Thread by @thewalrus

We’re about to start live tweeting @Facebook presents The #WalrusTalks News & Platforms. @emileegilpin, @brianmyles, @neeeda, and @reporteremma discussing the shifting landscape of Canadian media and the way Canadians consume and connect to the news.

"You want to ask yourself 'how do we as journalists engage attention to empower action?'" says @neeeda

@neeeda is discussing @TheGreenLineTO approach to empowering action through journalism, developing long-form journalism that addresses underserved stories in a month-long process allowing for community engagement in the coverage.

@reporteremma of @thenarwhalca stresses how important visuals are, especially for stories about places that are geographically hard to reach.

@reporteremma stresses that the hallmark of @thenarwhalca's journalism is context to help readers make meaning of the world.

@reporteremma points out that @thenarwhalca emphasizes Indigenous perspectives in their work, that it's fundamentally important to harness journalism to bridge divides.

@brianmyles discussing @LeDevoir's structure, that it's a for-profit company and the trustees give their trust to its Editor to pursue and publish stories that the editor feels are most important.

@brianmyles says "@LeDevoir was the first media outlet to raise a paywall on our website... It proved to be one of the best decisions that my predecessor came up with."

@brianmyles says " We have proven over the years we can talk to print and digital readers at the same time... Our readers come from all generations. They are just curious about quality information."

@emileegilpin of @IndigiNewsMedia says "I participated in a graduate course in journalism at Concordia in 2016, where it became glaringly apparent to me that the state of journalism in North America was in need of tender love and care."

@emileegilpin say "...I was not surprised that all my professors were white, mainly male, and that I was being taught colonial journalism with a low ethical bar for the communities that people wanted to work with."

"All of us here today know the importance of newspapers in defining reality, aligning truth and documenting. I started to look at whose voices were misrepresented and how I would be a part of changing that" says @emileegilpin

@emileegilpin talking about @IndigiNewsMedia work: "We have been raising the ethical bar on how to report on Indigenous stories, training people with little to no journalism experience, rather than saying there isn't enough Indigenous journalists to hire."

"Are we here to tell the truth, to amplify Indigenous voices in the ecosystems that were closely tied to, to change the harmful negatives that have been kicked into this country's colonial conscience?" @emileegilpin on @IndigiNewsMedia work.

Our Q&A portion of @Facebook presents The #WalrusTalks News & Platforms is underway and our speakers are discussing the tension between popularity (clicks and likes) and the integrity of your journalism.

On building the size and depth of engagement, @emileegilpin says it's about trust and about building relationships "we're not going to exploit people in moments of trauma."

On the rise of opinion columns vs traditional reporting @brianmyles suggests "It is an intention to offer a diversity of point of views to the readers... You just need to make the distinctions very clear. We separate facts from opinion and we mostly rely on reporting"

"From the point that someone discovers @LeDevoir to the point where they will subscribe, we can actually count 12 months." says @brianmyles on traffic and engagement.

@neeeda points out "a lot of publishers adapt their reporting for multi-platforms, but sometimes it is publications trying to shoehorn certain content out to platforms that is inappropriate."

@neeeda says "The audience that exist there, especially the younger folks, they can smell the lack of authenticity. They can tell that you are being lazy about disseminating the story"

@ejessicajohnson asks "What are things you have been doing to help meet people where they are right now, whether on platform, geographical location, or engagement with your work?"

@neeeda answers "engage community groups on the organizations on the ground... it's really important to interact and engage with them to figure out what actually matters to them. It's up to me to earn their trust."

On advice for young journalists @reporteremma says "opportunities that exist today for people like me and Anita and Emilee didn't exist five years ago."

@emileegilpin "there are way more opportunities for people who are interested. Maybe just familiarizing yourself with what exactly you love to do."

@emileegilpin answering a question about what Indigenous media can do that traditional can't "It is relationships, building that trust. Also critical nuances. There are a lot of things Indigenous journalists are able to do differently."

@neeeda says "I moved to NYC because I couldn't cover the stories I wanted to. Working at the Star I was told the stories I was pitching were not for their audience. I went to the States because I wanted to cover racial justice issues, equity issues."

@brianmyles says "we need to address the fact that we are going to thrive as long as we realize that we are not mass media anymore. Facebook is mass media. You're not even in the breaking news industry. Twitter is breaking news."

@neeeda on what media needs to do to be in a better place "prioritizing diversity, equity, inclusion and justice is a way to actually your outlet more financially sustainable."

@reporteremma says "having Indigenous journalists on staff, more diverse writers on staff, you are going to tell better stories. There is room for us because there were massive gaps left by traditional media and massive communities left unserved."

@emileegilpin "the younger generation is growing up with a whole different access to internet and social media. They are going to take this whole industry by storm as well. I think diversifying is crucial to the success and sustainability of all of our business."

@brianmyles says "It would be foolish to not use Facebook or Twitter or Google. You need to build a relationship, to use those platforms as tools."

Thank you for following along with our live tweeting of @Facebook presents The #WalrusTalks News & Platforms! Thank you also to @emileegilpin, @brianmyles, @neeeda, @reporteremma, and @ejessicajohnson!

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