Campus
Duration
10 Weeks (24 hours)
Credential Awarded
Microcredential
School
Contact: George Abraham publisher@newcanadianmedia.ca
About the Program
Some of the biggest issues in the news today draw journalists into complex questions about race, religion and ethnicity. To get the story, journalists may have to seek and draw out diverse perspectives, navigate stereotypes, establish trust and ask difficult questions about religious, cultural and historical traditions. This puts a special responsibility on journalists and media organizations.
This microcredential helps you develop equity and inclusion-informed skills to incorporate into your reporting processes, leading to more inclusive journalism practices. You will develop a set of skills to support fair and accurate reporting of a wide range of groups and individuals, particularly audiences who have been historically, and continue to be, misrepresented or underrepresented in Canadian media.
This microcredential has been developed in collaboration with Seneca College
What is a microcredential?
A microcredential is a short course designed to help you upskill, reskill and boost new skills development. Seneca’s career- and profession-based microcredentials provide focused learning that add value to your existing education and enhance your employability. You will learn in-demand skills and knowledge and benefit from flexible options including different delivery modes, durations and start times.
Badge
This microcredential is issued in the form of a digital badge. Data embedded in the badge identifies the institution that issued it, along with the competencies, evidence and criteria that was required to earn it. Earners can display their badges on social media sites, electronic portfolios and resumés.
Your Career
This microcredential is intended for working journalists in Canada who want to upskill and reskill their reporting strategies using an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) lens. Upon completion of the microcredential, you will have created a portfolio that demonstrates the use of EDI-informed techniques grounded in the legal and ethical frameworks, standards and principles of journalism in Canada.
Modules
Module 1: Introduction to the Core Values of Inclusive Journalism
Date: March 16
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: Kathy English is a veteran journalist and current chair of the board of the Canadian Journalism Foundation. Through its Indigenous and Black Journalist Fellowship programs, the Foundation provides opportunities to foster and encourage a diverse Canadian media. Kathy recently departed from the role of VP Content Integrity and Editorial Standards with Dotdash Meredith, America’s largest digital and print publisher. In that role she worked closely with the Director of Anti-Bias Initiatives (direct report) to create inclusive, bias-free content across Dotdash Merdith brands and develop strategies and policies for inclusive content. Kathy is a former public editor of the Toronto Star, serving in that role from 2007-2020 as reader advocate and liaison between the Star and its audience. In 2020, she was a journalism fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, where she produced a research paper on the potential role of the public editor in holding newsrooms to account for diversity, equity and inclusion imperatives. Kathy has worked as a reporter and editor in six Canadian daily newsrooms
Module 2: Blind Spots in Canadian Journalism
Date: March 23
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: Amar Sodhi is the News Director responsible for OMNI news, CityNews operations in Edmonton, Montreal, Winnipeg and the Parliamentary Bureau. He also leads Inclusion and Diversity initiatives for all news platforms. Over the last two years, CityNews has created a specialized diversity training program focused specifically for journalists and created an inclusive coverage guide, which provides editorial guidelines for covering equity-deserving groups; a national diverse experts list to improve representation of BIPOC voices and content audits to track and measure performance in covering diversity related content.
Module 3: Stereotypes in Canada – Marginalized Groups
Date: March 30
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: To be announced
Module 4: Stereotypes in Canada – Indigenous Peoples
Date: April 6
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: To be announced
“Story Meeting” with Facilitator
Date: April 13
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: Paul Bucci is an award-winning journalist and editor who has worked in senior management positions in some of Canada’s largest media companies, including Postmedia, Black Press Media and Brunswick News. Accomplishments at Postmedia included establishing Tai Yang Bao, a Chinese-language online news publication and Vancouver Desi, a publication for South Asian audiences.
A former legislature journalist with reporting stints in Somalia and Bosnia, Bucci has been an editor and strategist with New Canadian Media since 2022.
Module 5: Developing the perfect pitch
Date: April 20
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: To be announced
Module 6: Balancing a Story
Date: April 27
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: To be announced
Module 7: Diversity in Reporting
Date: May 4
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: To be announced
Module 8: Resolving Complaints and Conflicts
Date: May 11
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: To be announced
Q&A with instructor and Final Assessment
Date: May 18
Time: 7 – 8:30 p.m. EST
Place: Zoom, virtual session
Guest Speaker: Paul Bucci is an award-winning journalist and editor who has worked in senior management positions in some of Canada’s largest media companies, including Postmedia, Black Press Media and Brunswick News. Accomplishments at Postmedia included establishing Tai Yang Bao, a Chinese-language online news publication and Vancouver Desi, a publication for South Asian audiences.
A former legislature journalist with reporting stints in Somalia and Bosnia, Bucci has been an editor and strategist with New Canadian Media since 2022.
Program Highlights
In this microcredential you will flow through a series of interactive modules that will develop and strengthen your fair and accurate reporting and writing techniques within the Canadian journalism industry. These techniques include:
- using inclusive language to report on issues related to race, religion, ability, ethnicity, nationality, gender and sexuality, and the intersection of these identities
- editing for bias to promote fair representation and reporting in Canada
- analyzing the historical and present role of journalists in addressing systemic racism
- acknowledging the impact of colonialism in Canada on the reporting of Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC), historically and presently
- pitching stories that incorporate anti-racist, trauma-informed and decolonized journalistic practices
Benefits
In-demand skills
Cultivate inclusive reporting skills that are increasingly in-demand by media organizations.
Relevant
Develop techniques applicable for both traditional media platforms and social media channels.
Online learning
Complete this online course through a mix of independent learning and live virtual sessions.
Industry endorsed
Developed in collaboration with media industry partners to ensure relevance and accuracy of content.
Courses
This microcredential teaches you to apply core values and ethical standards of journalism to fair and accurate investigative reporting, article and video script writing, editorial work and media production for traditional platforms and social media platforms. You will have 10 weeks to complete the microcredential, which consists of eight modules that require approximately three hours of independent learning, applied practice and live virtual sessions per module.
Skills and Competencies
- identify bias through an editing process that promotes equity and fairness in journalism
- generate story ideas about diversity, achievement and challenges in local communities of historically underrepresented and/or misrepresented people
- develop a professional philosophy statement that articulates how the learner fairly and accurately covers groups and individuals from historically underrepresented and/or misrepresented communities
Students will also attend a mock interview with the course instructor. The students will be expected to:
- present at least two news articles that they have edited for bias
- pitch a story idea related to diversity, achievement and challenges in communities of historically underrepresented and/or misrepresented people
- present a personal philosophy statement on equitable and inclusive reporting
Upon successful completion of this microcredential, learners will be able to incorporate these artifacts into professional portfolios in order to demonstrate their skill and competency development in these areas.