So complicaaaaaateeeeeeeed

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Published on Thursday, 22 November 2018 08:04

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So complicaaaaaateeeeeeeed r1 What is journalism's role in an increasingly divided world? ... View archive version

Over the course of the past decade, I’ve watched with concern as the Canadian debate about energy and environment issues has become more and more polarized.

Honestly, it’s the thing that keeps me up at night. It’s also one of the driving forces behind The Narwhal.

All too often, journalism inadvertently escalates conflicts and cuts the complexity out of conversations. Part of what drives highly polarized news coverage is that media organizations are often rewarded with clicks for writing sensational, outrage-inducing stories — and clicks drive advertising revenues in the traditional business model.

As an ad-free, non-profit news organization, we are driven by a different set of values:

• How can our stories contribute to healthier public conversations?
• How can we portray Canadians in all of their complexity and steer away from the caricatures we so often see in the media?
• How do we slow down, take a step back and write about systemic issues in a way that helps lead to solutions?

I recently had the pleasure of joining about 25 other journalists for a conflict mediation training in New York to mull these questions. After my return home, I wrote this thought piece about journalism’s role in an increasingly divided world — which addresses how we are committed to bringing more complexity into our reporting at The Narwhal.

We are only able to focus on improving the way we tell stories because of the support of our readers, so thank you for making it possible to build a media outlet that focuses on the common good above clicks.

Since last week, 30 readers have signed up as monthly members of The Narwhal — thank you! We are now just 31 members away from our goal of reaching 500 founding members by the end of the year.

If you value journalism that complicates the narrative, please sign up as a member of The Narwhal today. We are non-profit, ad-free and made-in-Canada.

Read on for more great stories,

Emma Gilchrist
Editor-in-chief, The Narwhal

From grain country to gas land

By Ben Parfitt

The Narwhal visited the Farmington area, a rural community in northeastern B.C., in July and again in September to document the growing tension between farmers and the gas producers who've come for the resources on their land. Read more and view the photos.

Newfoundland’s carbon tax gives ‘free pass’ to offshore oil industry

By Drew Brown

Under the current Liberal government, Newfoundland and Labrador plan on building 100 new offshore exploration wells over the next 10 years. This is remarkable, given only 151 wells have been drilled in total since 1955. Read more.

28 Indigenous Guardian programs get federal funding

By Judith Lavoie

Guardians will help monitor illegal fisheries and forestry activities, protect cultural sites and monitor how climate change and increased shipping in the Northwest Passage are affecting the Arctic. Read more.

Our managing editor Carol Linnitt was in Toronto last week accepting FOUR Canadian Online Publishing Awards on our behalf. All of our behalves. Thank you, all of you, who help make independent journalism a reality every single day.

The Narwhal wins four Canadian Online Publishing Awards

By Emma Gilchrist
The Narwhal, just six months after launching, took home gold and silver for best photojournalism in Canada as well as two silvers for best publication and best news website. We're giddy. Read more.

B.C. launches first ever rules to regulate fossils

By Larry Pynn

From dinosaur bones to ancient plant life, hundreds of thousands of fossils have been taken to fill collections — private and institutional — across the country. But a new policy promises to better protect and preserve these essentially unregulated treasures. Read more.

B.C. environmental assessment overhaul marred by deficiencies, scientists say

By Sarah Cox

180 scientists have come forward to decry “three deficiencies” in B.C.'s newly proposed rules for major project reviews: a lack of scientific independence, peer-review and transparency. Read more.

A narwhal frolics with the belugas: Why interspecies adoptions happen

By Erin Siracusa

Adoption poses an evolutionary dilemma, so why is it so well-documented in the animal kingdom? Read more.

Did you know that more than 400 readers give what they can each month to make our journalism possible? Join them and become a Narwhal today. It's a crazy world, but doing this one thing will make you feel good. And look great. This week's listen: Someone Knows Something
via CBC A disturbing cold case in a remote mining town in northern Manitoba that is all things Canadian true crime.

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