Global News exec visits Humber College

Mar 7, 2013 | News

By Sara Miller

Dave Trafford, news director of Global News spoke to Humber journalism students on Thursday. Courtesy Flickr

An award-winning news director came to Humber Thursday to speak with journalism students and provide valuable insight into the industry.

Dave Trafford, news director of Global News spoke to 30 Humber journalism students, looking at the content of several newscasts, and spoke about how to construct a professional news broadcast.

“I think it is important that everybody should be able to look at stories at a micro level and understand how to convey the story. The exercise forces anybody in whatever media to go through the steps. Also, what’s important is that you make the connection with the audience,” Trafford said.

Students were shown newscasts from several news organizations including CTV, City News, and Global News and rated each story from the camera shots, the quality of voice-overs and the importance of the tiniest of details in a story.

Trafford said that it is important for journalists to look for every angle to a story.

He also talked about his long relationship with Humber College.

“I’ve been a news director in three different news rooms and I had taught at Humber College. There are a lot of folks who work in the newsroom that are Humber grads and I have hired many of them,” Trafford said.

Judy Charles, a Humber Journalism faculty member who arranged the talk, says guest lectures by professionals provide students with insight into the industry.

“It is good for students to meet people outside the school to hear how people who work in the industry everyday think about these topics and give them a better perspective of the industry,” Charles said.

“I thought the exercise was informative,” said student journalist Ange Fernandes.

“He got down to the bottom of each story and made us look through every detail. We also learned a lot about newscasts and how they work,” Fernandes said.

Trafford worked in Toronto as the News Director for News talk 1010 for 12 years. He then moved to Global News where he was Manager News Director for a year in 2011. He is now presently News Director for Global News in Toronto.