The Newsletter of RTA School of Media | March 4, 2016
 


Message From The Chair
We are well underway this school year, and it's certainly been a busy and exciting time for RTA. We've opened the Allan Slaight Radio Institute, with the generous financial support of the Slaight Family Foundation. This fantastic facility, with its five brand new control rooms, gives our students access to cutting edge technology and highlights the importance of radio to the RTA School of Media. Our amazing RTA students made history with THE TAKEOVER - the first all-female live sports broadcast, which saw women take on every live sports production role to deliver a women's hockey game from the Sportsnet RTA Production Centre at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. In addition, a number of New Media students worked together to construct exhibits for both the TIFF Kids digiPlaySpace and the Ontario Science Centre, and our outstanding faculty were recognized with awards for their teaching, research, and service. Congratulations to all of our students, faculty and staff. Keep up the great work!

Laura Nenych
Chair, RTA School of Media

Allan Slaight Radio Institute Opens
Industry, staff and students were invited on January 25 to the Allan Slaight Radio Institute to celebrate RTA's newest, state-of-the-art radio broadcast and teaching facility. The event gave its 80 guests the opportunity to walk through the space, test the equipment and see students in action with a live broadcast by Ryerson's digital radio station, SpiritLive. The Institute is the result of a $3-million donation from the Slaight Family Foundation to support the next generation of radio professionals and entrepreneurs, and is set to strengthen Ryerson's position as the educational leader in radio broadcast and production. The Institute will also foster excellence through newly created student awards, provide support for independent student productions and create hands-on learning and development opportunities for students. In conjunction with the opening of the Institute, Ryerson has also announced that award-winning broadcaster and program director Alan Cross has been appointed Allan Slaight broadcaster in residence. Cross, a nationally recognized broadcaster and rock musicologist, will serve as a guest lecturer and student project mentor.
New Media Students Team Up With TIFF For Second digiPlaySpace Exhibit
The RTA School of Media and TIFF® have partnered for a second consecutive year to produce the title wall of the digiPlaySpace exhibition. The interactive installation, known as Marshmallow Clouds, is a unique and magical light-up cloudscape that will be shown at TIFF Bell Lightbox from March 5 to April 24, 2016. Vancouver-based design studio, Tangible Interaction, provided the artistic concept and technical leadership for the installation and collaborated on its production and design with 12 RTA New Media students. Tangible's founder and creative director, Alex Beim and industrial designer, Andrea Buttarini led the project with RTA Professor Steve Daniels. The students contributed more than 300 hours of time to assist with the construction and installation of the large scale exhibit.
RTA Students Make History With All-Female Crewed Broadcast
The Ryerson Rams Network produced the first ever all-female crewed TV broadcast on January 29, dubbing it THE TAKEOVER. Operating out of the Sportsnet RTA Production Centre in the Mattamy Athletic Centre, the crew of 23 female RTA students worked in every live sports production position required to produce the live broadcast of the Ryerson Ram's women's hockey game between the Rams and the Windsor Lancers. The event was initiated by fourth year student Leandra Vermeulen to showcase the female talent being fostered and grown at Ryerson and was shown on Rogers TV, Super Sports Pak and streamed through OUA.tv, with news segments featured on CBC Radio and TV, The Fan 590 and TSN.
RTA New Media Students Partner With The Science Centre For Exhibit
RTA students enrolled in the Advanced New Media Topics course are currently working in collaboration with the Ontario Science Centre on the development of a new interactive experience to be launched at the Centre in Summer 2016. The project stems from a series of open workshops held during Fall 2015 in which students participated in brainstorm and idea development sessions. Working closely with RTA faculty and experts from the Centre, the students are responsible for the implementation of every aspect of the project from design and prototyping to programming and fabrication.
Students Partner With United Way To Raise Awareness Of Poverty In The GTA
After returning from an RTA volunteer trip to Honduras, third year students Madelaine Sawyers McKechnie and Laura Heidenheim launched their multimedia platform ProjectUnited in partnership with the United Way. The platform was created to spread awareness about poverty in the GTA region by encouraging discussion around homelessness issues and inspiring users to take action to connect with those in need. The site features individual stories from members of the homeless community and highlights volunteer opportunities users can take part in.
Politics, Social Media And The Echo Chamber Panel Brings Together Industry Experts
On November 24, 2015 the RTA School of Media, Ryerson School of Journalism and Master's in Digital Media (MDM) program hosted a panel on Politics, Social Media, and the Echo Chamber: Shaping the New Public Forum. The event was moderated by Steve Paikin, Canadian journalist, author, producer, and anchor of TVO's flagship current affairs program, The Agenda with Steve Paikin. Paikin was well suited to lead the discussion about the role politics and social media play in shaping public opinion given his appointment as a distinguished visiting professor in the RTA School of Media and the School of Journalism. Paikin led the discussion about the role politics and social media play in shaping public opinion. The panel brought together industry experts from the fields of journalism, politics and social media, including Craig Silverman (Buzzfeed), Steve Ladurantaye (Twitter), Asmaa Malik (School of Journalism), Ramona Pringle (RTA School of Media), and Jesse Hirsh (CBC). The event was extremely successful and drew in a full house to Ryerson's Transmedia Zone. This event is the first in a series of panels with industry experts.
CURTAS Corner
The Course Union of the RTA School of Media Students (CURTAS) ran a series of events last semester to bring the RTA School of Media spirit to an all time high. This included RTA's own FROSH week of programming for incoming first year students, Discover RTA for prospective students, and social events including The RTA Winter Gala and the Ugly Holiday Sweater Party for current students. This semester, CURTAS intends to continue the momentum, which already began with special programming for Winter Break in Montreal, and the Cupid's Carnival charity karaoke event which was produced for the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and was the result of a collaboration with the Ryerson Professional Communication Course Union. Upcoming initiatives include the next installment of Discover RTA, an RTA versus Journalism Karaoke Night, and an RTA Real Time Insight event produced in collaboration with the Career Centre, which gives new RTA students an opportunity to hear directly from fourth year students about their experiences with practicum, to better prepare them for this part of their program.

Faculty Updates
Global City And Global Campus Network Win Awards

Marion Coomey and Rick Grunberg are among the 2015 winners of a Canadian Bureau for International Education (CBIE) Excellence Award for their work on The Global City and Global Campus Network.


RTA Professors Win Ryerson Awards

Laurie Petrou was honoured for excellence in teaching and education with the Deans' Teaching Award, Richard Grunberg received the Deans' Service Award for service and leadership and Hossein Rahnama the Early Research Career Excellence Award. All awards will be presented at the at Ryerson Awards Night on March 17.


Diversity On Air

Lori Beckstead was a guest on CBC Radio 1's Metro Morning with Matt Galloway to talk about her Interactive Radio: Diversity on Air project, a tool that explores diversity at Toronto radio stations. A panel discussion will also be hosted on this topic in the Allan Slaight Radio Institute on March 8 at 6 p.m.


Robots In The Workplace

Ali Mazalek is working with telepresence robots in her Synaesthetic Media Lab.


Fusing New Media And Indigenous Theory To Explore Connectedness

New Zealand AlterNative Journal features 'Imag(in)ing Indigeneity in English', an article by RTA's Lila Pine and Ryerson's School of Professional Communication's Joanne DiNova.


Gymnastics In Rio Olympics On CBC

Joe Recupero produced four World Gymnastics Championship shows for Road to the Olympic Games on CBC in preparation for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.


RTA Professor A Finalist For Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriting Award

James Nadler is a finalist for a Writer's Guild of Canada Award in the shorts and webseries category for his work on Bob! The Slob. The 2016 awards take place on May 2, 2016 at the TELUS Centre for Performance and Learning's Koerner Hall.

Alumni Updates
MA in Media Production graduate Marie-Esperance Cerda (RTA '15) received nextMEDIA's Graduate of the Year award for her interactive 360-degree virtual reality video reports of the May Day 2015 protests in Montreal. Esperance received her award at the 2015 Digi Award's in November. 
RTA'14 graduate Alexandra Middleton's film, Sigo Adelante, was selected for Actuality Media's film festival sponsorship award and has enjoyed great success on the international film circuit, including winning the Best Documentary Award at the Barcelona International Film Festival. The film was made by an Actuality Media student crew during a study abroad program in Quito, Ecuador. Middleton was the film's editor and backup cinematographer.
International students in Hossein Rahnama's Emerging Media Markets class Emma Nilsson (Sweden), Katie Lambert (Australia), Florian Rettenmeier (Germany) and Jamie Maisner (England) created an enhanced ticket purchasing app during their semester abroad at Ryerson. The app allows users to see the events that are trending locally and easily source and buy tickets, along with a host of other useful features. The project is an example of how courses bring international students together to build high impact projects and showcase the talent here at RTA.

RTA'13 graduate John Woo was promoted to the role of producer in the features department at Sportsnet. Woo began as an on-air promotions intern at Sportsnet during his third year in the RTA Media Production program. In his new role, he is responsible for creating documentary-style content for broadcasts, including for NHL and Toronto Blue Jays games.


RTA'07 graduate Brian Dunn's children's television show Brian's World was picked up by Treehouse Direct and airs weekly. Dunn is the host, writer and producer. He will be moving to Korea shortly to produce content for a new Korean YouTube channel for kids in conjunction with Corus.

Student Updates
Thesis film by fourth year students Coylan Subben, Danielle Pirita, Gabriella Bevilacqua, Amanda Fusco, Carina Kresic, Hayley Butler, Sarah Pinto, Andrea Africa and third year student Julia Wittmann, If a Bird Cannot Swim, was created to explore the stigma surrounding mental health and gender identity. Told through the eyes of a French Canadian family in Midland, Ontario, the film highlights the difficulties of coping with mental illness in a small town. The group is currently shopping the film around to various festivals around Canada and Europe.

RIOT comedy sketch group performed at 120 Diner on January 7 with RTA students from first, second and third year.

Film and campaign by fourth year Media Production students Melissa Scicluna, Mary Gyulay, Jake Nothdurft, Dakota Wotton, Evan Kelly, Melissa Cultraro, Melissa Vasiliev and Diana Zagorski, VIABLE, was inspired by director and co-writer Mary Gyulay's experiences with Multiple Sclerosis; a serious neurological disorder she was diagnosed with at the age of 22. The film-makers partnered with the MS Society of Canada for a fundraiser and screening event on March 3 to raise funds for MS research and treatment.

RTA Media Production first year student Samuel Lehner made his directorial debut with Wes, a documentary that premiered at this year's Toronto Black Film Festival and follows the life of Wes Hall, CEO of Kingsdale Shareholder Services Inc., who was recently named one of Canada's Most Powerful Business People by Canadian Business magazine.

Second year student Mikael Melo launched his project Stone Cold - A Movement Piece; one of the first productions to be funded by the Ryerson Communication and Design Society (RCDS) with an RTA student in the role of executive. The project brought together students from across the Faculty of Communication and Design, including from the Ryerson Theatre School, and the schools of Image Arts and Creative Industries. The video drew attention from one of the world's largest multi-channel networks, BroadbandTV, who promoted the piece via its social media channels.

The 2016 Top Docs Award for Best Documentary goes to third year Media Production students Alex Vella, Julia Costa, Sam Gamper and Adam Gualtieri for Together Is Home. The film centres around two sisters growing up in foster care.
 
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or tweet us at @RTARyerson
Want to see your work featured on the RTA Showcase channel? Email: rtashowcase@ryerson.ca



Producer & writer: Melissa Malone | Contributor & editor: Laurie Petrou

Contributor: Kelly Kitagawa | Web: Joanna Lau


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