Last week something was published in the mainstream media that, in many ways, fit perfectly for commentary here: cultural group stereotyping.
I resisted: it was the end of a particularly busy day and I really didn’t want to get into an “us vs. them” discussion, let alone one that set up the Italian community, once again, as “playing victim” or not “having a sense of humour.” At the very least, I thought it to be an example of questionable editorial policy… and that didn’t surprise me, but it didn’t make it any less disappointing.
The article made me wonder … ‘today’, in the city of Toronto, are we resting on our laurels? For those who know that Toronto is one of the most multicultural diverse cities in the world, are they treating it as a tag line, lip service, just a slogan? What does it really mean?
I’m a champion of link journalism. So, before you ask, I’ve chosen not to provide a direct link to the article in question. Instead, I’ll point you to John Miller; he’s written about the restaurant ‘review’ and has a good summary on his web site thejournalismdoctor.ca: to read it, click here. Just so you know where he’s coming from, John is an award-winning journalist, and one of Canada’s leading researchers and trainers dealing with diversity in news organizations. He’s been a journalism professor for over 20 years, and had a 20-year career as an editor and reporter at the Toronto Star. You can read his full bio here.
Over the last few months, I’ve read countless articles, watched countless videos, and witnessed never-ending coverage on the state (death?) of print journalism. Diatribes on mainstream newspapers and their declining readership, shrinking revenues, increased distribution costs and the seemingly inability to deal with the ‘new journalism’ and emerging platforms.
Perhaps I’m naive, but for me, far too much attention is being paid on the tools, to find the perfect technology-based solution that will, in an instant, increase readership, revenue, profit, etc. It’s like coming up with the solution first. There’s just far too much choice out here to have a “build it and they will come” approach. It’s not about the tools, although they’re part of it. It starts with the reader.
These days, it seems large mainstream media companies should be more concerned with the fact that (gasp!) their audiences are asserting their right in choosing what/where/when they will read.
The online version of the ‘review’ John quotes in his blog may provide some insight into the general theme of declining readership amongst Canadian mainstream (newspaper) dailies, especially here in Toronto. Three online reader comments in particular denounced the article as “anti Italian”, “condescending to Italians”, and “ethnic slander”; yet all three comments were overwhelmingly clicked “disagreed” to by the other online readers.
So for those who “disagreed”, is this indicative of who reads this publication? Perhaps. Is it fair to say that the majority of their readers don’t come from multicultural Toronto? Perhaps.
Look, first off, anyone can make an offensive remark – it’s not exclusive to any one culture group. But I just get the feeling that if multicultural Toronto were big readers of this publication, well, I wouldn’t be writing this. And, looking at it through their (mainstream media) lens by counting all the beans, in these days of an ever-increasing diverse population contrasted against a declining readership, I just keep asking myself … why?
