The UBC Graduate School of Journalism has been awarded a $15,000 grant to work with CBC Radio 3 to create a Canadian music wiki website.
The site will provide a platform for Canadians to share their passion and enthusiasm for Canadian bands, collaborating together to create a rich resource of information about music.
The funds are being provided under the MITACS ACCELERATE Internship Program, which is Canada’s premiere program offering students the opportunity to apply their research to real-world issues.
MITACS is providing half of the funding towards the internship, with the rest coming from the project’s industry partner, CBC Radio 3.
Professor Alfred Hermida will supervise the project, with UBC journalism student Amanda Ash interning at CBC Radio 3 to work on the creation of a wikipedia of Canadian music.
Amanda is currently an intern at the Victoria Times-Colonist. She has freelanced for the Vancouver Sun, CBC Radio 3, the Edmonton Journal, Exclaim! Magazine, NIGHTLIFE Magazine and The Block Magazine. Arts and culture reporting is her area of specialization, but music journalism is her forte.
The aim of the project is to research and develop a user-generated, online website focused exclusively on Canadian music and Canadian musicians, using wiki software. The advent of participatory online media has empowered citizens to become creators of content. This project will research the value of user-generated content in general, and specifically through wiki social software, within Canada’s public broadcasting system.
The project will enable CBC Radio 3 to remain at the forefront of offering innovative and distinctive Canadian content, consistent with its mission to promote national culture by using emerging technologies to reach Canadians, particularly younger audiences.
CBC Radio 3 has a reputation as one of the most innovative areas of CBC, with a track record in developing new media projects that help people discover Canadian music. This project will build on these initiatives by providing an opportunity for Canadians to be involved in the creation of an interactive digital cultural content product on Canadian culture.
MITACS is a national research network hosted by the University of British Columbia that brings together academia industry and the public sector to develop cutting-edge tools to support the growth of Canada’s knowledge-based economy.
The MITACS ACCELERATE Internship Program connects up-and-coming graduate student researchers in any faculty or department with B.C. companies for short-term, applied research projects that address a key business or technology challenge. Participating companies, from a range of industry sectors, co-fund the internships.
