Introducing the Spring 2025 issue of Facts & Frictions: From online trolls to positive community connections
Internet trolls, data journalism, sensitive interviews, news deserts and a new book on journalism are the topics in the latest issue of Facts & Frictions: Emerging Debates, Pedagogies, and Practices in Contemporary Journalism. The lead-off article, “The dark side of public visibility: How academic authors perceive and cope with anti-press hostility,” by Sibo Chen, Nicole Blanchett and S. Lecourt, examines the impact of online toxicity on academic authors who publish in journalism-style platforms. Their research finds self-censorship is a disturbingly frequent outcome, leading to a call to restore the democratic health of digital platforms.
As one potential model for more positive connections with the public, Shirley Roburn makes a case for data journalism that engages with and supports the community it is reporting on. Her article, “Making it ‘Local’: Community data journalism for health justice,” presents a case study of a hyperlocal publication, The Local, and its influential community-driven data journalism work during the COVID-19 pandemic. “As traditional infrastructures of community news sharing continue to decline, this research offers a kernel of hope that hyperlocal digital community journalism can not only help alleviate ‘news deserts,’ but can offer a type of journalism that is more relevant and more equitable,” Roburn writes.
Relevant, equitable journalism is at the heart of “Voices of the Khwaja sira: Navigating trans rights, religion, and journalism in Pakistan,” by Yumna Iftikhar. The work showcases two unique aspects that Facts & Frictions brings to the world of academic publishing: peer-reviewed journalism and multimedia publishing. Iftikhar’s journalism feature describes how Pakistan’s trans community is fighting to protect newly won rights, augmented with infographics, photography, audio and video. The article also presents a compelling case for editors and educators alike to consider a more nuanced framework around the subject of source compensation, which she argues can be a crucial support to ensure the voices of directly impacted people are included in stories about the issues that affect them.
Moving on to the topic of local news, Pauline Dakin’s commentary “Shots fired: A local news desert leads to lack of crime reporting” describes how a shooting in her neighbourhood put the issue of understaffed newsrooms and tight-lipped police in sharp relief. With little news reporting to go on, she and her neighbours are left to wonder what happened, and if a shooter is still at large. This neighbourhood-level concern is played out in communities across Canada, she notes.
Our Spring 2025 issue closes with a review of Christopher Cheung’s new book Under the White Gaze: Solving the Problem of Race and Representation in Canadian Journalism. Reviewer Shenaz Kermalli notes that issues surrounding race and representation have become central to discussions of Canadian journalism, but scholarly works on the topic remain rare. Cheung’s work offers a timely and needed intervention, she writes, one that calls on us to think more deeply about our collective susceptibility to the totalizing effects of the White gaze.
Together, these articles offer a well-rounded package that we hope will expand conversations and spark new ideas about journalism.
Read the Spring issue of Facts & Frictions
Patricia W. Elliott is editor-in-chief of Facts & Frictions / Faits et frictions and associate professor of journalism at First Nations University of Canada and the University of Regina.