Taking a "step back in time"

Outside of the city limits of the bustling town of Owen Sound, ON, the sound of a blacksmith pounding on metal and fires crackling can be heard while women, men and children in period costume can be found inside of Moreston Heritage Village at Grey Roots Museum and Archives.

For 55 years, Grey Roots Museum and Archives has been in operation, conserving the history of Grey County, an area just 2.5 hours north of Toronto.

While much of the county and its historical artifacts can be viewed from behind of protective glass casing, just steps outside of the main building, that same history is brought to life.

Outside of the museum along the gravel road, historical structures representing the 1850s to the 1920s stand in the form of homes, a school house, a barn, garage and blacksmith shop.

As a child growing up in Grey County, the pioneer life (often emphasized in our curriculum) could be found motionless in textbook photos and definitions; to us, mere facts to be memorized for the next history test. The village, however, has attempted to change this attitude for many area students, bringing a historical fascination which lies beyond the classroom.

Inside of the historical buildings, staff members and volunteers can be found in pioneer costume, telling stories of their long journeys from Toronto while stirring boiling water in a pot above a roaring fire. Susan Sparks, a visitor services representative at the museum says it is this interactive element that draws students, teachers and tourists into the village.

“It really makes the village come alive and that really allows you to take a step back in time,” says Sparks.

The re-launch of the village this summer will feature the expansion with more features and buildings, reminding more tourists and students of the forgotten days of Grey County.

Photo #1: Grey Roots Museum and Archives can be found on Grey Road 18 just outside of Owen Sound, ON (Photo Credit: http://www.greyroots.com/)

Photo #2: A fire burns inside of the historic log cabin inside of the Moreston Heritage Village at Grey Roots Museum and Archives. (Photo Credit : http://www.greyroots.com/)

Photo #3: The outside of one of the historic buildings inside of the Moreston Heritage Village at Gret Roots (Photo Credit: http://www.greyroots.com/)

The only trend in Kensington is your own personal style

When looking to overhaul your spring wardrobe this season, corporate clothing giants in the Eaton Centre or Yorkdale could transform your closet into a carbon copy of many others, but when shopping in Toronto’s Kensington Market, the “trend” can be any personal style.

“It’s bohemian, it’s punk, it’s everything,” says Toronto resident Darcie Smith. “I always think of it as its own little village inside the city.”

According to blogTO, Kensington has been recognized throughout Toronto and Canada for its eclectic atmosphere, a reputation upheld on the racks and shelves of its clothing retailers, which range in styles from urban chic to vintage.

Cece Scriver, owner and operator of Courage My Love, a vintage store on Kensington Avenue, says that her active presence in the store is one characteristic that sets it apart from commercial retailers.

“The owner is always here, so you’re getting a first-hand experience,” says Scriver. “You’re not talking to someone who can’t make any decisions. You’re not talking to a robot, you’re talking to people that actually go and buy the stuff that you’re purchasing.”

Being the owner and operator has had other benefits for Scriver’s customers. An avid traveler, she has been able to hand-pick items from countries such as Thailand, Mexico and Indonesia, assuring they are a one of a kind item that won’t match the conventional styles of other Torontonians. Scriver ads that some of her creations such as clothing sewn from '40s and '50s table cloth has been the inspiration of some mainstream trends and attracts representatives from chain stores such as H&M.

Down the street at vintage and costume shop, Exile, stylist Tina Meister says that Kensington was once one of many locations that promoted style individuality, but corporate stores have slowly pushed out independent retailers, leaving them nowhere else to go but the market.

“All the cool places were getting kicked off of Queen Street in the '70s and it’s all box stores now,” says Meister. It’s turning the area into one big Eaton Centre, which is why you don’t see a lot of people shopping there.”

Like maintaining one’s individual style, it hasn’t been an easy feat preserving the market’s character. Over the years, retailers have rallied together, shutting down a Nike Athletics store to help preserve the market’s atmosphere.

This “in your face” attitude is the embodiment of their fashion philosophy, which they emphasize to all of their customers.

“Wear what you want to wear,” says Meister. If you think you look good in it and you can pull it off, then you can pull it off. Nobody is going to question anyone walking down the street who is looking confident.”

Kensington has been able to “pull it off” for decades, keeping the market alive and inspiring new shoppers to pursue their own fashion identity.

Photo #1 Caption: A number of Kensington Market's clothing retailers are located on Kensington Avenue (Photo taken by Stephanie Lowe)

Photo #2 Caption: The outside of Courage My Love, one of Kensington Market's oldest vintage retailers (Photo taken by Stephanie Lowe)

Photo #3 Caption: Every wall in Courage My Love is covered with one of a kind vintage clothing and accessories from all corners of the globe (Photo taken by Stephanie Lowe)

Journalists Told to use Caution when Accessing Facebook Information

As the social networking site, Facebook, becomes more accessible, journalists are being warned by employers to limit their use of private information of sources on the site.

The Boston Globe reported that this past December, Facebook made changes that allowed its users to share personal information with greater ease. However, keeping other information strictly on your page has now become a larger challenge.

The new changes allow for convenient access of the information that the network provides, offering journalists a new tool to access private information of sources including photos.

An online survey conducted last year revealed that 56 per cent of 371 online and print journalists said that social media like Facebook was an important research tool for their stories.

Despite the heightened use of the site, a report from the guardian.co.uk says media employees are being warned by their managers to consider a number of “legal and ethical issues.”

The same report says that although the BBC does not yet have a privacy policies in place, journalists there are being asked to use to use vigilance when using photos as they could be easily used out of context by the media.

Steve Hermann, editor of the BBC website was quoted by the guardian.co.uk saying that “The boundary between what's public and what's private isn't always easy to define online, and I think it's also true to say it's not something people always give a huge amount of thought to when posting.”

So you might want to think about posting photos from that Saturday night party because it might not be for your eyes only.

Photo caption: An online survey by CISION Global Media Intelligence says that more journalists are finding social media sites increasingly important tools in their story research. (photo from CISION study)

Some Roles of Journalists May Decrease as Experts Enter the Online Scene

With experts making their debut on the World Wide Web, journalists may see some of their editorial roles disappearing.

As American writer and teacher, Clay Shirky, emphasizes in his article 'Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable', in the realm of the online world, “making something available to the public – has stopped being a problem,” allowing opinions to run rampant on the web as some experts have started to use the medium of blogging.

Andrew Steele, senior consultant at StrategyCorp., an elite public affairs firm in Toronto, is a blogger for The Globe and Mail on Canadian politics and says his expertise may be taking away from the analytical role of journalists.

Armed with university degrees specializing in the studies of the goings-on in the hallways of Parliament and Queen’s Park, he says that he becomes a threat to journalists with vast experience.

“Things have completely changed now that I am of equal weight to editorial writers,” says Steele.

As blogging is a side-job for Steele, he says he has never and will never get paid for what he does for The Globe and Mail and with his blog attracting a whopping 50,000 readers, it is easy to see why he is an invaluable asset to the national newspaper’s website.

“What journalists do is going out into the field and doing the actual news gathering,” says Steele. “Now I am the one they get to analyze the information. I am a capital "E" expert in politics.”

Photo Caption: Andrew Steele, senior consultant at StrategyCorp. and political blogger for The Globe and Mail. (photo from The Globe and Mail)

Digging Deeper: The Effects of New Technological Demands for Print Journalists

Jim Rankin of the Toronto Star says that the development of the internet has changed the role of the print reporter in today’s world.

Not only will journalists have to hone their reporting skills, but new technological features of the World Wide Web have increased the responsibilities of newspaper reporters.

Rankin told a Ryerson University journalism class Monday “when you go out to report, it’s not just gathering quotes. You want to capture visuals because you don’t know if you’re going to need it down the line.”

Rankin was one of the key players who helped design the Crime & Punishment website of the Toronto Star, an interactive site built on hours of hard work and a number of Freedom of Information Requests on behalf of Rankin.

Now when Rankin goes out to find a story, a pen and a notebook are not enough. Capturing video, pictures and collecting raw data has helped to add interactive elements to the site which allow readers to see correlations between all of the information provided and also helps to provide more context for them.

Maps of the Greater Toronto Area display the "unlucky horseshoe" as Rankin called it, known as the areas of the GTA where crime is most rampant and costly.

“The Star has gone beyond the information and has gone to cause and effect, several levels down in terms of reporting.”

Photo Caption: A graph from the Toronto Star Crime & Punishment shows the most expensive areas of crime in the GTA. Photo taken from Toronto Star Crime & Punishment website.

100 Mile Diet in Jeopardy for Toronto Participants

If you’re “fishing” for a good catch tonight, don’t go looking off of the shores of Toronto in polluted Lake Ontario. Toronto restaurants and markets are gaining recognition for their catches, but because of this, the possibility a successful 100 Mile Diet has gone down the drain.

In 2008, blogTO selected a top list of fish restaurants and markets in the downtown core for those looking for seafood. While the restaurants and markets may be raving about their selections, there are no signs of local seafood on the site.

The 100-mile diet is a recent movement which has encouraged locally grown and produced food in order to reduce the carbon footprint caused by shipping food around the globe and encourages a healthy and organic diet.

While shipping and freezing is a more favourable financial option, it often comes at the price of taste, but the solution could lie just two hours north of the GTA in Georgian Bay, a prime location for fishing and a solution for those 100 Mile dieters.

A popular website for those on the waters north of the GTA, fishinggeorgianbay.com says that fish in the bay range from bass, pike, lake trout and salmon.

Photo Caption: A tourist holds several catches after fishing in Norther Ontario, a common hobby that has continued for decades. Fishing in the Upper Great Lakes. Photo taken from Government of Canada Archives.