By Harnaik Singh Rathor
Editor-in-Chief, StudioX News Canada
As journalism moves from traditional newsrooms to digital platforms, the relationship between journalists, audiences and news organizations is changing.
For Canada’s multilingual media sector, those changes deserve particular attention.
A recent conversation with Punjabi journalist Simranjot Singh Makkar, interviewed by Rupinder Kaur Sandhu , offers a useful starting point for that discussion. Makkar speaks about his journalism career, the transition from traditional media to digital platforms, social-media audiences, monetization, professional relationships and the challenges journalists can face in an increasingly digital environment.
His experiences are rooted in the Punjabi media environment, but some of the questions he raises are relevant to Canada’s growing multilingual news industry.
Journalism is no longer consumed in one place
For earlier generations, audiences largely encountered journalism through newspapers, television and radio.
Today, the same audience may move between a news website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp within the same day.
For multilingual communities in Canada, this shift is particularly significant.
A Punjabi-speaking Canadian may consume federal political news in English, watch a Punjabi-language explanation on YouTube, receive a news update through WhatsApp and discuss the story with family in Punjabi.
The audience is multilingual.
The platforms are fragmented.
And the newsroom has to adapt.
When the journalist becomes part of the story
One of the themes Makkar discusses is how social media can shape perceptions of journalists.
A short clip can reach thousands of people without providing the full context of the journalist’s work or the conversation from which the clip came. Makkar discusses how audiences can form opinions based on limited online material.
This is an important consideration for digital journalism.
A journalist’s social-media presence can now become almost as visible as the stories they report.
That can create opportunities for journalists to build direct relationships with audiences.
But it also creates a responsibility to make sure that the pursuit of attention does not replace the pursuit of accurate journalism.
Views are not the same as credibility
Digital platforms make audience attention highly visible.
Views, likes, shares and followers can all be measured.
Credibility is much harder to measure.
A short video with hundreds of thousands of views may have significant reach, but reach alone does not determine the journalistic value of a story.
Likewise, a carefully reported local story may receive far fewer views while providing information that directly matters to a community.
For news organizations, the distinction is important:
Audience reach matters, but it cannot be the only measure of journalism.
The business of digital journalism
Makkar also discusses the financial realities surrounding digital media and his experiences with monetization and online content.
That question is increasingly important for Canadian multilingual media.
Building a newsroom requires journalists, editors, photographers, videographers, technology and distribution.
None of that is free.
Multilingual news organizations therefore need sustainable revenue models, including advertising, sponsorships, partnerships, subscriptions and other legitimate commercial opportunities.
But the commercial side and the editorial side must remain clearly separated.
A news organization needs advertisers.
It should not allow advertisers to determine what the newsroom reports.
Canada’s multilingual opportunity
Canada has an opportunity to build a different model of multicultural journalism.
The country’s multilingual communities do not simply need translated versions of English-language news.
They need journalism that understands their communities while maintaining professional editorial standards.
For a Punjabi audience in Surrey, for example, local municipal decisions, housing, immigration, education, policing, provincial politics and community institutions can all have direct relevance.
The same principle applies across Canada’s Hindi-, Urdu-, Mandarin-, Arabic-, Cantonese-, Tagalog- and other language communities.
Multilingual journalism should therefore be more than translation.
It should be original journalism produced for multilingual audiences.
Social media should distribute journalism, not replace it
Short-form video has become an important way for news organizations to reach audiences.
There is nothing inherently wrong with that.
A 60-second video can introduce an important issue.
A reel can bring a breaking development to an audience quickly.
A YouTube interview can reach people who would never read a traditional newspaper.
But the short video should not necessarily be the entire story.
The article can provide context.
The original document can provide evidence.
The full interview can provide nuance.
The newsroom’s responsibility is to connect those pieces.
Professionalism still matters
Makkar also discusses the importance of maintaining professional relationships with former employers and colleagues after moving to another stage of one’s career.
That is relevant to Canada’s developing multilingual media ecosystem.
Journalists move between organizations.
Reporters become editors.
Editors become publishers.
Some journalists leave traditional media and build their own digital platforms.
That is part of a healthy media industry.
Competition does not have to eliminate professionalism.
A growing media sector benefits when journalists can disagree about journalism while continuing to treat one another professionally.
Online criticism and personal boundaries
The interview also discusses situations in which professional criticism can extend into a journalist’s personal life and family.
This distinction is worth maintaining.
Journalists should be accountable for their reporting.
Facts can be challenged.
Errors should be corrected.
Editorial decisions can be questioned.
But criticism of journalism and attacks on someone’s family are not the same thing.
As journalists become more visible through social platforms, maintaining that boundary becomes increasingly important.
AI makes verification even more important
The conversation also touches on AI-generated or manipulated material, including Makkar’s account of a video in which he says his image was placed into a fabricated scenario.
For journalists, the broader lesson is straightforward: verification remains essential.
Images and videos can increasingly be altered or generated.
That means newsrooms need to ask basic questions before publishing:
- Where did the material originate?
- Who created it?
- Can the source be independently verified?
- Has the video or audio been altered?
- Does the material contain the full context?
- Can the claim be confirmed through primary sources?
The technology may change.
The verification responsibility does not.
Journalism and content creation are not the same thing
Today’s journalist may also be a YouTuber, podcaster, interviewer, photographer or social-media creator.
Those roles can coexist.
But content creation and journalism are not automatically the same.
Journalism carries additional responsibilities around verification, attribution, context, fairness and accountability.
A journalist can build a personal brand without allowing the personal brand to become more important than the journalism.
That balance will become increasingly important as Canadian multicultural media grows.
What Canada’s multilingual newsrooms should focus on
For Canada’s multilingual media sector, the opportunity is significant.
But growth should not simply be measured by followers and views.
Strong multilingual journalism should be built around several fundamentals:
Original reporting.
Newsrooms should produce their own journalism rather than simply reproduce material circulating online.
Primary sources.
Government documents, court records, official statistics, public meetings and direct interviews remain important foundations for reporting.
Editorial independence.
Commercial relationships should be clearly separated from editorial decisions.
Verification.
Social-media claims should be checked before being presented as news.
Language quality.
Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Mandarin and other-language journalism should receive the same editorial attention and standards as English-language journalism.
Context.
Short-form content can attract attention, but important stories often require more explanation.
The future of multicultural journalism in Canada
The next generation of Canadian multicultural journalism will probably be more digital, more multilingual and more video-driven than the traditional ethnic media model.
That is not necessarily a problem.
It can be an opportunity.
A newsroom in Surrey can now reach audiences across British Columbia, Canada and communities around the world.
A Punjabi-language story about Surrey can reach readers far beyond Surrey.
A Canadian immigration story can reach families considering their future in Canada.
A local community story can reach people who might never encounter it through traditional media.
The technology provides the reach.
The newsroom has to provide the credibility.
That is the real lesson I take from the discussion around Punjab’s changing digital journalism landscape.
The future of Canadian multilingual media should not simply be about producing more content in more languages.
It should be about building trusted journalism for the communities those languages serve.
Views will change.
Platforms will change.
Algorithms will change.
But credibility still has to be earned, story by story.
— Harnaik Singh Rathor
Editor-in-Chief, StudioX News Canada
Harnaik Singh Rathor is the Founder, Publisher, and Editor-in-Chief of StudioX News Canada, Canada's multilingual digital news network serving diaspora communities across 44 languages. With a background in media production, public relations, and multicultural communications, he founded StudioX Film and TV Corporation to bridge the gap between mainstream Canadian media and the country's diverse immigrant communities. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ), RTDNA Canada, CPRS Vancouver, NEPMCC, and the Canadian Freelance Union (Unifor). Based in Surrey, British Columbia. | LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harnaiksinghrathor/ | Muck Rack: https://muckrack.com/harnaiksinghrathor | Email: editor@studioxnews.ca
