Alan Bass, M.A. (York)
Assistant Professor of Journalism
Alan’s 19 years of journalism experience includes writing about national political, economic and social issues as a reporter in Ottawa for United Press and Canadian Press; working as a beat reporter, copy-editor and section editor at the London Free Press; and editing a magazine and doing corporate communications work as manager of alumni communications at the University of Western Ontario. His first paid job in journalism was associate editor and publisher of a campus newspaper at the University of Toronto. The best advice Alan ever got about covering politics came early after his arrival in Ottawa at age 25 when a frustrated editor bellowed: “Bass! Don’t tell me what the Prime Minister said! Tell me what he means!” Teaching areas: Public relations, online journalism, and political reporting.

Grant Fleming, M.A. (Western Ontario)
Instructor
Grant obtained two university degrees in a less-than-rigorous discipline once known as “physical education.” Later on, he worked in sports communications/marketing, with a public speaker agency, as a substitute high school teacher, as a politician’s aide, as a literacy fundraiser and media relations consultant, as a communications coordinator and spokesman (for Elections Canada and Elections Manitoba), as an event organizer (including for Winnipeg’s Gay Pride Festival and the Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival), and as a reporter. In 1998, he was awarded a national prize (“Best Investigative Journalist”, presented by the Radio & TV News Directors of Canada) for his CBC Radio stories documenting sex abuse in Canadian junior hockey. Teaching areas: editing, beat reporting (sports), and public relations.

Charles Hays Ph.D. (Iowa)
Assistant Professor of Journalism
Charles comes to TRU following a journalism career in the U.S. After completing a Bachelor of Science at Oregon State University in Technical Journalism in 1985, he worked in public and commercial radio and TV news operations in Oregon and South Dakota. In 2000 he completed work for his Master of Science in Journalism at South Dakota State University and in 2004 completed his Ph.D. in Mass Communications at the University of Iowa. He is a member if the Canadian Science Writers' Association, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, AEJMC's Cultural and Critical Studies Division, the Popular Culture Association and the PCA's Motorcycling Culture and Myth Division. He continues work as a freelance writer and has research interests in cultural conflict, health and science reporting, and online communication. He is the author (with Penny Powers) of two short humour books about motorcycling culture, "The Biker's Guide to Life: Sit Down, Shut Up and Hang On" and "The Biker's Guide to the Open Road: Ride It Like You Stole It." He teaches classes in freelance writing, PR and organizational communication, crime and justice reporting, magazine production and the news business.
 

Dennis Keusch, Dipl. Electronic Publishing (Selkirk)
Lab. Demonstrator
He is an expert in Photoshop and QuarkXPress, and assists in the production of all program publications including The Digital Times.

Maxine Ruvinsky, Ph.D.(McGill)
Assistant Professor of Journalism and Acting Chair of Journalism
Capping a journalistic career of more than 20 years with seven at the Montreal bureau of the national wire service Canadian Press, she has covered crime and courts, and specialized in issues and investigative reporting. Her byline has appeared in major dailies nationwide; she has also published in magazines, alternative weeklies and online venues, and written advertising copy and speeches. In 1995, she was awarded a Ph.D. in comparative literature from McGill University for her work on the language and literature of the press, culminating in her doctoral dissertation on the underground press of the sixties. She also holds a bachelor's degree in music (Concordia) and a master's in communications (Calgary). Teaching areas: Editing, investigative reporting and freelance writing.

Shawn Thompson, M.A. (Queen's)
Assistant Professor of Journalism
He has published three books on people and their relationship to the environment and a tourist guide to the Thousand Islands. His fifth book on federal prisoners in Canada and the United States is being published in the spring of 2002 by HarperCollins. He has worked on daily and weekly newspapers for over seventeen years as a reporter, editor, and photographer, and covered beats such as crime, courts, prisons, and education. For a year he was a columnist for a daily newspaper writing about people. He is an active member of the Society of Environmental Journalists, putting together a panel which he moderated on cross border issues affecting endangered species for a conference of the society. His current area of writing and photography is the science and rehabilitation of orangutans, which took him to the jungles of Borneo in 2001. Teaching areas: Reporting, interviewing techniques, news writing, environmental journalism, layout and design, pagination, and newspaper production.