The Guide

UPDATE

Since launching in 2011, the RIIC guide has become become a go-to resource in Canadian journalism classrooms and newsrooms. It’s attracted tens of thousands of visitors, from around the globe. But it needed an update.

That’s why I’m pleased to announce a partnership with Oxford University Press to produce Decolonizing Journalism: A Guide to Reporting in Indigenous Communities, available to order in October 2022.

Decolonizing Journalism includes all the exclusive content from the original online RIIC guide, but with lots of significant updates aimed at helping writers, journalists and journalism students. The sections on news stereotypes and terminology have been updated, in line with changing times and emerging scholarship.

There are new chapters on trauma-informed reporting, rethinking journalistic objectivity, how to use social media in Indigenous communities, and reconciliation journalism. The text is full of resources, references, discussion questions and classroom exercises that will point you in the right direction to learning more about Indigenous culture, politics and history.

I’m especially excited about a new section called “Teachings,” my in-depth conversations with nine of Turtle Island’s leading Indigenous journalists about how they do their jobs: Connie Walker, Tanya Talaga, Tristan Ahtone, Tim Fontaine, Merelda Fiddler-Potter, Waubgeshig Rice, Juanita Taylor, Mark Trahant and Karyn Pugliese.

I’ll be giving this site a makeover in the future, but RIIC has always been a labour of love, so it may take awhile. Stay tuned for the next iteration. In the meantime, if you want to feel more confident when you tackle Indigenous news stories, build stronger audiences and ultimately, tell better stories, you can find all the essential information and more in Decolonizing Journalism.