Sunday, 12 April 2015

Multimedia Journalism FINAL Assignment: Is Toronto ready for the PanAm Games

Is Toronto Ready?

The Toronto 2015 Pan Am Games will take place between July 10-26; and the Parapan Am Games will run from August 7-15. The Games will be featuring 51 competitive sports, 7,700 athletes from 41 countries, and an estimated 1.4 million ticketed spectators. In other words, there will be an expected influx of thousands of visitors to the city of Toronto. 

 As the dates of the Games draw closer, there are still many questions unanswered. How ready is Toronto for the Games? There are five main areas to consider: Transportation, budget, security, venues and ticket sales. 


Transportation: According to the 154-page long document titled "Toronto 2015 Pan Am / Parapan Am Games Strategic Framework for Transportation" released by the Toronto PanAms organizing committee, there will be special measures of transportation provided to athletes and spectators, on top of having full co-operation from the TTC and Go Bus. Essentially, they are asking the public not to drive. 

 More to ask:
1. How exactly is the city of Toronto dealing these transportation issues?
2. It seems like there are special procedures to transport spectators to and from the venues. How does that work?
3. What are they telling the public? Are people aware that they might not be allowed to park at these venues?
Budget: How much money was spent on the PanAm Games so far? Apparently the committee has been trying to cover the PanAm Games expenses. According to the committee, the budget for the PanAm Games is 1.44 billion. 

However, according to an estimated given by Tourism Minister Michael Chan last year, the Games will cost taxpayers at least $2.5 billion to host the games, including security, transportation and the construction of the athlete's village. Which one is it?
Security: According to The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Police would be taking care of security measures regarding the venues. But again, we're not too sure. 

 Taking the statistics of an official document released by the organizing committee, below is the net capacity of each venue:


That is A LOT of people per venue. Not all venues are listed here as well, probably due to the fact that they are not completed yet, and no estimates can be given as of Feb 1, 2015. 

More to ask:
1. What are the security measures to be implemented? On providing enough protection to competing athletes and spectators?
2. How much are they going to cost?
3. Who is responsible for providing security at the venues exactly?
Venue: Based on the data set obtained from Toronto Open Data, the precise locations of the Games are listed. There are 31 locations, some are constructed from scratch, while others are modified. The organizing committee claims that most venues are near completion, but many disagree. 


The Toronto Star requested access to documentations regarding the construction progress, on delays or completion, as well as the numbers on tax-funded sports facilities. The organizing committee replied with a request for $4,219 to gain access. 

According to City of Toronto open data, the 2015 Pan Am Games events will take place in the 31 respective venues across Toronto:



More to ask:
1. Which venues are built from scratch, which ones are just modified?
2. What is the breakdown of the budget for the allocation of construction?
3. When is the deadline for these venues to be built?
4. Which ones are completed, and which venues are still under progress?
5. Is the committee over-budget for the construction of these venues? 
6. Who is responsible for the over-budget issues? What is committee going to do about it?



 Ticket Sales: Right now the organizing committee is holding off the sales of the PanAm Games tickets. The Parapan Am Games are on sale now, "to highlight the upcoming kick-off of Parapan Am Games ticket sales later in March." It would be interesting to know how the ticket sales are doing. Are the Games popular among Torontonians? Are people aware that the games are coming?


Mayor of Toronto, John Tory urges Torontonians to join him at the PanAm Games:



Even the Premier is helping to help push ticket sales:




Investigation:

Please see below for my visit to the Cisco PanAm/Parapan Am Velodrome in Milton. In an interview with Steve Palmer, the Manager of Sport and Corporate Partnerships at the Velodrome, I investigated the progress of the venue, as well as transportation and security measures. 



Before all of these questions can be answered for the rest of the venues, the city can only wait and count down to the Games right now. 
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Multiplatform Week 12 Assignment

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Sunday, 15 March 2015

Multiplatform Journalism Assignment #5

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Sunday, 1 March 2015

Multiplatform Journalism Assignment #4

Locations of Red-light Cameras in Toronto

Please see below for the red-light cameras location across Toronto. According to the data provided by the City of Toronto, there are 76 existing red-light cameras. 

 Feel free to click on the red dots for the precise intersection information. 



Interesting Points:

 1. There must be far more red lights in the city as well as far more drivers running red lights in the city - why are there so few red-lights cameras? Cost reasons? Necessity reasons? Are more being installed?

 2. What are the city's measures to monitor the areas that do not have red-light cameras?

 3. Why are these red lights installed in these particular locations? Also, more red lights seemed to appear in the downtown core area - why? More accidents? More careless drivers?

 4. Is there a correlation between the speed limit and the red-light cameras? Is a camera installed in a higher-speed limit area?

5. Are drivers aware of these existing red-lights cameras? Do they warn each other? How? (When I was living in Winnipeg before, someone once wrote "CAMERA HERE" on a big white piece of cardboard and placed it underneath the pole of the red-light...)

 6. If a data set of car accidents could be retrieved, then it would be possible to compare the locations of the accidents vs. the locations of the red-light cameras. Are drivers aware of the cameras thus making them drive with more caution, therefore less accidents in that area?

 7. What happens after a driver has been photographed after running a red light? 


Source:
City of Toronto Open Data:
http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=ca2a80bd9bfda410VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=75d6e03bb8d1e310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD
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Thursday, 26 February 2015

Multiplatform Midterm Assignment

Celebrating Chinese Culture in Toronto


Thursday Feb. 19 was Lunar New Year, and many came together to join the celebration of the festival. It was a day of rich Chinese culture, with blessings, Chinese treats, red pockets and lion dance. 


Background

According to Statistics Canada, there are 34,126 permanent residents from The Republic of China as of 2013. 



As of 2015, there are approximately 6 major Chinatowns in the Greater Toronto Area. 




The Event

 A big celebration for the Lunar New Year is inevitable for this many people. The Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, has organized various celebratory events for the big day. They promoted their events through Facebook and Twitter, as well as through Chinese radio and broadcasting channels such as A1 Radio and Fairchild. 



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Post by Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto ε€§ε€šε€«ε€šδΈ­θ―ζ–‡εŒ–δΈ­εΏƒ.



And a guide from Creative Tourist for an eventful weekend to Chinatown:


 As well as The Toronto Star!


Post by The Toronto Star.


 Engagement

 Between Feb 19-22, many attended and tweeted pictures, praising events held and recognizing the diversity of different cultures in Toronto. One of them is Helen Statigos, who brought her son to the events held at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto, at 5183 Sheppard Avenue East.



And of course food is involved. Lots of it.



Involvement

Yang Zeng is a lion dancer at Chung's Arts Academy. His Kung Fu team has performed almost every day since Tuesday Feb 17, at over 10 locations in Toronto. The below Instagram post of him is taken at latitude: 43.84393 and longitude: -79.38437, which is at Times Square, Richmond Hill. 

Have a wonderful Year of the Goat!

Google images
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Saturday, 14 February 2015

Multiplatform Journalism Assignment #3

Calgary Bow River Levels Over Flood Period


 Please see below for the line chart representing the water levels over time during the flood at Bow River, Calgary.


Questions to ask for the flooding story:

 The Cause
  1. Water levels rose rapidly to extreme levels between the dates June 20 to June 22 - causing a flood; then slowly dropping back to a steady level after. What caused the water level to rise from 1.6m to 4m in the span of 5 days (starting June 18)?
  2. Water levels lowered after June 22, and steadied after Jun 27. However it remained at around 2m; higher than initial water levels on Jun 18 before the flooding. Why did it not return to the initial water level? Is this turning into a pattern?
  3. Why in mid-June?
  4. Was the time of the day a factor?

Damages
  1. Any casualties? How many?
  2. Property damages? What kind of damages? Roads, parks, buildings, houses; Cost?
  3. How has the flooding affected Calgary economically? How has it affected the local fishermen and businesses? Tourism? Events?
  4. How has the flooding affected Calgary socially? Were there any health risks caused to the public?
  5. How did the city/government react to the flooding? Response time?
  6. Was the Bow River expected to flood?
  7. Were there any clean-up process involved? What was the clean-up process?
  8. Touching rescue stories? 

Prevention
  1. Any preventive measures/infrastructure done by the city to avoid the next flood?
  2. Is the public prepared for a second flood?
  3. Are water levels monitored constantly by the city?
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Sunday, 25 January 2015

Multiplatform Journalism Assignment #2


Hong Kong Main Demonstration Sites

 Description/Relevance: 

 Between September and December 2014, significant demonstrations were held in Hong Kong in protest of the Chinese government's decision to make changes to the current election form, thus delaying Hong Kong people's pursuit of true democracy. The 2017 Chief Executive candidate has to be pro-Beijing, viewed by many Hong Kong citizens as a limitation to many future democratic reforms and policy-making. 

 The map is relevant as it points out major sites of demonstrations, informing the citizens of Hong Kong where to go if they wanted to join the protest, or NOT to go if they wanted to avoid the sites. Safety is always a big issue, and best measured by social media and real-time maps, if possible.  

 If traffic was affected as roads were blocked, the public would be able to find alternative routes on the same map. As several locations are marked on the map as protest sites, it implicates the significance of the protest, especially when all of them are considered rural downtown areas. 

 Google maps:

Questions to ask:

  1. Why these particular locations? More open space? More crowds? Accessibility? Closer to government spaces?
  2. How big were the areas of demonstrations? 
  3. Are the area of protests similar in terms of their sizes?
  4. What are the damages done to the areas? 
  5. How many people participated in each of the protests?
  6. Did anyone got hurt/killed? Were there any safety measures?
  7. Were local businesses affected?
  8. Why did the demonstrations go on for so long?
  9. Why did the demonstrations end?
  10. What did government officials say and how did they re-act regarding the demonstrations? Were there any kind of negotiations?
  11. Who started the demonstrations? Is there an incident that triggered so much anger?
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