We wish we didn’t have to do a special report on diversity. Reporting on under-represented communities or seeing diverse journalists in newsrooms shouldn’t be special or unusual. And devoting a package to a few problems doesn’t solve them—diversity is much more complicated than that.
Still, we feel compelled to examine the consequences of inadequate reporting, insensitive word choices and homogenous newsrooms. In the following five features, you’ll read about what journalists are getting wrong—and right— while reporting on transgender people and Black communities; how a news- paper changed attitudes toward carding in Toronto; the power of Indigenous storytelling; and the need for inclusive newsrooms. Some of these stories give us reason for optimism, but this special report confronts the uncomfortable reality that everything is not okay. We don’t have all the answers, but here’s our contribution to getting it right someday. Soon, we hope.
Silenced No More
By Erin Sylvester
Indigenous journalists have started to change the narrative
Token Effort
By Anda Zeng
On being the rare person of colour in the newsroom
About the author
This is a joint byline for the Ryerson Review of Journalism. All content is produced by students in their final year of the graduate or undergraduate program at the Ryerson School of Journalism.