Energeticcity.ca Weekly Review: What We've Learned

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Welcome to our next installment of Weekly Review, the series where we mention what’s going on behind the scenes as well as showcase the top stories of the previous week.

As always, if you want to get this review directly in your inbox, all newsletter subscribers will receive it every Sunday!

Behind the Scenes

Back in September of this year, we mentioned that our investigative journalist Spencer Hall was selected to be a part of the Canadian Association of Journalists' mentorship program. Since then, he has been working with Rachel Ward from the CBC's Fifth Estate to learn the tips and tricks of the trade. While the mentorship is ending soon, here are some of his takeaways:

Investigative journalism is a different beast than conventional journalism. With investigative journalism, you need to find your own information, it will not be given to you like it often is in daily reporting. You need to compile and sometimes analyze your own data and piece together your story. Investigative work often makes people uncomfortable and they may not like it, but that is what inspires change.

You can never be too organized or take too many notes. Chronologies, contact sheets, interview transcripts — you need to keep your data organized and accessible to save time and have all the information you need to find patterns or inconsistencies in previously gathered data.

When conducting an investigation, you have to consider what documents may exist that contain the information you’re looking for. Also referred to as a “document state of mind.”

"These are my top 3 takeaways from the mentorship program, however, there is so much more that I learned thanks to this amazing opportunity. A huge thank you to Rachel Ward for taking the time to expand my practical knowledge as I moved into this new position. I can’t wait to share more stories with our readers in the new year!"