barnfeline In the Newsroom, Life

From Iqaluit to Igloolik

My friend Thomas’ account covering the suicide of Solomon Uyarasuk. Heart-breaking.

Sometimes I Think

I find myself in Igloolik this week, an Inuit community of almost 1,500 people which sits on its own small island about 800 km northwest of Iqaluit, just off the northeast corner of Melville Peninsula.

Arriving Sunday night around 4:30pm it was already pitch dark and about -30C with the wind: an instant reminder that I’m further north than Iqaluit. I’m above the Arctic Circle now, where, eventually, the sun will disappear for weeks each winter.  The average temperature in Igloolik this week is around -27C, before the wind chill. And there are only about 3 hours of sunlight, including twilight.

My official capacity here—covering a five-day coroner’s inquest into the death of a young, popular artist and circus performer while in police custody for Nunatsiaq News

A plane waits on the tarmac of Iqaluit's airport Nov. 22. After flying all the way to Igloolik, my plane turned around headed back for Iqaluit because groundstaff woudln't have been able to de-ice the plane for its next trip, the pilot said. A plane waits on the tarmac of Iqaluit’s airport Nov. 22. After flying all the way to Igloolik, my plane turned around headed…

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barnfeline Food, In the Newsroom, Life

Adventures in Food: Granola

Maple Cinnamon Granola. K.Barnes
Maple Cinnamon Granola. K.Barnes

I had forgotten how much I loved granola until I met up with a friend at the Highlevel Diner for breakfast a couple of weeks ago. The Highlevel’s granola is crunchy, flavourful, loaded with all sorts of grains, nuts and raisins, and served with fresh fruit. I wanted to make something similar for my breakfast before work (or at work in many cases), and this is the recipe I put together.

I’ll still visit HLD for their amazing cinnamon buns, though!

Maple-Cinnamon Granola

  • 3 cups regular oats (not quick)
  • 1 cup slivered or chopped almonds
  • 2/3 cup pumpkin seeds
  • 1/2 cup shredded coconut
  • 1 cup amber maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup canola oil
  • 1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 325 F. Mix all ingredients except for cranberries in a bowl. Spread a cookie sheet and bake for 25 minutes. Stir and bake for another 15 or 20 minutes. It should be golden brown when you pull it out of the oven. Let it cool and mix with the dried cranberries. Store in an airtight container. Serve with dairy or non-dairy (I like almond milk) and fresh fruit of your choice.

Music while you cook

I was lucky enough to see the wonderful David Francey perform at Calgary’s Folk Music Festival a few years ago. His music is sweet, soothing, and comforting– perfect pairing with granola.

 

barnfeline In the Newsroom, Life, News

Edmonton-Toronto-Edmonton in three weeks

Studio cammin' it up! K.Barnes
Studio cammin’ it up! K.Barnes

It’s been super hectic since leaving Edmonton on April 6th. In a week, my partner and I have packed up a large portion of our apartment, worked, gone to school, visited with some friends and have tried to tie up as many lose ends as we can before we leave next Monday.

It was a busy three days back at Humber News, getting into the swing of things, seeing classmates and re-learning iNews.

A few big stories broke this week: HSF removing Tim Brilhante from the office of president, Jim Flaherty dying, the accused murderers of Tim Bosma being charged with other murders… OY!

On Thursday, I wrote the York lawsuit story, Flaherty’s death and HSF. I also ran Kiah’s studio cam– the first time!

On Friday, I was part of the report team that covered HSF fallout. I was mainly research help, but I also interviewed Tim Brilhante (for 20 minutes– yikes!), filmed Josh’s stand-up and assisted with editing and writing. It was super busy, but exciting!

This week, with only two days on the schedule, I’ll be the Sports and Entertainment Editor and Production Assistant! Should be nice and busy in the newsroom, if last week was any indication.

Afterwards, next Monday I’ll be driving back to Edmonton. Driving through the States this time should be a lot better than when we drove through Canada on the move out here. 🙂

barnfeline In the Newsroom, News

Award Winner!

2013-10-11 19.22.58
John Greyson and Tarek Loubani return to Toronto. Credit: A. Fernandes

This morning I was notified by my program coordinator that I was the recipient of two Digital Media Gold Circle Awards with the Colombia Scholastic Press Association: one in the breaking news category, and another with the secondary news category!

I’m super proud of both pieces, especially since I worked with fantastic people for each piece.

Kiah Welsh and I spent a very long time working on a big data journalism piece: a comprehensive, interactive senate expense scandal timeline. It took a lot of work and research, but it turned out great.

Epse Currie, Andrea Fernandes and I busted it at Pearson International Airport when John Greyson and Tarek Loubani returned home after being held in Egypt for fifty days. We were brushing elbows with the national media, or in some cases, accidentally walked in front of the camera in the middle of a stand-up. 😉

Congratulations to all the award winners, but especially the Humber students and grads!

 

barnfeline In the Newsroom, News

Hurtin’ Albertan: The Intern Edition

“I tip my hat and it’s good to be back on mountain standard time”

I’ve been back in Alberta for the past three weeks, working at Global Edmonton as part of my course credit for school. Six weeks at 40 hours a week = 240 hours. Tagging along with reporters and helping out on their stories. Getting interviews for VO clips and writing the stories. Pitching, researching and chasing. Helping cover the assignment desk.

Mural
Mural on the East side of Global. – k.barnes

In the past three weeks, I’ve learned how to use ENPS (we use iNews/Burli at school) and a bit of Aurora Browse/Edit. I helped out with grabbing interviews and research on “AB Budget Day” at the Legislature and was embargoed– what a day! I was also in the newsroom during the multiple stabbings on the West End. Watching our chopper coverage of the police chase was incredible!

Budget
Tom Vernon interviewing Wildrose leader Danielle Smith at Budget Day in the rotunda. -k.barnes

Still three weeks to go: I’ll be spending more time with the producers, the online team and working on the morning show (overnights!). I can’t wait. 🙂

barnfeline In the Newsroom, News

VJ-ing the weather

Other than some bad luck getting started on Thursday, I had a great time VJ-ing the weather! It was definitely tricky not having any help with running the camera, or self-filming, but at least editing was easy. *WHEW!*

I tried my best to make the weather segment more than just reading the “Five Day Weather Forecast”– weather has colour and big picture predictions. I tried to add that into my script, but it’s hard when you only have 50 seconds max.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Friday, February 14, 2014

barnfeline In the Newsroom, News

Humber News: Weather Camera/Audio

This week brought the surprisingly fun combo of weather camera (morning) and audio technician (afternoon).  The day is kept rather busy on this double duty.

Weather Team: Feb 5-7. Jon Mace (reporter) and Kateryna Barnes (camera).
Weather Team: Feb 5-7. Jon Mace (reporter) and Kateryna Barnes (camera). The blizzard made for a fun first day. 🙂 Photo by K.Barnes

Schedule:
1) Weather Camera– film tease, report and credit roll. Try for pretty nature shots.
2) Edit– film tease, report and credit roll. Add weather board from CG. Hand over to VTR.
3) Food break, if lucky.
4) Audio control booth for Sports and Entertainment pre-tapes. Hope that you can see what happens next on the teleprompter’s screen in front of you.
5) Possible secondary food break if the first didn’t happen. Chances are, this one won’t happen either.
6) First show record. Usually a little calmer than pre-tapes, but rolling music, mikes and pretapes all at the same time makes me wish I had a third arm. Also, don’t forget to hit record!
7) Definite 1/2 hour break. It’s 2:30 pm by this point.
8) Final show.

It’s hectic indeed, but so far, a lot of fun! I definitely like weather camera a bit more, but part of that has to do with the time I get to spend with one of my favourite people in the program, Jon Mace. He’s a very cool cat and you should check out his over-night traffic reports on 680 News; trust me, his voice is the perfect definition of dulcet tones.

[Update] Here are the weather reports by Jon and I:

Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014

Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014

Friday, Feb. 7, 2014

barnfeline In the Newsroom, News

Humber News: Anchoring…

Not my first choice, unlike many of my classmates. I really just wanted more writing experience, and my prof Joy Crysdale listened and “raised” the bet, much to my surprise. I was the anchor assigned to the national news beat; my co-host extraordinare Corey (aka “Bring the fear Weir”) wrote international news. We definitely had some stressful and hectic days, but we survived intact, even if I was up at 5 a.m. both Thursday and Friday.

Still, I could not have asked for a better bud on the anchor desk, a more superb studio director (Josh), or fantastic camera techs/hair-fixers (Espe and Hugh).

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Friday, January 31, 2014

Rest of each day’s shows after the jump.