Fort Erie Radio tests first journalism boot camp for local teens

A Grade 9 student spent a day in Fort Erie Radio’s newsroom this month, and two days later the station published her story.

Aniah Marouf, who starts at Greater Fort Erie Secondary School this fall, was the first teenager to take part in the pilot seminar for the station’s journalism and broadcast boot camp.

Program director Brent Jones and lead reporter Andrew Hawlitzky ran the session on August 15 at the Queen Street studio.

Jones said he started the program to address a problem he’s watched worsen each year. Local newsrooms keep closing, but he wants Fort Erie teenagers to picture themselves working in one.

“Independent news media is thinning right across the country, and unless we can get kids thinking about what a future in broadcast and journalism might look like, I’m afraid it’ll die completely,” Jones said.

The Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University estimates that 613 local news outlets have closed in 391 Canadian communities since 2008. Another 270 local news outlets opened in that time and still operate.

Hawlitzky spent the first half of the seminar teaching the fundamentals of news writing, like the difference between a lede and a nutgraf.

He and Marouf then brainstormed questions for a planned interview with Heather Kelley, founder of the advocacy group Fort Erie Healthcare SOS.

Jones then taught her about broadcasting. Marouf delivered her original Douglas Memorial story on air between 6 and 7 p.m.

The station published the story on August 17 under its staff byline, with an editor’s note crediting Marouf as the writer.

Jones said readers often hear far more about what the prime minister or U.S. president did today than about the decisions made in their own town.

“People seem to forget that what’s happening right in their own backyards probably has the biggest overall impact on their lives,” he said.

Jones said he hoped Marouf picked up new skills, had some fun and would consider a career in local media, with the station or elsewhere.

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