On spreading your masthead
There’s been a lot of talk recently about diversity in journalism, about how to include new and sometimes-ignored voices in newsrooms of the future. Good journalism ought to reflect the changing society we live in, right?
I’ve been thinking a lot about that on a different scale, as I edit the Ontario Digital blog. The blog has introduced a new way of showing people how we work inside government. Lifting back the curtain on public service is a priority for me as I source stories for this space. So, too, is ensuring that we include a diversity of voice as a way to reflect the diversity of the people working in government.
As you’ve already noticed, our team is reflective of the province’s diversity in many ways, but one thing sticks out: most of the team is based in Toronto. I live in Southwestern Ontario (about two-and-a-half hours west of Toronto).
Living in Southwestern Ontario means that my work on the team is done remotely. I connect to the team via Google Hangout daily, and we use digital project management and communications tools that allow me to be connected to the rest of the team at all times during the day. There are times when face-to-face interaction is necessary — for both operational needs and just for my own need to build stronger ties to my colleagues — and at those times, I take a train ride into Toronto for the day.
Living in Southwestern Ontario also means that I bring a different geographical perspective to the work we do. The people in this part of the province live a different economic, social, and cultural reality than those in our province’s capital city. And while I can’t speak for everyone here, I’m closer, geographically, to that reality, which means that I can help to reflect it in the work that we do.
As we work to design and build digital services, this means we must make a strong, concerted effort to reach out to users outside of our geographical box.
Melody Kramer recently wrote a post for Poynter on how to diversify newsrooms, and one piece of advice resonated strongly: spread your masthead. She goes on to elaborate, in the context of journalism in America:
Yes, national newsrooms have bureaus across the country, and yes, journalism organizations hire freelancers to take on pieces in different geographic locations. But that’s different than having a truly distributed newsroom, with a distributed masthead.
We have tools now for remote meetings and remote document collaboration and remote project management. Why does your entire masthead live in New York or D.C.? There’s simply no need for this in 2016, and having different perspectives on an ongoing basis will diversify coverage and the way we write about our sources.
So, how do we ensure geographic representation from across the province, and enable distributed teams, when it comes to the people who are working on digital in Ontario?
To start, we have government offices in all corners of Ontario. In those offices, we have public servants who can speak to, and champion, the diversity of their geographic realities. In digital, we must use every opportunity to learn from these teams and how they uniquely operate, navigate distance, and ensure that all voices are heard, no matter where people may be.
Being a remote worker myself, I can relate to some of the geographic challenges. It’s why we are testing and learning through my work reality, too. In the future, our vision is to spread our masthead:to make the work of team members in other parts of the province not just “remote,” but part of the normal operation of a distributed, truly diverse team.
