What Canadian journalists think, so far, about the state of Canadian journalism

A few months ago, I started a survey asking the people who care most about Canadian journalism how they thought it was all going. So how’s it going?

Who answered

So far, 822 people have completed the survey. Half of them, asked whether they considered themselves journalists or otherwise worked in the media, gave an unreserved “yes” (49%)—those are the people whose responses, throughout this post, I identify as coming from journalists. A little under a quarter (21%) said no to that question, and the rest either answered “sorta” (14%), “no, but I used to” (12%), or “no, but I’d like to” (4%).

Nearly three-quarters of all respondents live or work in or around Toronto (71%), like I do. Canadian media may be concentrated in its largest city, but it’s not that concentrated; as I mentioned in a recent interview with J-Source about the survey, I’m learning a lot about what Torontonians and Torontonian journalists think about Canadian journalism, but not as much as I’d like to about what the rest of Canada does.

Because I know there are plenty of people out there with strong feelings about journalism across this country who I haven’t heard from yet—like, just maybe, you there reading this—the conclusions I’ve drawn here are intended to be preliminary, and not necessarily representative. So if you haven’t taken the survey yet, please do: I want to hear what you have to say, and others will, too.

Money’s a big deal, and so’s diversity

What do people think is missing most from Canadian journalism right now? Surprise! It’s cash. Asked to score, out of five, things that people inside and outside the media often gripe about, respondents gave “money” an average of 4.10. Journalists ranked it even higher, giving it an average score of 4.38. (More than half of the journalist respondents, 56%, gave it a full five.)

Another big thing people think is in short supply: diversity, which earned 3.72 out of 5 on average. And respondents who weren’t straight and cisgender and white and from middle-class-or-higher backgrounds—only 31% said they weren’t all of the above—felt the lack of some things more acutely: they rated the lack of diversity as a problem warranting 4.01 out of 5 on average (everyone else gave it 3.63), and the lack of mentorship as 3.46 out of 5 (everyone else gave it 3.34).

It’s frustrating out there…

Most people who work in journalism right now aren’t doing something all that close to what they want to be. Out of 10, the average score journalists and sorta-journalists gave to how close they were to living the dream was 6.05.

What’s more, 59% of all respondents, and 73% of journalists, said they’d recently had an idea for something they hadn’t been able to create but wanted to. (On the survey, I defined that “something” as a project, an app, a podcast, any other kind of product, or a whole new media empire.) Those numbers were higher still for people who were something other than straight, cisgender, white, and from middle-class-or-higher backgrounds: 68% of all respondents who fit that description, and 76% of journalists who did, had been similarly stifled.

You can blame money for that, sure, but also the other things respondents think are missing in the industry right now: innovation (which all respondents gave 3.75 out of 5), guts (which they gave 3.70), and independence (which they gave 3.59).

…but there’s hope

Here’s one silver lining: there are a lot of people out there with ideas they want to try. And here’s another one: those who care a lot about journalism care a lot about others in the industry, too. On the survey, 84% of current or former journalists said that helping people with less experience working in the media was something they’d like to do more of. The vast majority of respondents say they’re willing to put money down themselves if that’s what it takes to beat the problems they see: of the 94% of respondents who said they’d consider being part of something that would aim to do exactly that, 85% said they might be willing to pay in one way or another for the privilege.

So now what?

Data’s a great place to start, but pretty charts of mostly scary numbers are not where I want this project to end. If you want to make sure you’re the first to hear about what all this turns into, take the survey now. Or skip it and just give me your email here. But, c’mon, take the survey. I need your help, and so does this country.

Charts by Matthew Warland.