC has
begun taking down
the comment sections
on- articles when they
turn misleading or
hateful. Often when
a subject is felt to be
too controversial, the
comment section isn’t
available to begin with.
Dan Stewart, a
psychology professor at
Memorial University,
understands why
publications are trying to
rein in online comments.
He has stopped reading
most online comments.
“They’ve just been
taken over by people with
virtually no restraint,”
said Stewart.
Robert Warner
“Free speech doesn’t
require anonymity
because genuine free speech
comment on the articles. Part
means taking responsibility for
of the subscription includes a
what you say,” said Stewart.
user’s name and email.
Desiree Nippard sees it
Warner says this requirement
differently. A high school
makes people think twice about
student from Lewisporte,
what they post.
she believes anonymous
“When you’re having
commenting online allows
individuals provide their name
people to express their
to a comment, the owning
opinions without fear of being
of that comment is for them
judged. She says the option of
to conduct themselves with
anonymity on websites is all
the kind of decorum and
responsibility that you would
expect in an online public
discourse,” said Warner.
If readers want to comment,
Stewart says, they should have
the courage of their convictions.
“If you’re serious enough to
want to say something, you
should be prepared to put your
name on it,” said Stewart.
“That’s just an index of
commitment to what
you’re saying. You’re not
able to say something
without consequence.”
Since comments can
be traced back to users,
Warner says Brunswick
News websites have an
advantage over the trolls.
“To me that was a
responsible approach,
and I’d like to see more
newspapers do that in
online websites,” said
Warner.
Insults, said Stewart,
detract from the
discussion.
“They make people
angry, and anger is not
conducive to intelligent
discussion,” said Stewart.
Stewart believes there
is a value in courtesy,
regardless of whether the
interactions are over the
Internet or face to face.
“Obviously you can’t treat
people online like you treat
people in person, but there is
a standard of courtesy I think
that you ought to observe in
order to enhance the level of the
discussion,” said Stewart.
“If you look someone in
the eye and call them an idiot,
you’re likely to get a punch in
the nose.”
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Photo by John Ryall
Photo by Robert Patten
From top clockwise left: Samuel Drugget looks through the
stacks as he gets ready for finals. Brewer Liam McKenna
prepares a batch of beer at Yellow Belly Brewery. Graffiti
dominates the underside of a bridge in Stephenville.
Frames
A gathering of the best images from
College of the North Atlantic’s
first-year photojournalism students
Photo by Stephen Winsor
Photo by Grant Saunders
Photo by Grant Saunders
From top clockwise
left: Rev. Lourdhu
Raju Madanu of St.
Stephen’s Church
gets ready for Sunday
service. Sunset
in Port au Port.
Taxi driver Donnie
Marche collects a
fare. Chris Osmond
at the college’s Sonic
Potluck. A day along
the shore at Port
Harmon. Shayden
Diamonde Chance
Somers-McLean
performs at Sonic
Potluck.
Photo by Andrew Aylward
T
he four-wheeled Godzilla turns 15
years-old this year and will soon
emerge from the Pacific Ocean to
terrorize Canada’s roads.
The fifth generation Skyline GT-R, also known
by the R34 codename, is now legal for import to
Canada. The Skyline is a car of global cult-like
status among boy racers and grown men alike.
Some names just tend to stick. The Nissan Skyline
GT-R was no exception when an Australian publication
by the name of Wheels Magazine called it “Godzilla on
wheels” in 1989. Wheels named the unassuming little
car after the mythical B-movie beast Godzilla because
in Japan the car was already dubbed as Obakemono –a
shape shifting monster. When the GT-R crossed the sea
from Japan to Australia, the Godzilla legend was born.
The R34 Skyline GTR was originally intended for use
only in Japan but was shipped to the U.K. and Australia
in limited numbers.
The R34 Skyline GTR was knighted with the Godzilla
name partly because of its awesome capability as a
sports car. The GTR has an advanced Atessa AWD
drive system, which makes the car behave like a proper
rear-wheel drive sports car. The beauty of this feature is
that should the driver lose control, the AWD computer
rearranges the torque to the wheels that need it, making
even a novice driver look like a pro.
Godzilla’s fire-breathing power is developed by a twin
turbo 2.6 litre in-line six-cylinder engine in hand with a
six-speed manual transmission.
The engine, code named the
RB26DETT, will rocket the
GTR along developing 280
brake horsepower officially. This
power figure was capped due
to a gentlemen’s agreement on
horsepower ratings between the
major Japanese auto companies.
When stock GTRs were harnessed
up on dyno machines to measure
horsepower, the results varied. Some GTRs had as
much as 328 horsepower.
The R34 GTR achieved a 0-60 mile per hour time of
five seconds and could complete a quarter mile in 13.7
seconds.
Although the R34 debuted in Japan in 1999, it wasn’t
available in
Canada until
this year because
of federal
regulations
restricting the
importation of
vehicles from
countries other
than the U.S. for
road use.
Foreign vehicles
from outside
North America
have to be 15
years-old to be eligible for import to Canada. Vehicles
that do not comply are refused entry, confiscated
or even destroyed by the Canadian Border Service
Agency.
Matt Mellish, an arts student at the University of
New Brunswick in Fredericton, waited for the car to
become old enough for import to Canada.
“Keep your eyes open for the R34 Skyline GTR,”
said Mellish. “It’s an awesome car. There’s so much . . .
I want to say, even mythos about it.”
Mellish purchased hisNissan Skyline R34 GT-T
from Carson Exports in Dartmouth, N.S.
“I’ve been keeping tabs on them for probably
about two years now,” said Mellish. “I saw they had
a couple R34s in. I kind of went crazy, went up there
and traded in my Charger for it. That was it, there was
no thinking: I want this R34.”
Mellish’s GT-R is powered by a
2.5-litre straight six, single turbo
engine.
Mellish is fond of the powerto-weight ratio compared to the
Charger or Camaro he used to own.
Those cars weigh more than 1,000
lbs. compared to his R34 GT-T
Skyline. The car is also right-hand
drive.
“Being on the right side is completely different, but
I’m not going back anymore. It’s so much better on the
right side.”
The GT-R has become an iconic image all around
the world and has made appearances in many movies
and video games such as PlayStation’s Gran Turismo.
The R34 Nissan Skyline GTR was the late Paul
Walker’s hero car on two separate occasions when he
played federal agent Brian O’Connor in the Fast and
Furious movie franchise. Walker liked the car so much
he bought a R34 Nissan Skyline GTR for himself.
RightDrive is one of Canada’s most prominent
Japanese vehicle importers from mail delivery vehicles
to Skylines. The company was founded by Michael Kent.
Kent started off by racing a Nissan in the Drift Mania
championship and Formula D in the United States. Kent
was the first Canadian with a formula D license.
Kent has imported more than 100 Skylines since
RightDrive started and currently has five clients looking
for an R34.
“Finding a high-quality vehicle is the most important
thing,” Kent said. “There were less than 9,000 R34
GTR’s ever produced from 99-02; they are a hot
commodity. That being said, their value in Japan is
significantly higher than other cars – they’re still
regarded as Japan’s Ferrari, up there with the NSX.”
Even if a driver can afford it, the R34 isn’t easy to
find.
“A R34 Skyline GTR with 110,000 to a 130,000
kilometres (has a) starting price (of) $40,000 plus
HST,” said Kent. “We’re very hard pressed to get a
good condition model for less. If you wanted a limited
edition unit, that could cost you $100,000-$180,000.
Special editions like a Z-tune are trading for half a
million dollars.
Kent maintains what makes the GTR so incredible
is its ability to mix real-world practicality and mindnumbing performance. The GTR is a rocket with a
backseat that adults fit comfortably in and even has air
conditioning.
The car does all that well while still being able to hold
its own against the automotive industry’s sports car
benchmark – the Porsche 911.
“The GTR was developed to be a Porsche killer
for half the price and (it) did that,” said Kent. “(It)
consistently kept up with Porsche 911 Turbo.”
I
n the ‘60s and ‘70s, American journalist Walter
Cronkite was considered one of the most trusted
voices on television. But today’s journalists have lost
that trust and now the most trusted man in America
is an actor.
In the 2013 Reader’s Digest Trust Poll, a journalist
didn’t make the list until ABC anchor Diane Sawyer
popped up in the 25th spot. Further proving the culture
of celebrity, the top four spots were occupied by actors,
with Tom Hanks being named the most trusted man in
America. But north of the border, it’s a different story.
CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge is Canada’s most trusted
figure, and no actors are in the top five, according to
the 2013 Canadian version of the poll done by Reader’s
Digest.
Croatian-born photographer and former journalist
Bojan Fürst admits he’s noticed this as a trend for
journalists in North America and Europe.
“I think for a long time now we have been our worst
enemy because we have been covering stories that are
quick and easy and pretty pointless,” Fürst said from his
home in St. John’s. “So we shouldn’t be surprised when
people see us that way.”
The UK’s Telegraph has ranked journalists as the second
least trusted profession in a 2012 poll. Only politicians
fared worse. But in Britain, it was a bad year for
journalists as the media there has yet to crawl out from
under the phone-hacking scandal. In 2011, Britain’s News
of the World was closed by publisher Rupert Murdoch
after some of its staff was charged with hacking phones
and bribing public officials in the pursuit of a story. The
trial continues, but the public has seemingly already come
Glen
Carter
to a conclusion – the media can no longer be trusted.
Carroll Doherty further outlines the slip in popularity
in a piece written in 2005 on Harvard University’s
Nieman Foundation for Journalism website. She
referenced a poll conducted by the National Opinion
Research Center at the University of Chicago, which has
been measuring public confidence in institutions for
more than three decades.
According to Doherty, the press had the American
public’s confidence until the late 1980s, when it began
to slip. By the 1990s, she wrote, the slip had become an
all-out slide.
“In 1990, 74 per cent of Americans said they had a
great deal or some confidence in the press. A decade
later, that number had fallen to 58 per cent,” wrote
Doherty.
Carl Bernstein is an award-winning American
journalist and author. He and Bob Woodward
uncovered the Watergate scandal while the pair worked
at The Washington Post. The stories the pair wrote
led to the disgrace and resignation of then president
Richard Nixon. A member of the media since
the 1960s, he described the media
fixation with celebrity as the
triumph of idiot
culture.
When
Donald
Trump
and Marla
Maples made
headlines on
the tabloid
TV shows
of the 1980s,
contends Bernstein, viewers were hooked and the die
was cast.
“You can’t separate journalistic culture from the rest of
popular culture… good journalism is popular culture,
but it’s popular culture that stretches and informs
its readers, rather that which descends to the lowest
common denominator,” said Bernstein in an interview
with investigativepower.org.
Glen Carter, co- host of the NTV Evening News Hour,
has been a reporter and anchor in the industry for more
than 25 years.
“Journalism has had its ups and downs,” Carter said.
“I think certain things have happened over the past 10,
15, 30 years that have made people lose some trust in
journalism. Tabloid journalism certainly hasn’t helped.
“I think people and reporters in general tend to go
after people in high places now... The personal lives of
politicians comes to mind. Nothing seems to be private
anymore; everything seems to be fair play, but I think the
general public has developed a bit of a bad taste in their
mouths concerning what we do as journalists. They’re
not sure that what we do is worthwhile sometimes.”
Jackie Majerus is executive director of Youth
Journalism International, a non-profit organization
that helps young writers, artists and photographers get
recognition all over the world. She doesn’t paint all of the
media with the same brush.
“I don’t think everyone carries the same view of the
media,” said Majerus from her home in Connecticut.
“I also think that there are lots of intelligent discerning
people out there
who understand
while some
media may not
be reputable,
that other
sources are.”
Majerus
believes
the media
needs to
educate the public.
“I think the biggest problem
right now is media literacy and helping
people understand what is a reliable source of
information.”
In an Oct. 15 shooting in Conception Bay South, two
people were left dead, and online rumours swirled.
Some posts on social media led people to believe a
shooter was still on the loose, and panic ensued. The
shooter was caught soon afterwards, and the victims
were known to the shooter.
The events in C.B.S. were similar to the
misinformation spread after the 2013 Boston
Marathon bombings. A man named Greg Hughes
tweeted information wrongly accusing two people.
One of the suspects Hughes mentioned in his tweet
was Sunil Tripathi, but this man had been missing
for more than a week prior to the bombings. After
the misleading tweet, Tipathi was wrongfully deemed
a terrorist and a massive manhunt was sparked on
a site called Reddit. Tripathi’s body was eventually
retrieved from the Providence River proving he had
Bojan
Fürst
no involvement in the bombings.
Police eventually arrested Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. His
brother Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police;
Dzhokhar remains in custody.
“I think this began happening before the Internet
became so prevalent, but it’s worse now because there
are so many places to get information, and lots and lots
of people don’t understand how to tell what’s reliable
and what’s not,” Majerus said
Majerus believes things will change with time.
“I think we have to get through a little bit of a rough
patch where people are having a hard time discerning
what’s true and what’s not true, sometimes it can be
pretty discouraging what people buy into.” Majerus also
said.
Expediency and quantity, Fürst says, have overtaken
context and quality.
“So even though we hope we don’t misrepresent what
they’re saying, instead of a short news piece being 800
words, now it’s maybe 350,” Fürst said explaining some
of the reasons why he left the industry. “You have much
less room to provide context and people notice that.”
He first saw the trend of quantity over quality while
working in Europe before he immigrated to Canada in
1994.
“At the end of the day I was unhappy that each day I
had eight assignments as a photojournalist and sevenand-a-half of them were crap,” Fürst said “I didn’t
have time to do it justice. I ended up with a simply lit
portrait, because that was the fastest and easiest way to
do it so I could rush to the next one.”
By Stephen Winsor
J
By John Ryall
oseph
Lemoine trudged
through the mud in France, across
fields and up hills with six comrades,
pulling a heavy piece of artillery.
A large German division targeted Lemoine’s artillery
group, quickly overrunning him and his comrades.
Lemoine sustained a severe facial wound when shrapnel from a grenade lodged
in his lip. He decided to play dead when he saw that all his comrades had apparently been killed. About a
dozen German troops examined the bodies by poking them with their rifles and kicking them over.
A pair of German soldiers stood over Lemoine for about 30 seconds and kicked him repeatedly. Lemoine did
not budge or breathe for fear of being captured or killed.
Those 30 seconds seemed to go on forever. But the German soldiers relented, convinced he was dead. When
they moved out of visual range, he slowly got to his feet and noticed that two other members of his division had
stood up after successfully playing dead.
When he joined the Queen’s Own Rifles
of Canada in 1914 at the age of 17, the
young man from the Port au Port Peninsula
did not foresee the horrors he would
experience.
Lemoine’s division faced frequent
exposure to extreme cold and would
sometimes go two or three days without
sleep or food. Initially, Lemoine was
enthusiastic about going to war to kill the
evil Germans; however, early in the war he
came to long for the day when he would go
home.
Right up to his death in 1983, recalls
his grandson George Chaisson, Lemoine
would sing the lyrics of a song that he
learned in the war: “Take me over the sea
where the Germans can’t get at me. Oh lord,
I don’t want to die, I want to go home.”
At least Lemoine made it back home.
Many Newfoundlanders did not survive
the First World War, which began 100
years ago this summer. The war would cost
Newfoundland much blood and treasure
and have long-term political consequences.
Ever since the conclusion of the First
World War, there has been a pervasive
perception that Newfoundland sacrificed
too much for the Commonwealth. The
global ramifications of the First World War
were monumental with an estimated nine
million military deaths and another seven
million civilian deaths – not including
tens of millions more who died from the
Spanish Influenza outbreak at the end of
the war.
All the global military conflicts combined
have led to the deaths of 120 million people
since 1918, though most forms of warfare
have become rarer since the end of the
Second World War. Continued warfare
shocked Joseph Murray Lemoine, who
according to his grandson did not expect
that there would be another great war.
“My Grandfather Lemoine grew up in the
Port au Port peninsula in the early 1900s
without any formal schooling, which was
typical of most rural Newfoundlanders of
that generation,” said Chaisson. “He could
George Chaisson junior’s grandfathers, George Chaisson,
left, and Joseph Murray Lemoine, were soldiers in the First
World War. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the
war to end all wars.
Photo John Ryall
he had a great uncle who served in the
During his research, O’Gorman placed
not even write his name, and about 20 years
First World War. Julian Gorman died of
great focus upon the battle of Beaumont
later he expected that a better-educated
measles during the war in 1915, when he
Hamel, which took place on July 1, 1916.
generation that had the experience of
was in Scotland waiting to be transferred to
Most of the Newfoundland regiment
World War One could not repeat the same
battle. It was fairly common for soldiers to
soldiers who survived Beaumont Hamel
mistake.”
die of such contagious diseases during the
described their regiment being mowed
Chaisson’s other grandfather who
First World War because of fatigue, battle
down like grass by the German machine
served in the First World War was George
wounds, congested living quarters and
guns.
Chaisson, whom he was named after.
relentless exposure to tens of thousands of
The worst part for the survivors was
George Chaisson was from the Port au
other troops.
that while still enduring the German
Port Peninsula and served in the Royal
Newfoundland Regiment throughout the
“There are many people like me who are
gunfire they had to crawl back to their
war. Like so many veterans, he refused to
unaware that they have First World War
trench, which was very difficult due to
ever speak about the war or even listen to
veterans in the family,” said O’Gorman.
their traumatized disorientation. Some
anyone talk about it.
“When my grandfather discovered that
of the survivors inadvertently went in the
Bill O ‘Gorman is a Stephenville area
his brother had died in Scotland and was
direction of the German trench and were
resident who wrote books about the
buried with other soldiers in an unmarked
immediately shot. Those who went toward
experiences of Port au Port area veterans
grave, he tried to get his brother’s body
their own trench had to crawl over the dead
in both world wars. During his research,
exhumed and buried in his own grave.
bodies of their fellow soldiers and severely
O’Gorman was surprised to discover that
However, his request was denied.”
wounded teenage comrades who were
crying for help and for their mothers.
At the end of the battle, 233 men were
dead, 386 wounded and 91 missing and
presumed dead. Only 110 were unharmed,
according to The Rooms museum website.
Many of the wounded soldiers who
returned from the war in 1916 and early
1917 were frustrated over how their
disabilities impeded them from earning
a living. They had no income until their
pensions of about $12 to $15 a month
commenced in 1919.
Such treatment led to a perception that
the First World War veterans were not
appreciated by their government. This
resentment over how veterans were treated
exacerbated the resentment that already
existed over Beaumont Hamel.
Some Newfoundland and Labrador
historians have a mixed assessment of how
Newfoundland soldiers were treated during
and after the First World War.
“The military tactics that contributed
to the Beaumont Hamel massacre were
not questioned until many years after the
war, and the massacre at Beaumont Hamel
was only part of a widespread massacre
of all Commonwealth troops at the Battle
of Somme,” said Memorial University
professor Terry Bishop Stirling. “Although
per capita we contributed more troops and
money than we had to, it was our choice
because support for the British war effort
within Newfoundland was very strong.”
Newfoundland needed a major economic
recalibration after the First World War.
Global demand for Newfoundland exports
declined in the post-war years.
A decade later, the Great Depression
severely exacerbated the economic
woes – leading Britain to worry that
Newfoundland would default on its
war debts. This led Britain to establish
a Commission of Government over
Newfoundland, which diminished national
pride and entrenched a perception that
Newfoundlanders had been exploited.
The medium is the message
W
By Atinuke Adegbola
hen Kathy Dunderdale
resigned as premier in
January, Andrew Aylward
wondered how her
departure would affect students.
During the 2011 election, Dunderdale had
promised to replace student loans with grants.
Aylward, a student journalist at College of
the North Atlantic, wanted to know if the
government still planned to implement the
change.
Aylward requested an interview with the minister of
Advanced Education and Skills, Kevin O'Brien, but was
turned down. A government spokesperson said O’Brien
was too busy and sent Aylward an email reply on behalf of
the department .
The student journalist persisted and made a series
of calls, insisting that emailed interviews were not
acceptable. The minister eventually called Aylward and
assured students that his government still planned to
replace student loans with grants as promised earlier.
Aylward got the interview he needed, but many
reporters do settle for email replies and news releases.
In recent years, there has been a constant debate
among journalists about email interviews. Some
see email interviews as an important and essential
primary reporting tool. Others see them as a means for
government officials to avoid follow-up questions.
There seems to be a battle between the 21st century
generation of reporters and the traditionalists. The
millennial generation grew up with social media
and computer-assisted methods of research; they are
comfortable with online interviewing.
The older generation of journalists believes that live
dialogue, either face-to-face or over the phone, is the ideal
method of interviewing.
Traditionalists say email interviews promote lazy
reporting and encourage the use of unreliable sources.
Email interviews could also be risky because reporters
cannot be totally sure of the source of the email,
especially if they have yet to establish a personal contact
with the subject.
The public expects openness and transparency
in government, and journalists strive to convey the
activities of government - indeed everyone they cover
– accurately and thoroughly. Such diligence is difficult
when reporters are faced with email replies that do not
answer all their questions.
Some see email interviewing as a fast and convenient
way of getting things done while sitting in the office. It is
a seemingly effortless mode of getting interviews done.
Recently, governments have increasingly sought
to respond to queries from reporters by email, even
though they are supposed to be open to the people they
govern.
Quite a number of government officials would rather
provide tailored responses instead of being peppered
with tough questions by inquisitive journalists.
Reporters also take into consideration the subject’s
body language, gesture and tone for their reports.
The government officials would not want to be
thrown off balance by unanticipated questions, so they
shy away from the eyes of the media. One result is that
they send responses based on their own interpretation
of the reporter’s questions and not necessarily on what
the reporter meant to ask.
Such responses are capable of being crafted in such
a way that they do not provide the reporter with an
opportunity to ask follow-up questions.
Andrew Philips, a veteran reporter and editor with
the Toronto Star, suggests government officials use
email correspondence as a means of control.
“Interviewing by email should clearly have limits,”
said Philips. “Editors find it quite acceptable to use
emails for follow-up questions based on the answers
provided by the subjects in face-to-face or phone
interviews.”
Many journalism instructors do not welcome the
idea of students accepting emailed interviews at all -
regardless of whether the emails are from government
officials or not.
“I think it (the practice of email interviews) is
unfortunate for sure,” said Ivor Shapiro, chairperson
of the Ryerson School of Journalism. “There is a big
difference between the kinds of discussion that take
place between the parties. Either one of the parties can
take control or even discontinue the conversation in the
case of email.
“It prevents follow-up questions and clarification,” said
Shapiro. “It also allows someone to answer questions
not asked or rather misinterpret questions. The trend
towards checking inboxes instead of walking out to
the subjects is worrying to some professional reporters
- especially journalism instructors who fear younger
journalists have become too e-mail dependent.”
Shapiro describes reliance on e-mail as the ultimate
sign of indolence. He compared email journalism to a
deviance from the traditional shoe-leather reporting in
which journalists were out on the streets.
In the case of email journalism, you don’t need to
make use of the shoes. All that is required is obtaining
quotes from news releases, which can result in a rather
boring story that would not compel readers.
Every reporting tool has its pros and cons. Through
email interviews, some seemingly out-of-reach people
can become suddenly available. Some government
officials argue that emails make them a bit more
comfortable in giving comprehensive responses.
Some reporters say subjects don’t feel fenced in by
emails and have adequate time to send their responses.
While this practice could lead to tailored and artificial
interviews, they could also result in subjects becoming
more relaxed and forthcoming than they would if they
were forced to respond off the cuff.
Even though journalists applaud e-mail’s promptness
and effectiveness, some remain cautious about using it
to conduct interviews because of its propensity to be less
transparent and trustworthy than the traditional faceto-face interview. Email replies could be void of sincerity
and naturalness that is inherent in dialogue.
In some cases, email can enhance clarity; there is less
of a chance of misquoting someone. However, emails
are not inherently a clearer form of communication. If
sources misunderstand reporters’ questions, for example,
they cannot immediately ask for clarification as they
could in a live conversation.
Without non-verbal cues such as body language
and tone of voice, either a reporter or a source can
misinterpret the tone of the message as exploitative,
harsh or inflexible, creating other barriers to clear
communication.
“Emails can be messed up by saying things we did
not intend to say by getting careless with words,” said
Eunice Jones, a reporter with the organization Sahara
Reporters. “It should be an interview of last resort. I am
of the opinion that emails should hardly be a substitute
for real-time conversation and may be a platform for vain
journalism.”
Jones suggests emails have great potential for creating
misunderstanding.
“Emailed messages are capable of being misrepresented
in terms of what was asked, answered, promised or was
not promised during the period of communication,” said
Jones.
Phone interviews are still preferable to emailed
responses. In phone conversations, you can still get a
sense of the person's voice and personality. You can hear
their pauses, chuckles and reactions.
Email, on the other hand, can often be a mere
collection of “stale, lifeless words without perspective,”
said Kim Hart, an instructor at Philip Merrill College of
Journalism.
“No matter how quick and efficient it may be, e-mail
cannot capture the sense of place, tone of voice, body
language, unexpected reactions or off-the-cuff remarks
that live conversations can,” said Hart.
“Discovery and enquiry are the essential constituents
of interviewing, and e-mail doesn't impart that.
Interviewing goes beyond just getting responses.”
An exchange of emails will never be at the core of
journalism.”
‘An exchange of emails will never be at the core of journalism’
That’s right. Tuition at College of the North Atlantic is frozen at just $726 per semester… it’s been
that way for years – likely the lowest tuition in the country, and certainly the lowest in Atlantic
Canada. Before you decide on a college or university, compare the cost of tuition. We think you’ll
be very surprised.
There are many great reasons to choose College of the North Atlantic. Our low tuition is just the
tip of the iceberg.
ore. www.cna.nl.
ca 1 88
So much m
8 982 2
268

Battling trolls on the net Frames

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