A new Concordia Department of Journalism partnership trains community members to document what’s happening in their own communities
Associate Professor Dr. Magda Konieczna working with community members and The Green Line staff in Toronto. Photo by Sara Mizannojehdehi.
Concordia’s Department of Journalism has recently partnered with Toronto-based publication The Green Line to train people to document public meetings in their communities through a project called Documenters Canada.
This initiative builds on a previously established program in the United States called Documenters, which began in Chicago in 2016 and has since trained people in 22 different communities across the country.
Magda Konieczna, associate professor of journalism, is one of the people leading the launch of Documenters Canada. The project is funded through a Partnership Engage Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and a $50,000 Inspirit Foundation grant.
“We love this idea so much. It sits brilliantly at the intersection of journalism, civics and community organizing,” Konieczna says.
The Documenters-in-training at the Toronto and East York Community Council Meeting on September 25, 2024 at Toronto City Hall Committee Room 1. Photo by Sebastian Tansil.
“The Documenters program increases the amount of local news and information in communities. But it also helps equip people with the skills to get democratically involved. And it encourages accountability by ensuring there are people present at public meetings to observe what’s going on.”
Anita Li, editor-in-chief of The Green Line, has long been interested in bringing Documenters to Canada. It is currently being tested in Alexandra Park, a Toronto community adjacent to downtown and home to a diverse group of Torontonians. Participants from these communities began their training in September and have been documenting public meetings since October.
With the recently awarded funds from the Inspirit Foundation, the group will develop a soft-launch of Documenters in Montreal in 2025. The plan is to eventually expand Documenters beyond these two sites.
“Montreal is a perfect place for this project, with 35 local governments on the island and 91 in the Greater Montreal area,” Konieczna says. “Many governments don’t have a reporter covering them regularly, which means it’s hard for people in the community to know what’s happening.”
Though the model is officially being tested in Toronto, Konieczna has been thinking through the concept of Documenters in Montreal since last fall via her graduate class Digital Innovation in Journalism (JOUR 605) and this term with a new class, Hyper-Local Journalism (JOUR 398).
MA students Clément Lechat and Sara Mizannojehdehi. Photo by Robin Della Corte.
Testing the Documenters model in Montreal
With the help of both grants, the funding will allow the group to continue the Documenters project in Toronto, and to introduce a small proof-of-concept in Montreal.
JOUR 605 students chose three communities in Montreal to explore the model: LaSalle, Le Plateau-Mont-Royal and Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. They worked on the ground, speaking with community leaders and learning about community groups.
MA students in the Digital Innovation in Journalism Studies program Clément Lechat and Sara Mizannojehdehi were in that class and are now research assistants in this collaborative project. Both students have been involved with producing the training guide for participants.
“I have long been interested in issues of diversity, representation and inclusion in the media, but JOUR 605 opened my eyes to the importance of citizen participation as well,” Lechat says.
“Documenters bridges this gap between issues of media representation and participation by equipping residents with the tools of journalism. So, they can bring their unique perspectives into the coverage of local institutions. The Documenters model gives a greater level of control to residents to highlight issues relevant to their communities that are often overlooked due to a lack of diversity in newsrooms.”
Mizannojehdehi is also behind the illustrations of the field guide.
“Working on the project in JOUR 605 and talking to community members in CDN-NDG really inspired me to get involved with Documenters,” she says.
“There's a real desire for information in the neighbourhood, and citizens want to know what’s happening in their communities. While we were working on this project, it made me see how necessary an organization like Documenters could be in Montreal.”
In JOUR 398, the class is building on the work from last year. Together they are producing a newsletter for the CDN-NDG neighbourhood by working with and listening to community leaders and attending community events and meetings.
Effecting change in journalism and beyond
Alongside her work in class, Konieczna believes this collaboration is important for the future of journalism.
“We have a responsibility to build trust in journalism, something that is at a historic low. This project does that by involving community members in the process of collecting news and information,” she says.
“It’s becoming easier for regular people to find and share news and information, which used to be journalists’ job. At the same time, the news and information out there isn’t always accurate or independent. As such, it’s increasingly journalists’ job to equip community members with the skills needed to be discerning consumers of news.”
Find out more about Concordia’s Department of Journalism.
