A closer look at the impact of The Green Line’s election coverage
“Anita, how *is* The Green Line doing?”
Hey y’all! Anita here. In last month’s edition of this newsletter, I teased how The Green Line was reimagining coverage of Toronto’s recent municipal election, focusing particularly on our event. This month, I’m diving deeper by assessing its impact. 💥
After a sleepy municipal election cycle and a record-low voter turnout, The Green Line wrapped up our coverage late last month — and what a journey it’s been.
Despite being a 7-month-old indie media bebe, we profiled and interviewed the three top mayoral candidates about topical issues ranging from police reform to the housing crisis, and also hosted a well-attended event that brought out Torontonians from across the city and across party lines to brainstorm solutions to declining youth voter turnout.
Of course, The Green Line elections team — Mahdis Habibinia, Alex Varoutas, Dupe Badejo and myself — covered the platforms tabled by three-time victor and current Mayor John Tory, as well as by Gil Penalosa and Chloe-Marie Brown who came in second and third, respectively. We also went beyond the typical horse race-style coverage you’re used to seeing. In addition to reporting on their professional track records, our team dove into each candidate’s lived experiences to get a closer look at the human being behind the public face.
Case in point: In The Green Line’s video, above, Brown describes a time in her life when she was fully employed but still homeless. The clip made waves on Twitter, with some Torontonians sharing that they were motivated to vote for the first time in their lives because they saw coverage of someone whose story and struggles they related to.
Then, to encourage healthy conversations across party lines about politically divisive issues, The Green Line partnered with the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) Toronto and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Canada to host a political speed-dating event days before Election Day. The evening also included networking with City Council candidates for University-Rosedale (Ward 11). Here’s an excerpt from CSI on how it went down:
Six Degrees: Toronto Talks Election 2022 brought together more than 60 attendees, as well as local candidates, to discuss urban futures and the October Toronto municipal election. After an initial networking hour (complete with drinks and snacks, of course), participants came together to listen to Tonya Surman, CSI CEO, and Anita Li, Founder and Editor in Chief of The Green Line and RSA Fellow, speak on the next portion of the event. The Green Line organized a version of political speed dating through the My Country Talks app. Participants completed a short survey which ranked them on the political spectrum, and they were matched with their political opposites to discuss several questions….Afterwards, event attendees shared the solutions they had discussed on how to encourage youth turnout and participation in the civic engagement process. We heard some excellent ideas from all, including students, teachers, immigrants, and community activists.
At our event, community members came together to brainstorm solutions to address the issue of low youth voter turnout in Toronto. Here are some of the ideas they came up with (click the image, below, for details):
Tell me: How do you think news outlets should approach election reporting? What kind of coverage would you like to see? What don't you want to see anymore?
Paid opportunities: TGL producers and freelance pitches
The Green Line is currently hiring News Innovation Fellows who specialize in TV broadcasting and have experience in news production. We’re also interested in long-form pitches that tackle a systemic housing issue in the city through a solutions lens, especially from experienced investigative and/or feature reporters based in Toronto who specialize in housing issues. We offer competitive freelance rates.
If you want to learn more about any of these opportunities, feel free to contact me for more information. Or if you’re interested, please send me your resume, cover letter and links to three clips (multimedia is preferred for Fellowship applicants, longform is preferred for housing-reporter applicants and edited photos are preferred for the photographer applicants).
Quick and Clean
“In my community” and “Cool stuff I like” will be back…
I’ll be speaking on three panels this month: Scale Without Borders' 2022 Immigrants in Tech Summit on Nov. 15, The Pivot Fund’s “How to Recession Proof Your News Business” later that same day, and the 2022 Pollution Probe Conference on Nov. 22.
My colleague Chad Lubelsky at the McConnell Foundation passed along a job posting for his former role as Program Director of the foundation’s Communities portfolio, saying, “It’s a great job that I’ve loved doing.” Apply here by Nov. 30.
In light of the mass layoffs at Twitter, I’m compelled to reshare Scott Galloway’s recent op-ed in The Atlantic titled “Big Tech Founders are America’s False Idols.”
On a related note, I highly recommend reading Harvard Business Review’s “Understanding Leadership,” an oldie but goodie article from 2004 that unpacks the essence of true leadership.
Finally, all journalism leaders should read this thought-provoking Noema Magazine Q&A with philosopher Byung-Chul Han, who argues that “the torrent of accelerated time without narrative is disorienting our society and fragmenting community.”
How you can support The Other Wave
My professional mission has always been to support the global movement towards more thoughtful, impactful news coverage, and all the ways that manifests. If The Other Wave gets you to think even a little differently about journalism, especially in Canada, then I will have accomplished what I set out to do. And if TOW gets you to take action and support Canadian media outlets — especially ones that strive to be innovative and inclusive — I will have exceeded my expectations.
If my values and goals resonate with you, please consider supporting fiercely independent media analysis that fills in gaps in coverage of the Canadian journalism landscape. How? Feel free to provide feedback, pass along resources, donate money or simply share this newsletter with your friends.