UQAM professor explains how he taught students to cover diverse communities
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In Quebec, questions of religious and cultural diversity are never far from the headlines. The Parti Québécois “charter of values” project, introduced in 2013, revealed deep divisions in the province about the role of religion in public life. Over the past year, since a debate on systemic racism exposed the lack of visibility of minority Quebecers in the media and a false news story on the TVA network led to far-right demonstrations outside a mosque, the need for fairer coverage of the province’s cultural and religious diversity has been thrown into sharp relief.
Guillaume Lavallée is an experienced foreign correspondent and professor at the École des médias at Université du Québec à Montréal. Recently back at AFP’s Paris Headquarters as associate editor, he has also done graduate work in Islamic studies and has explored these issues over the last two years in a specialized journalism workshop offered to students in the last two years of the school’s bachelor of journalism program.
We sat down with him to talk about how he addresses these issues in his classroom and why student journalists should be thinking about them. This interview has been translated, edited and condensed for clarity.
J-Source: Why is it imperative that student journalists, especially in Quebec, learn how to cover diversity early in their careers?
Guillaume Lavallée: Young journalists need to create a niche for themselves, and I figured that (after learning more about the city’s diversity) students would be able to find subjects that others wouldn’t. Also, whether or not they become specialists, they should be capable of asking the right questions and choosing the right words (when addressing diversity). You wouldn’t have wanted to be the journalist with the TVA mosque story!
J-Source: You mention the TVA episode last December, where a news story about a mosque banning women from a construction site led to far-right rallies in front of the mosque. The story turned out to be unfounded. That’s a remarkable case study. What do you hope your students took away from that?
G.L.: For starters, anyone who knows (Islam) would say it makes no sense. I spent seven years in the Muslim world and never encountered the idea that women couldn’t work in front of a mosque … As a journalist, you should have the reflex to ask the right questions and go to to the right sources. Also, when you have something that sensitive, you can’t go on air with one person’s version and get the other side later. You need to verify your facts and use the right words. That doesn’t mean covering up stories, it just means doing due diligence. (Failing to do this) can threaten a person’s safety or sense of belonging and even push someone to (justify) violent acts. Stories are also shared online very quickly, and even if you correct the error, the wrong is (already) done.
J-Source: What led you to create this course?
G.L.: When I got to UQAM two years ago, I was (assigned) a specialized journalism course. We had the option of (teaching) cultural reporting. I thought that instead of teaching people how to cover concerts, we could interpret “culture” differently and address the intersection of journalism and diversity. The idea was to cover theory and practice (starting with) the history of diversity, immigration and the Jewish, Muslim and Indigenous presence in Montreal. We didn’t hear academic analysis (from guest speakers), we heard what makes them angry, what makes them see news coverage as fair or unfair, and what issues have been covered well and what had not…and then the students went into the field. At the end, they had to produce feature stories, and not just scramble for a quote, but really listen to the source.
What makes Montreal and UQAM fertile ground for a course like this?
I figured if there was anywhere we could address all these emotional concepts—secularism, Islamophobia, multiculturalism…it would be in a classroom. We have to realize that the media spread these concepts, and if we (as future members of the media) can’t have this discussion on a small scale, we can’t do it on a large scale. The diversity of Montreal also plays an interesting role; for example, a lot of people didn’t realize that the first Jews arrived here in the 18th century. It was interesting for students to see that diversity is not just some idea that came about in the last 20 years; it’s deep in the fabric of the city.
What are the most important things for students to retain from this course?
I’d like them to question the ideas that are going around and show curiosity and critical empathy. Critical empathy is trying to put yourselves in the other person’s place, while retaining your critical eye. We talk a lot about digital journalism, as we must, but diversity is also fundamental in today’s journalism. You can’t expect a journalist to have a doctorate in Black history or Islamic history, but we want them to have a minimum of knowledge to decode what’s happening in society.
Do you have any advice for journalism instructors who want to examine diversity issues more closely with their students?
I have just one major piece of advice, really: develop a critical approach. The identity debate, questions of tolerance and Indigenous issues are very sensitive and can lead to students deeply questioning a lot of things. You need to have a certain sensitivity without losing your critical eye. It’s not about trying to convince the students to follow an ideology, but working with them to understand the philosophical foundations of different ways of thinking about diversity, so that they become journalists who are able to ask the right questions, and then accurately analyze the answers they get.
Ruby Irene Pratka is a Montreal-based freelance writer, researcher and editor. Her work has been published in English and French in Vice Québec, Ricochet, Daily Xtra, Shareable and Canadaland, among other websites and magazines. She covers a wide range of topics but focuses on diversity and language policy. Originally from the U.S., she has been living the expat life since 2006. She has lived in eight countries and four provinces, but keeps coming back to the delights of Québec.