By 10 p.m. on Nov. 5, 2024, the United States presidential election results were called by many news outlets: Donald Trump would be the 47th president of the United States. For many Americans and non-Americans alike, this was abysmal news.
For journalists, this news added a new layer to the dread that has been building since Trump’s first term. The president-elect’s campaign speeches had increasingly violent rhetoric against the press, which he perceives as the “enemy of the people”.
At a campaign rally in Lititz, Pennsylvania, days before the election, Trump continued his violent anti-press rhetoric, joking about another possible assassination attempt. He mused that he wouldn’t “mind” that somebody “would have to shoot through the fake news” in order to get to him, referring to the media section covering the event.
I covered election night for my reporting class, and Trump’s win forced me to take his vilification of the press more seriously.
Since starting the journalism diploma program, I have noticed a trend of our (mostly white, male) professors urging us to “leap first” into fieldwork, approaching potential sources with relentlessness that was successful for them, but that I believe is not received the same way coming from my peers and myself.
The US Press Freedom Tracker reported 79 assaults against journalists in 2024, compared to the 45 recorded for 2023, with violence perpetrated by both law enforcement and citizens. Trump has repeatedly threatened to jail journalists for various reasons, such as refusing to disclose confidential sources, and to strip television networks of their broadcast licenses.
In 2024, a U.S. report from the International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) found that one in three journalists interviewed, primarily women and non-binary people, reported being threatened or experiencing physical violence while on the job.
The Canadian Taking Care report found that Arab, Asian, and Black journalists reported the highest rates of online harassment and violence at 83 per cent, 75 per cent, and 71 per cent respectively. Women encountered the highest incidences of sexual harassment on the job, while non-binary and two-spirit individuals faced the highest rates of violence in the field.
Regardless of their identity, media workers are targeted for being members of the media. Our respective and diverse identities necessitate different approaches to field work, to prepare future journalists for the realities of the industry.
The Taking Care report advises that journalism schools and educators include training on “journalist mental health” to their curricula and that newsrooms should have similar training on trauma and mental health. The IWMF study found that newsrooms fail to prepare reporters for the physical dangers of the field, without “adequate training, protective gear, or back-up.”
Concordia’s Journalism School provides almost no safety training, despite students being sent out to cover stories, like protests, alone. Montreal police are known to target reporters clearly marked as “press” by using pepper spray and other weapons during protests.
This past semester, my classmate coveried a story for an assignment and was threatened with a knife in downtown Montreal. Only after reporting the incident to their professor were additional security precautions, such as bringing a companion, suggested for future fieldwork.
As the first “newsroom” environment most of us encounter, the duty of our school should be to prioritize journalists’ mental and physical well-being.
Incorporating this training in Canadian journalism schools is key to changing the industry’s culture, but it’s only a start. Field preparation is not limited to pre-interview and background research, but should also include taking proactive measures to bring the right safety equipment and measures to protect ourselves and colleagues. Failure to do so can lead to injuries, arrests, and is one of the reasons journalists choose to leave the industry.
During a time when most Canadians worry about the spread of misinformation, we need more journalists of diverse backgrounds delivering accurate, fair and balanced news.
Journalism schools must step up to help empower students in navigating this reality head-on.
