Kameyosek LIVE ON THE SCENE

As we exited our bus, the air buzzed with the excitement of having left the suburbia of Millwoods and journeyed towards our downtown destination. We were now “live on the scene”. After a group photo in the atrium, our week began the same way it would end, with five flights of stairs.

Our initial tour of the facility turned out to be a journey through time.  As we explored our surroundings we travelled back in time and learned about the first types of printing devices.

Tour stop by the Linotype machine

We learned about the Journal’s founding (thank you John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham), we visited the photo and print archives and experienced the past directly. We then jumped ahead to the present day and saw the newsroom and other work spaces. Warping into the future, we learned about the direction of the new Journal format and platforms.  We ended our day exploring works by the award winning political cartoonist, one of our class’ favorites, Malcolm Mayes.

Bzzzzzzzzzz! The morning of our second day, we transformed ourselves into tiny flies. Landing on various walls around the building we spent time learning about many of the jobs done at the Journal. With our trusty reporter’s notepads we carefully recorded details pertaining to the job descriptions and experiences of the Gastropost editor Brittney LeBlanc, columnist Paula Simons, Community Manager of Capital Ideas Sam Brooks and reporter Chris Zdeb. That afternoon we flew over to the CKUA radio building and found out the workings of a radio station.

Outside CKUA

From music to reporting we saw it all through our many lensed eyes. To round off our day we explored the Shaw Convention center and observed the construction of the Crashed Ice course, amazingly, it actually wrapped itself around the building!

Wednesday saw us hit the streets. We toured many interesting areas around the city center and spent time at the award winning Stanley Milner Library. We perused newspapers from across the country and around the globe. We looked at the Art around the building and explored the amazing EPL Makerspace. Can you believe a library can also have a green screen, a recording booth, programming and gaming computers along with 3D printers? Wow!

Construction of Rogers Place

Using the amazing pedway system, we traversed the many downtown streets and made our way to the Hudson Bay’s parkade where we had an incredible view of the new arena being constructed.

After resting our feet over a well-deserved lunch, we concluded our busy day by interviewing the Journal’s Sports Editor, Craig Ellingson. We found out that putting together a section for a newspaper sure takes a lot of teamwork.

The morning of our penultimate day we rode the main line of our LRT for 35 minutes from Century Park all the way to Clareview.

Century Park kiss'n ride to LRT

On our way back to get to the Legislature, we stopped by to visit the great Wayne Gretzky (or at least his statue). Our tour of the Legislature with our informative and hilarious guide Will, provided us with much gained knowledge. From observing the original location of Fort Edmonton to discovering that our province is named after Princess Louise Caroline Alberta we learned a lot, all under the watchful gaze of the King and Queen. We even learned that maces and plumbing have their part in lawmaking.

Will and Princess Louise Caroline Alberta

Our final day saw us take on the role of “fly on the wall,” once again. Delving into the minds of Randy Collins the Linotype and advertising expert, Editor-in-Chief Margo Goodhand, Andrea Sands news reporter and Shaughn Butts photojournalist, we learned even more about what it takes to make a newspaper run. Finally, we looked at how people, places and events around Edmonton fit onto an historical timeline.

Descending our mountain of stairs, we began reflecting on the many experiences that comprised our amazing week. Wherever we go in the future we will keep our eyes and ears open because we know that we are always “Live On The Scene”.

Descending the stairs