Brown Bag Lunch for Backpack Journalists

On Friday, March 9th, from 12h00 - 13h15 JAY MOWAT — a fellow alumni of Concordia’s Communications Studies program — will be giving a 75 minute seminar on “backpack journalism.” Come with your lunch and your questions.

PLACE: CJ3.306
Communication Studies/Journalism Building
Loyola Campus, Concordia U
TIME: Friday, March 9th 12h00 - 13h15

Jay Mowat will speak on the impact that new technologies are having on the television documentary genre. With the advent of small format, high quality DV cameras, along with simple audio gear and powerful laptop editing software, the tools of the documentary are now widely available, extremely portable and easy to use. But despite the fact many more journalists and artists can now access the technology, successful documentaries are becoming much harder to make. This 75-minute session starts with the father of the modern documentary, Robert Flaherty, and ends with a taste of some of the more cutting edge docs recently broadcast.

WHO IS JAY MOWAT?

Jay has 30 years experience as a radio and television producer and director for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. His awards include 2 Geminis and several New York Film Festival Awards for his work. He’s worked as program director of the CBC Country Canada Channel, Executive Producer for CBC Newsworld, Senior Producer for CBC News Sunday Report and Senior Producer for CBC News Toronto. As a member of the CBC Election Team, he managed CBC’s Decision Desk and Results Gathering. Jay retired from the CBC in 2006. He’s now involved in a local community radio station in Erin, Ontario and helps manage a local alternative energy biodiesel project. In his “spare” time, Jay is a cabinet maker, blacksmith, beekeeper, and commercial market gardener.