'A Road Divided' behind the scenes

About the Project

Description of classes: The JSchool's Intermediate Broadcast (JRN 306) and Investigative (JRN 307) classes were dovetailed halfway through this semester to cover the Regina Bypass project. In our investigative class, we hit the ground running with research divided into four groups. Our end goal was to create a website that would grant more background information than could be placed in our broadcast pieces. We then compiled all of our research we completed in the first half of the semester to support the stories we produced in our broadcast class.

In broadcast, we completed a counter-narrative video assignment in order to prepare us for the nature of current affairs television. You will see some of these videos around the site.Then, taking all that we had learned in investigative, we have compiled our four stories and produced one current affairs program, A Road Divided.

The Assignment: The Regina Bypass project has been a contentious subject in and around the city since its outset. Our class was assigned this topic at the beginning of the semester and our job was to wade through some of the information that is out there about the bypass and distill and simplify it into one compact current affairs television program and then a more comprehensive website.

The Research: For 13 weeks, research was conducted on four main parts of the Bypass project: Land, Money, Influence, and Traffic Safety. Searches into company and land ownership were a huge part of piecing this incredibly complex project together, along with combing through reports and documents to pick out the most important information. Another helpful tool for us was interviews. By interviewing affected people and experts, we were able to gain a human perspective that gave us more depth than just solid research would have.