Contributor Biography
Ira Basen began his career at CBC Radio in 1984. He was senior producer at Sunday Morning and Quirks and Quarks. He has been involved in the creation of three network programs; The Inside Track (1985), This Morning (1997), and Workology (2001), as well as several special series, including “Spin Cycles,” an award winning six part look at PR and the media, that was broadcast on CBC Radio One in January/February 2007, and “News 2.0,” a two part exploration of news in the age of social media that aired in June 2009.
Ira has written for Saturday Night, The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, Maisonneuve, and the Canadian Journal of Communication. He writes a column on media for cbc.ca, and is a contributing editor at J-Source.ca.
Ira has won numerous awards, including the Canadian Science Writers Association Award, the Canadian Nurses Association Award, the Gabriel Award, and the New York Radio Festival Award. He has developed several training programs for CBC journalists, including courses on short-form documentary making, “spin”, journalism ethics, and user generated content.
Ira is currently teaching at Ryerson University and the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University. He is the co-author of the Canadian edition of The Book of Lists (Knopf Canada, 2005).
