Humans of McMaster
an ethnographic approach to telling student stories
photojournalism
ethnography
news design
print design
branding
I've had the pleasure of serving as Photo Reporter for The Silhouette, McMaster University's official newspaper, with an audience of more than 22,000 students.
At the beginning of my term, I created and introduced the official brand of the paper's student life section named "Humans of McMaster" (inspired by Brandon Stanton's Humans of New York); previously it was named "Around Campus". Cross-publishing our content on Facebook, our Facebook page has now surpassed 8,000 followers.
During my term, I utilized an ethnographic approach on the McMaster University campus to seek out photojournalistic content for HoM every week. This included individual and group interviews with students and staff all across campus.
Special Editions
Exploring nuances of
university campus life
With the Humans of McMaster (HoM) brand established, I was able to create special edition features with the aim of exploring interesting, insightful and niche topics around campus.
(1) The "graffiti edition" focused on quotes physically left by students around campus – an innovative way of learning about the student experience without conducting any interviews whatsoever:
(2) The "Dogs of McMaster" edition turned a news story about therapy dogs on campus into a much more personalized look into the dogs' and their owners life stories:
(3) A photojournalistic news story on a noteworthy fundraising event held by the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac Student Union (ACSSU) on campus.
