The Green Line just completed its first-ever Action Journey. Here’s what we learned.
Read on to learn more about my publication’s original theory-of-change model, which I tested for the first time in April.
Hey y’all! Anita here. It’s exactly T-1 week before my wedding day — a.k.a. go time — which is why it feels very on theme to tell you more about The Green Line’s inaugural Action Journey and launch event on Thursday, April 21. 🚦
For those of you who are reading about this for the first time, the Action Journey is an original theory-of-change model I created that encourages locals to create positive social change in their communities. In a given month, The Green Line will host an Action Journey that tackles one systemic issue facing Torontonians. It’s a four-step process that introduces a problem, examines it and then surfaces solutions for our community members:
Explainer
Breakdown of the systemic problem explored in the feature.
Investigative or long-form feature
Deep dive reporting on local solutions that address the systemic problem.
Event
Community members, as well as the feature reporter and sources from the story, gather to discuss the feature and possible solutions to the systemic problem.
Crowdsourcing solutions article
Article about the event, featuring crowdsourced solutions that’ll inform our future coverage and help our audience take action on the systemic problem.
Our April Action Journey compared Toronto’s community response to the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic, to that of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Our goal? To explore the idea of what a “good society” looks like in Toronto in modern times. The Green Line feature reporter Steven Zhou found that communal mindsets have disappeared over the decades here, becoming more individualistic over time. We hope that by taking a solutions-oriented and action-oriented editorial approach, we’re motivating our audiences to act on local problems and become more engaged citizens.
In “Recovering Together: Community Over Apathy,” — part 4 of The Green Line’s “Living With COVID in Toronto” Action Journey — my team and I crowdsourced three solutions and associated resources from attendees of our Action Journey event (part 3). To find out what those community-driven solutions are, and to check out event photos, click here. If you’d like to attend our next virtual Action Journey event about how MuchMusic shaped Toronto’s identity on Thursday, May 19 from 6 to 8 p.m. ET, register here.
Finally, my team and I would appreciate your support. Here are a few different ways you can help out:
Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Facebook and Twitch.
Pay for a membership to The Green Line
Share our stories and other posts from The Green Line’s social media accounts.
Tell your family, friends and network to do all of the above (if you don’t mind!).
Callout: Institute for Nonprofit News
The Institute for Nonprofit News, where I host Info Sessions for Startups, asked me to amplify its conference, INN Days. The three-day event, which takes place from June 13 to 15, invites innovative news leaders, funders and researchers to explore the questions and solutions shaping the future of nonprofit news. Scholarships are also available upon request. Learn more and register by visiting this website.
Callout: Google News Initiative Canada
Andrew Wicken, head of news partnerships for Google News Initiative Canada, asked me to share this job posting for News Partnerships Manager. The full-time role involves increasing GNI Canada’s capacity “to work with news associations around partnerships and programming to support the Canadian news ecosystem.”
These are the key requirements:
Focused on partnering with news associations and developing and delivering programming (often in partnership with those associations) to drive impact with the ecosystem at large
Bilingual in English and French
Based in Toronto or Montreal
Demonstrated passion for and/or experience in the news industry
Quick and Clean
“In my community” and “Cool stuff I like” will be back…
I’m excited to belatedly share the finalists for this year’s Canadian Journalism Foundation and Meta Journalism Project’s Digital News Innovation Award! They are: CBC, New Canadian Media and Taproot Edmonton. The winner will be announced at the CJF annual awards ceremony on June 7.
Many thanks to LiisBeth Media for profiling The Green Line alongside Anya-Milana Sulaver’s PEEPS Magazine and Stacey Lee Kong’s Friday Things in “The New Future of Journalism (It’s Not What You Think).”
Videos of my panels from last month’s International Journalism Festival in Perugia are now available to view. Watch “How North American newsrooms are operationalizing diversity, equity, and inclusion” and “How local news can empower civic engagement and the fight against misinformation.”
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.