Elevating the quality of journalism
Star joins other media in campaign to promote industry’s role in society
The Toronto Star is among a group of media outlets, unions and professional organizations behind a new ad campaign that will highlight the importance of reliable journalism.
The Journalism IS campaign, announced Friday at Ryerson University, begins on Saturday and will feature advertisements promoting strong journalism and the people who produce it.
“All we talk about, as journalists, is the work we’re doing,” said Mary Agnes Welch, a campaign spokeswoman and journalist at the Winnipeg Free Press. “This campaign is meant to enlist Canadians in that conversation.”
The campaign’s sponsors include the Ryerson School of Journalism, Unifor, the Globe and Mail, Bell Media CTV, Postmedia and the Winnipeg Free Press.
Unifor provided seed money to develop the ads, Welch said, and media partners will run them free of charge.
One sample ad highlights the work of Hamilton Spectator journalist Teri Pecoskie, who found that poor standardized test scores at the ele- mentary school level are most likely to occur where low incomes and other factors collide. The campaign encapsulates journalism as “getting answers” and “a watchdog over the powerful.”
Shawn McConnell, a video editor at CTV Barrie and a Unifor member, said he remembered a time when stories would not run unless they were rigorously sourced and factchecked. Although misinformation can dominate social media, McConnell hopes the campaign would edu- cate young people about quality journalism.
“A journalist has a responsibility to tell the truth, whether it’s going to cause them trouble, grief, maybe a job,” McConnell said. “That’s difficult, but it can be done.”
Star columnist Chantal Hébert, who spoke at the launch, recalled running into a minister on Parliament Hill years ago. Journalists, the minister told her, usually know more about the government’s actions than politicians do.
“The only way we can make sense of what’s happening, often, is to read stories in the media,” Hébert said, recalling the minister’s words.
And at a time when journalists should see themselves as more than people in precarious jobs, Hébert wants journalists to remember their own importance, and the importance of their trade.
“For all its faults that are totally real, there is a core mission to journalism,” Hébert said.
“It’s useful and good for the soul.”