Here’s some of the projects I’ve been involved with in recent years.
Climate Disaster Project
The Climate Disaster Project is an international newsroom through which students around the world help climate disaster survivors convey their stories to the public. Our trauma-informed process gives survivors the control they often feel they lack in mainstream media, by seeking their permission and involvement in in shaping their stories. We also lead investigations into problems that survivors bring to our attention.
Everything is Connected
Everything is Connected: A Dialogue Between MMIWG and Sixties Scoop was a documentary project led jointly by the Sixties Scoop Indigenous Society of Saskatchewan (SISS) and Iskwewuk-E-wichiwitochik. The project highlights how intergenerational trauma and the separation of Indigenous children from their families are connected to the issue of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. My part in the collaboration involved assisting student interns to take part, and contributing as the project’s web designer and content editor.
Institute for Investigative Journalism
In partnership with the IIJ, students in Indigenous Studies 393, 490 and JRN 307 worked on Broken Promises, a major investigation into First Nations drinking water. Their work contributed to Canada’s largest-ever journalism collaboration, involving 10 campuses and over 100 students and 26 journalists. This followed up on Tainted H2O, an investigation into lead in urban drinking water. In 2017, students worked on a multi-part investigations into oil industry influence called The Price of Oil. There were 50 journalists, researchers and students at four universities involved in the project, which broke new ground for the establishment of large-scale investigative collaborations in Canada. The published articles were seen and read by 3 million people, or 1 in 12 Canadians. Students in my Investigative Journalism class contributed credited research on Saskatchewan to a series of print articles and broadcasts published by the National Observer, the Toronto Star and Global National. They also used the research to produce their own documentary in the Intermediate Broadcast Course. Called Crude Power, it won an Emerge Award for videography and an Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) student award.
Reconciliation and the Media
Following the Truth and Reconciliation’s Calls to Action on the Media, I worked with other journalists and community members to plan a conference that was held Oct. 4-5, 2016 in Saskatoon. Students were involved in interviewing conference participants and helping prepare information for a website, www. reconciliationandthemedia.ca. Related to this work, I published a paper on Decolonizing the Media, with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Media Democracy Project
In collaboration with the Media Democracy Project, I worked with a student committee to get Regina’s first Media Democracy Day off the ground. A Decolonizing Media forum and media fair was held at the Royal Saskatchewan museum on Nov. 5, 2015. We heard from Indigenous media producers about their daily challenges and successes. Article.
Community Broadcasting
I am a board member of CACTUS, the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations. Our latest major undertaking has been to coordinate funding and training for local and remote media producers through the Local Journalism Initiative. CACTUS has created a Community Media Portal to share the stories, which are also shared in community radio and TV broadcasts in the participating communities.
In 2015 I worked with other CACTUS volunteers to help prepare community media producers for the CRTC’s review of its community broadcasting policy. The group prepared surveys and focus groups leading up to a national Community Media Convergence in November. My role was to scan program guides to determine levels of local community-based content in Saskatchewan cable markets.
ComMediaConvergence Panel Handout:
Outside the Box Funding Possibilities
Want to work together?
I like to work with people from the community and university colleagues alike. Here are some of my interests:
- Alternative and community-based media
- Investigative journalism
- Freedom of expression
- Community-engaged scholarship
- Media development
- Media policy
- Education issues