J-School providing time for reflection on National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
The Ring, a public artwork to honour the Dish With One Spoon Territory, the land on which the university is built.
With the first federally-recognized National Day for Truth and Reconciliation taking place on Thursday, Sept. 30, the School of Journalism will be offering students and instructors time to reflect.
Students can choose to spend the day in reflection, while instructors will also have the opportunity to forgo their Thursday classes. Professor Gavin Adamson, Interim Co-Chair of the School, says the School will be providing resources to instructors who choose to teach, in order to facilitate learning about the history, present and future of relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.
“We know that we have a responsibility as journalists and as a journalism school to treat Truth and Reconciliation very seriously,” said Adamson. “Journalism is named in the TRC Calls to Action and frankly, as an industry, our record is really quite poor on covering Indigenous communities fairly.”
Professor Nicole Blanchett, who teaches JRN 103: Introduction to Journalism, says that while it’s important to have initiatives on the day, “it can’t just be that day.”
Blanchett has worked alongside Karyn Pugliese, a former assistant professor and now a visiting professor with the School, in order to implement material on Indigenous issues into the School’s first-year courses. The goal is to ensure students coming into the program have a good understanding of Indigenous issues and are learning how to cover Indigenous stories, says Blanchett.
“The point of this is that we’re thinking about reconciliation and we’re thinking about different ways to thread Indigenous learning throughout the program,” said Blanchett.
The School’s other required class for first-year students, JRN 104: Approaches and Techniques for Journalists, which does take place on the day, will be going forward. Pugliese will be coming in to speak to the class about photojournalism within Indigenous communities, including sensitivity around using Indigenous imagery and covering events. Pugliese will be returning to the class later in the year as well, which will help to thread Indigenous learning through the course, says JRN 104 instructor Sally Goldberg Powell.
Looking towards the future, Pugliese, along with fellow visiting professor Duncan McCue, will be available to help facilitate learning about Indigenous reporting.
The School will also once again be offering JRN 350: Reporting on Indigenous Issues for the Winter semester. The course was created in 2017 as a response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to journalism educators.
Professor Joyce Smith, who created the class and will be teaching it again next semester, says the course uses “a structure encouraging students to think about how they can report on traditional beats (sports, science, politics, religion, business and others) [while] including Indigenous voices and approaches.”
Adamson acknowledges that the School of Journalism still has work to do on meeting TRC commitments. However, with changes coming to the curriculum in the next couple of years, reporting on Indigenous issues will be “a focus of those major modifications and how we rebuild the curriculum.”