Deepak Bidwai, LJI journalist and Barrie Community Media's sole reporter, has been diligently tracking the proposed alterations by the Barrie City Council, initiated unexpectedly on May 17th, to tackle the issue of chronic homelessness. Nonetheless, Barrie Community Media (BCM) highlighted that the proposed solutions do little to alleviate homelessness and instead aim to penalize average citizens with fines for aiding the homeless. To keep our residents informed about this critical issue, we have sought perspectives from city staff, police, and council members regarding the planned changes. To disseminate our news, we have utilized our website, YouTube, and social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Somewhat surprisingly, we found that Instagram yielded the highest level of engagement.
In a hushed move on June 18th, the City added bills 67 and 68 to June 21 meeting agenda, making it unlawful to distribute food, groceries, and other essentials on public land. From that day up until the council meeting on June 21st, when the bills were slated for approval, we regularly posted brief updates and videos about the protests staged outside the city hall. Our coverage has likely to have drew attention from major news outlets like CBC and Toronto Star. We also also covered press conferences by the Mayor and follow-ups with all council members.
Our in-depth reporting resonated with thousands of people across multiple platforms, as evidenced by the vast number of views, likes, and shares our content received. This also fostered our credibility and brand recognition. At the June 21st protest, numerous attendees expressed their gratitude to Deepak, praising his meticulous coverage and his dedication to giving a voice to the underrepresented segments of society.
Add new comment
About LJI
LJI Impact is the section of commediaportal.ca where the journalists and their organizations participating in CACTUS' Local Journalism Initiative can share their greatest successes.
Through the written stories, photos and videos you see in the LJI Impact section, you'll be able to read first hand accounts about how the presence of a community journalist is making a difference in communities across Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative and the Community Media Portal.
The Community Media Portal is a gateway to the audio-visual media created by community media centres across Canada. These include traditional community TV and radio stations, as well as online and new media production centres.
Community media are not-for-profit production hubs owned and operated by the communities they serve, established both to provide local content and reflection for their communities, as well as media training and access for ordinary citizens to the latest tools of media production, whether traditional TV and radio, social and online media, virtual reality, augmented reality or video games.
The Community Media Portal has been funded by the Local Journalism Initiative (the LJI) of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) in association with the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (the Fédération). Under the LJI, over 100 journalists have been placed in underserved communities and asked to produce civic content that underpins Canadian democratic life.
