By George Abraham, the Tyee | Link to Article
I was never cut out to be a pioneer or an entrepreneur; risk-taking is just not in my DNA. My friends know me as a follower rather than a leader: a conformist.
By George Abraham, the Tyee | Link to Article
I was never cut out to be a pioneer or an entrepreneur; risk-taking is just not in my DNA. My friends know me as a follower rather than a leader: a conformist.
However, something changed a decade into my Canadian journey. A solo road trip from Boston to Ottawa five years ago set in motion a series of ideas that eventually culminated in launching New Canadian Media (NCM) in 2011. I’ve written about this trip for Nieman Reports.
The online media venture I created is based on a fairly straightforward idea: immigrants redefine a country and deserve to be a full part of the national conversation. I call this “immigrant journalism,” a vein of journalism that privileges the voice of newcomers and always stands up for their point of view.
My reasoning goes something like this: if there can be a Quebecois point of view, a point of view for English Canada and a Northern perspective, why not one for newcomers, folks who’ve lived for extended periods outside of Canada? I define “immigrants” rather loosely, including not just the one-fifth of Canadians who are foreign-born, but all those who see “immigrant” as part of their own identity.
It’s only in hindsight that I see how my simple idea would find wide resonance across the Canadian landscape, from mainstream media organizations such as iPolitics.ca and The Walrus and major journalism schools to NGOs that work with immigrants and think-tanks and Canadians of every shade. All of them enthusiastically support a media organization that reflects a changing Canada as it morphs from a nation of largely European forebears to one that has immigrants from 200 different countries.
I’ve often been asked why it took somebody like me (really, a nobody with no connections) to come up with this idea. After all, I arrived in Canada in 2002 not knowing a single soul: no friends, no relatives. I don’t know the answer to that question, but here’s a try: I see myself as a “median Canadian,” somewhere in the demographic middle. To wit, I’m brown, “a native English speaker” with an accent, Christian, have lived in four other countries before Canada, learned French here, am well-schooled in the Westminster model of democracy and, lastly, a “joiner” by nature.
Importantly, I think, I’ve never seen myself as an Indo-Canadian. I always tell my children, we are Canadian. Je suis fier d’être Canadien.
Four years into our journey, NCM is seen as a poster child for entrepreneurial journalism, a venture that is tapping into new audiences and innovative ways of engaging them. We have a great digital platform, a high-calibre newsroom and consultative editorial board and scores of freelance writers and contributors representing all shades of opinion and ethnicity. We are much further ahead in portraying the pulse of Immigrant Canada than I ever imagined, but we have a long way to go in fulfilling our potential.
– See more at: http://www.thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/2014/08/27/New-Canadian-Media/#sthash.QbPRTqFJ.dpuf