By Lillie Coussée
The media scene in Canada has shifted over the past three years. Cuts to newsrooms have become more common according to The Canadian Journalism Foundation.
Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, was enacted in 2023. This required big tech companies to compensate media organizations if they wanted to continue to host Canadian news content on their platforms. In response to this bill, Meta-owned platforms blocked all Canadian news content from its sites.
A 2019 report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University found that the majority of people aged 35-years-old and under almost exclusively use social media to get their news.
As previously reported by The Eyeopener, in 2023 we committed to increasing our digital presence.
Incoming media students at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) are dealing with these ongoing changes. Some may be curious or anxious about the future of the Canadian media scene and how they can carve out a place in its changing landscape.
The Eye sat down with the chair of The School of Journalism, Ravindra Mohabeer, to talk about how the school is adapting to these changes and supporting its students.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. The media scene in Canada is changing rapidly. How is TMU’s curriculum changing with it?
A. There is an ominous suggestion that print is one thing and physical print certainly has been underdefined. There’s not as much physical print media in the world as there used to be by a long shot, but many of the traditional print media organizations have successfully moved to a digital format. They still print, but they print online.
We have a digital mindset, not always explicitly and exclusively digital-first but digital is definitely embedded in all of our programming. It was designed to be flexible and [adaptable], despite being deeply rooted in a very long history and tradition of journalism that [used] more traditional formulas.
Q. This year, the program is undergoing a Periodic Program Review (PPR). What does this mean and how it will impact the program?
A. A PPR is mandated for all registered programs in Ontario. Every eight years, we do a comprehensive look at our program and we do a self-study that takes in all aspects [of it]. Then on the ground, we look at how all of that plays through the map of what we offer. We’re in the middle of our program review which means that students, faculty, instructors, alumni and employers are consulted and information is gathered from them. Then, we invite two or three external academic experts in journalism to come and take a look at our program and compare it to our self-study.
Our curriculum at the end of the PPR is going to be different than it is today because we’re going to need to make changes. We’re going to be mindful of things like artificial intelligence [and] changing newsrooms.
Across the board, we are going to make sure that rather than [having] the one-off checklist courses for Indigenous, race, gender, sexuality or religion, [we’re going to] make sure those are attributes that people are aware of across the entire curriculum. Then our curriculum may be adjusted fundamentally or the existing courses will be redesigned.
Q. Canadian media outlets have slashed their newsrooms over the past few years. What kind of future do young journalists have in the country’s media scene and how can TMU support them in their careers?
A. We have to be able to recognize where students want to go. We’ve been supporting a lot more initiatives around innovation in startups. We’ve been doing a lot more to centre and forward the skills of freelance work, portfolio-based work and self-branding in new and emerging technologies such as podcasting and multi-model digital storytelling. Most people who [are] working with us today, who are working in the [journalism] industry, all tell us that being adaptable is almost as important as being really skilled and having a solid portfolio because you have to be able to make adjustments.
What we offer students is the ability to see what they can do if they plan to go towards working in journalism or what they can do with journalism if they plan to go in another direction.
Q. How does The School of Journalism support students from various ethnicities, identities and abilities?
A. Our student body represents Toronto fairly well. About 40 to 50 per cent of our student body are students of colour or students of an equity-seeking group. About 40 per cent of our full-time faculty are people of colour and people from different backgrounds— people who are queer, from different religions and ethnic backgrounds and people from different English orientations.
We have a fairly different representational grouping than may have been historically the case. And this is not just a surface-level ‘it looks good,’ this is a really robust thing. We’ve also been equally attentive to developing further, greater and more frequent opportunities to listen to students’ experiences as they go along and provide culturally appropriate and culturally relevant support systems. We’ve been trying to increase the representation of the voices that are being centred. We’re not where we need to be, but we’re going in a direction that I think is very positive.
Q. What can students do now to help them succeed in the media industry in Canada?
A. Be curious, do the work and don’t wait for somebody to open the door.
Q. What advice do you have for students coming into The School of Journalism?
A. You just have to be open to what the program is and think about it for yourself. It’s easy to get caught up on what’s not going right. [Students] have time to build towards what [they] want to do. They should be propelled by excitement to be here rather than focus explicitly on one aspect.
It’s also naive for me to say thinking about a job in the future doesn’t matter. So plan, plan, plan a path for yourself. Be willing to deal with the surprises that come along the way and explore them as they come up.
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