APTN director won’t let COVID-19 damage her staff’s health or morale
Cheryl McKenzie started her journalism career at CBC Radio two decades ago. Now, she’s the executive director of news and current affairs at APTN National News with Canada’s largest Indigenous broadcasting network.
On Thursday, at Carleton University’s virtual Journalism in the Time of Crisis conference, McKenzie participated in a panel exploring news managers’ perspectives on the challenges facing news organizations during the COVID-19 health crisis.
Alison Uncles, editor-in-chief of Maclean’s, and Michael Melling, general manager at CP24 and CTV News Toronto, also took part in the discussion, which was moderated by Carleton journalism professor Brett Popplewell.
McKenzie, an Anishnaabe and Cree journalist who’s been nominated for Gemini and Canadian Association of Broadcasters awards, was interviewed about what it’s been like to manage a newsroom under COVID-19 restrictions. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Q. As the executive director of APTN News, how do you view your role during this pandemic?
A. There’s definitely two parts to that. The first is that news is absolutely an essential service, so how can we make sure that we are going to stay on the air to deliver information that people can use. The second is safety for our journalists and our broadcast professionals.
I had to come up with some different scenarios. Like if we lost this part of our team, how would we make it up in other areas of the country? We do have two other studios that we can patch into if we really had to.
It was really trying to assess what we can do while the majority of us are working from home. Everyone just took to it like fish to water. It was really impressive, the way that we’re figuring things out.
Q. Covering the pandemic has been hard for the mental health of many reporters. In your opinion, what is the responsibility of news managers toward their staff regarding this?
A. I’m definitely making more of an effort to reach people on a personal level. I’m trying to reach out to journalists individually and give them compliments on the stories that they’ve done. And while we’re talking, asking them, ‘How are you doing? How are you coping with this?’
A lot of people will stick to what they’re doing on the job, but there will be some sharing about what they’re dealing with in their personal lives.
The other part is trying to give people the freedom to book a day off here and there. Even though people are staying home, at least you don’t have to be working. You can just relax. And we’ve had an elder join us when we all meet on our Microsoft Teams, and give us a bit of a talk. So that helps.
The other thing is that right away, our CEO told us to do everything possible to try and avoid layoffs. We know that is a huge problem for so many people across Canada, losing their livelihood because of COVID-19. And so really trying to make sure that we keep providing meaningful work for everybody, so we can keep doing our jobs.
Q. There’s an increased awareness about the importance of a trauma-informed approach to journalism. Is this an approach that you encourage your staff to use and if so, what does that look like?
A. Because we’ve built our newsroom on reporting on such tough subjects, and with people who have been experiencing trauma in their lives, even historical trauma… people kind of know that we’re very much immersed in this work, so a lot of people will share their trauma.
But one thing that really stands out is putting people on camera, that is a huge deal. We talk to people on the phone, we meet them, we learn about their issues, we do a pre-interview, and then we say, ‘Would you be willing to go on camera for it?’
And then well… maybe we can’t reach them anymore, or maybe they would rather not go on camera, but still share their story. That part is where we really need to be sensitive. And some of this comes from our approach — just being sensitive and talking with that person, understanding that person.
Also letting people have a support person there when they’re being interviewed.
Q. How can you raise awareness and make people care about health issues and other challenges that affect Indigenous communities?
A. That’s a really good question. How do we make people care about something that’s really important?
A good example right now is the Neskantaga water situation. They’ve had the longest boil water advisory in all of Canada. Some young people have been unable to use the water for their entire lives. For the Government of Canada not to see it as a health emergency… It is pretty astounding to me.
Everything goes back to the history of Canada and how things were established. When First Nations people were forced onto reserve, that created all these inequalities. And then we’ve all grown up with that. There are some things that haven’t changed.
It is really hard to get people to care. I think, just putting a person on and doing a story about their situation, without saying that the person is Indigenous. Just explain the context of their living situation like, ‘They don’t have access to this, they’re that far away from fresh food, and they don’t have a vehicle . . .”
If we could tell a story around Indigenous Peoples without saying they’re Indigenous or they live on reserve, how would that story look? How would it sound?
View the whole panel discussion here.
