ICYMI: The Pigeon hosts first webinar

Around 30 people attended The Pigeon’s After Graduation: Finding your way as a new journalist webinar. The live event was held via zoom on Mar. 24.

This was the first webinar put on by the student-run publication, The Pigeon.

The Pigeon is a new publication that was founded in July 2020. It was launched by a group of students. The team is made up of young student journalists, freelancers, new graduates, master’s students and editors.

The idea was created during the first lockdown of the pandemic.

“The beginning of the pandemic there weren’t many opportunities either for freelancing or staff positions in the journalism industry in Canada,” said Tegwyn Hughes, managing editor of The Pigeon.

Hughes says she had an abundance of creative energy and ideas for long-form in-depth stories about Canada. The publication is a portfolio opportunity for finding work and building the experience that journalism students need.

“It kind of blossomed far beyond our expectations,” said Hughes.

The founders were created through a group chat made by Mackenzie Casalino. Hughes says it was a giant group chat with a ton of young journalists who were all commiserating about COVID-19 and the lack of jobs for graduates.

Someone suggested how it would be a great idea to create their own publication. The members all met through Zoom meetings.

There is no set location for the publication in Canada. The writers come from all over the country.

“We try really hard to get people on our volunteer team from all the different areas of Canada,” said Hughes.

Hughes says a lot of The Pigeon’s readers and supporters are other journalists.

“We definitely could not have gotten to this point without the kind of community we built,” said Hughes.

Hughes says behind the scenes, their contributor base is all young journalists, and the publication wants to make sure everyone gets the experience of having their work edited or writing as a freelancer.

“We also know there are so many different resources out there and so many opportunities and it’s hard to get a sense of what is out there as a young journalist,” said Hughes.

Hughes has also heard from other journalism students that things such as freelancing aren’t touched on enough in their classes.

The Pigeon will take pitches from people who have never written before or who have not studied journalism.

“By starting the pigeon sessions, they are intended to bring together emerging journalists, whether they’ve contributed to us or not, and be a source for those resources,” said Hughes.

Hughes says with the webinar, they wanted to highlight being approachable and making sure everyone feels welcomed into the space for learning.

“We want to help people with those immediate questions like what is it like to apply for a job? What are some things you wish you knew in school? What do you wish you could tell yourself a year ago?” said Hughes.

David Shuman, second-year journalism student at The University of King’s College and outreach assistant at The Pigeon, says the publication’s mission is to cover underrepresented stories about youth.

Shuman says the publication tries to do long-form in-depth reporting that pushes the conversations in new directions.

“I am really looking forward to some great discussion coming from the panellists. They are all such knowledgeable individuals in their own areas… We did a test the other day and the discussion that came out of even that was a little bit exhilarating,” said Shuman.

The publication is hoping to do many more workshop sessions in the future to reach young journalists and guide them into the future of journalism.

“I connect every day with other young journalists or emerging journalists, and I’m just so excited to hear from other people with their questions who I haven’t maybe had the chance to chat with yet,” said Hughes.