The Michener Awards Foundation announced today that Melanie Coulson, senior online editor at the Ottawa Citizen, has been awarded the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Journalism Education. The fellowship is dedicated to advancing education of Canadian journalists. This is the first year that it has been awarded.
As part of the fellowship, Coulson will spend the winter term in 2013 at Carleton’s School of Journalism and Communication, where she will teach an undergraduate reporting course. She will also conduct research into the growing phenomenon of audience participation in the media.
“We’re very pleased to be chosen as the first school to host the winner of the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Journalism Education,” said Christopher Waddell, director of the School of Journalism and Communication. “We look forward to the work Coulson will do, and are thrilled that our students will have the opportunity to interact with a seasoned journalist from the Ottawa Citizen.”
Coulson currently teaches in the journalism program at Carleton as a contract instructor. She joined the Ottawa Citizen in 2006 after holding positions at the Globe and Mail and the CBC. She is a graduate of Carleton and was one of the founding students of Capital News Online, an award-winning online news magazine run by students. She received her Master’s of Journalism in 1999.
“It is an honour to win the first ever Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Journalism Education,” said Coulson. “I’m thrilled the Michener Awards Foundation is recognizing the importance of journalism education with this fellowship, and that I have the opportunity to be a journalist-in-residence at Carleton University, my beloved alma mater. I look forward to examining community and citizen journalism and its impact on traditional media – and to do it at Canada’s top journalism school with the next generation of journalists.”
The foundation also announced today that Laura Eggertson is the winner of the Michener-Deacon Fellowship for Investigative Journalism. This fellowship encourages excellence in investigative print and broadcast journalism that serves the public interest.
Eggertson graduated from Carleton with a Bachelor of Journalism in 1986. She spent nine years reporting for the Canadian Press and she is now a writer, editor and freelance journalist based in Ottawa. A past Nieman Fellowship winner, she plans to research and write a series of print and online articles and create a radio documentary based on the experiences of Aboriginal communities dealing with suicide.
His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will host the Michener Awards ceremony at Rideau Hall on June 12, 2012 where the Michener-Deacon Fellowships will be presented and the winner of the 2011 Michener Award will be announced.
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For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
christopher_cline@carleton.ca
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