Ellin Bessner
My blogs
Blogs I follow
- Centennial Journalism's Weblog
- Jim Babbage - Teacher, Writer, Photographer, Web Designer
- Jim Babbage's Blog
- My Mother's Treasure
- Now The Details
- Ted Barris
- www.tedbarris.ca
| Gender | Female |
|---|---|
| Industry | Communications or Media |
| Occupation | Journalist and author |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Introduction | Ellin Bessner has been a professional journalist since 1981. Currently she is a professor at Centennial College Journalism school in Toronto. She was a national director of the Canadian Association of Journalists. Ellin is a dynamic trainer and workshop leader in performance, video and audio storytelling, interviewing, and blogging. Her clients have included The Globe and Mail, and Annex Business Media. She has freelanced for the Toronto Star, Jazz FM 91.1, and the Canadian Jewish News. A graduate of Carleton University with a degree in journalism and honours in political science, Ellin worked at CBC News as a radio and television reporter and as a news announcer. She covered three civil wars in Africa, reported from Rome, Italy for six years, and worked at CTV in Toronto from 1997- 2005 where she helped launch the all news channel CTV Newsnet, (now CTV News Channel). She was a chase producer for the coverage of 9-11, for the coverage of the death of Pope John Paul II, and the death of Princess Diana. She’s written for Lloyd Robertson, Lisa Laflamme and Sandie Rinaldo, She anchored the business news for CTV and Report on Business Television, now BNN. |
| Interests | Ellin is a journalist, and author of "Double Threat: Canadian Jews, the Military and World War ll." Published Nov. 2017 by New Jewish Press out of the University of Toronto. She’s worked for both local and national news services, for international news agencies such as Deutsche Welle, Christian Science Monitor, and RAI, Italy's state broadcaster. She's been a beat reporter covering the Canadian military, and in Ottawa, covering federal politics on Parliament Hill. From 1989 to 1994 she was based in Rome, Italy as a freelance foreign correspondent, mostly for the CBC, the Globe and Mail, The Canadian Press. |
| Favorite Movies | "Man for All Seasons" |
| Favorite Music | Ellin’s most memorable career moments include interviews with Prince Philip, interrupting the Dalai Lama, covering Pope John Paul II at the Vatican, the IAAF meetings in Barcelona which stripped Ben Johnson of his Olympic medal, reporting live from the Oka Crisis in Quebec, from the 1990 World Cup of Soccer in Italy, on the ground from the 2003 Space Shuttle disaster in Florida, and the Sunrise Propane explosion in Toronto in 2008. Ellin has taught journalism to countless students at universities and colleges around Toronto, including at Ryerson University and Seneca College. In 2006, she was appointed a full time professor at Centennial College Journalism. |
| Favorite Books | Ellin is an avid "Lost" fan, and is devastated that the series came to an end. She likes "Outlander", and "Grimm". She blogs about journalism issues. Twitter @ebessner @KaddishforDDay Ellinbessnersblog@blogspot.com |