Five Good Ideas about cultivating lasting relationships with media and journalists

In this session, originally recorded on February 25, 2021, we asked Royson James to share five good ideas about cultivating lasting relationships with media and journalists.

How do you adopt a media mind and make it yours? At some point you may have gotten burned by media or just ignored. Since disengagement isn’t an option, how do you move on and germinate, nurture, and sustain lasting relationships? In this Five Good Ideas session, Royson James, the Toronto Star’s urban affairs columnist and former City Hall bureau chief, de-mystifies the media and talks about how journalists think so you know when, where, and how to engage them intelligently.

Five Good Ideas

1. Everybody gets screwed by the media. Knowing this prepares you for when your turn comes.
2. “Fractured Journo World” is an opportunity masquerading as an obstacle.
3. One hand washes the other – symbiosis sustains the system.
4. Know your allies. They often stick out.
5. Be the media junkie and benefit your organization.

Related resource:

• Columbia Journalism Review: The voice of journalism since 1961. Gives critical analysis on the state of journalism.
• The Poynter Institute teaches, inspires, challenges, and creates a journalism idealism that builds confidence that someone is preoccupied with truth, context, and great witting.
• The Toronto Star: Your best media ally and friend in the GTA and in Ontario; most likely to be in synch with your goals for a healthy, caring, and equitable civil society.
• MediaSmarts: Canada’s centre for digital media literacy.
• The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul by Jean-Claude Larchet. Podcast review of a book you may wish to read.

For the full transcript, visit https://maytree.com/five-good-ideas/cultivating-relationships-with-media/

About Royson James

Royson James is the Toronto Star’s urban affairs columnist and former City Hall bureau chief, recognized throughout the region for his dogged reporting on the region’s governments, and on social justice. He’s a native of Jamaica who immigrated to Canada in 1969, attended Harbord Collegiate in downtown Toronto and had his journalistic training at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. In 2004 he was named an honored alumnus of Andrews University.

Royson is an active member of the Toronto West Seventh-day Adventist Church. He has directed the pathfinder club for kids 10 to 16. He also writes and produces an annual Easter Musical and dramatic presentations. The pathfinders, like Scouts but co-ed, plant an annual community garden and engage in community work.

In 2013 he received Canada’s premier award for African Canadians – the Harry Jerome Award for media. In 2014 he was a finalist in the National Newspaper Award for columnist of a Canadian newspaper.

Royson is married with four children.