Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Canadian Writers Group and Canadian Media Guild poll freelancers in advance of Magawards

The website Story Board, a joint initiative by the union, the Canadian Media Guild and the agency, the Canadian Writers Group, is conducting an online survey of Canadian magazine freelancers, results of which will be released the morning of the National Magazine Awards.
Gearing up for the NMAs this month, we thought a survey on the state of magazine freelancing in Canada was in order. It’s also a chance to take your own picks for the best work in Canadian magazines last year (see the NMAF’s list of nominees).
The survey questions are apparently designed both to gather information about freelance incomes, payments and working conditions but also to provide ammunition for the organizing drive the joint venture  has undertaken. 
It also takes something of a sly dig at the awards with the following question: 
"How often do you think the numerous layers of judges who score magazine submissions to the NMAs choose the correct winners?" (More often than not/Occasionally/Rarely/Other than the time I won, never)
[I'll leave it to the NMAs to defend themselves, but as a judge I am aware of only two layers: unilingual juries, French and English selecting a list of worthy finalists; and a bilingual jury selecting the winners from those finalist lists.]

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3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't think it's unfair to say that there are three categories (layers) of judging: French, English, and bilingual. While the French and English juries are working at the same time, they are not scoring the same pieces, obviously, and it's not a stretch to see them as separate pieces of the process.

12:54 pm  
Blogger D. B. Scott said...

From the perspective of entrants, however, there are only two layers to go through: unilingual and bilingual juries.

1:05 pm  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If you're entering an English piece, scores from a French jury could affect whether or not you get nominated. So I would still consider French juries to be another layer in the process, in addition to the bilingual juries, from the perspective of an English entrant.

2:12 pm  

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