Showcasing research through creative media forms

U of T’s Centre for Research & Innovation Support debuts the Drawing Across the Disciplines Series with its Comics and Graphic Scholarly Works webinar, which explores the use of graphic narratives in disseminating research findings.

Angelina Jaya Siew Staff Writer

Drawing

Across the Disciplines is a new series launched by U of T’s Centre for Research & Innovation Support (CRIS). It explores options to showcase research findings through various media formats—including comics and podcasts—other than peer-reviewed journals. On March 9, 2023, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., CRIS held the series’ first event, Comics and Graphic Scholarly Works, which outlined how research is being presented in the aforementioned media. The event featured Shelley Wall, an associate professor at the U of T Temerty Faculty of Medicine, and Ai Taniguchi, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto Mississauga’s (UTM) Department of Language Studies.

The panel explored how comics and graphic narratives are being used to connect with a wider audience, and how scholars from various fields of study—including graphic medicine, creative writing, and linguistics—are integrating these media into their research showcases.

During an interview with The Medium, Dr. Elizabeth Parke, faculty programming development officer at CRIS, highlights that the Comics and Graphic Scholarly Works webinar invited U of T faculty researchers and welcomed early career researchers—including those at the undergraduate and graduate level—to have insightful conversations with each other. All U of T students can watch the webinar’s recording through the library website.

Dr. Parke sheds light on how the idea of creating the Drawing Across the Disciplines series came into fruition, explaining, “The Drawing Across the Disciplines series [came] to us starting with comics because of the great coincidence of CRIS being in the library.” The Gerstein Library contains various forms of print media, which combined with CRIS’s goal of publishing research, spurred the creation of this new series. While not all students may like comic books, CRIS hopes to explore more innovative ways to showcase research in the future, such as data visualizations.

“Ways for people to get research out into the world [to be] read and cited, [to impact] future science [and] future policy, are really important to us at CRIS,” says Dr. Parke. “This is an opportunity to take that next step into a new series [so that we can] think about what it means to do comic work about your research.”

Dr. Parke states that the Drawing Across the Disciplines series encourages students to “start to think about the research space” and gain a deeper understanding of this area. She advises students to “be open to seeing what’s out there and maybe think [about] bringing together two strands of your interests.” She gives the example of how one could combine their practice of photography into the research space.

There are many methods for students to engage with the world of research. “I would encourage everybody to check out the [CRIS] website and join the mailing letter,” says Dr. Parke, encouraging interested students to register for upcoming events hosted by CRIS throughout the year. Additionally, research opportunity programs (ROP) and work study programs present opportunities for UTM students who are interested in conducting research. Most importantly, she emphasizes that students should never hesitate to ask questions—to both faculty and classmates—regarding research spaces.

As there are many research-related events and programs happening at UTM, Dr. Parke encourages students to subscribe to SURGE—the bi-monthly newsletter of UTM’s Office of the Vice Principal Research—to stay informed of what is happening in UTM’s research community. Additionally, she notes that, “The UTM library often runs programming particularly focused [on] undergraduate research and ROP support.”

“I’m just really excited to be launching this new series and to have the opportunity to really showcase the incredible work that’s happening from our faculty,” concludes Dr. Parke.

Bill C-18 to regulate compensation for Canadian media outlets

Kathleen Xu Contributor

In April 2022, the Canadian government proposed Bill C-18—the Online News Act. The bill aims to promote fair compensation for Canadian news outlets by any digital news intermediary—including search engines such as Google—that use their content. Bill C-18 has currently reached its second reading, where the Senate is discussing its principles and potential amendments.

The Government of Canada’s website explains that “search engines and social media services fall within the definition of digital news intermediary,” but messaging services intended for private communication between users are not included in the bill. As Bill C-18 aims to address equity in the news industry, the act provides a framework for negotiations, where influential and dominant digital news intermediaries may have significant bargaining advantages over a news outlet. To determine this, market position and the size of the digital news intermediary will be considered.

News outlets involved in negotiations under the act must be considered a “qualified Canadian Journalism organization,” an example being The Globe and Mail Inc. Alternatively, the outlets must meet various statutory criteria, such as having operations in Canada and two or more journalists regularly employed.

Bill C-18 specifically targets how news content is made available to audiences rather than its production. Brett Caraway, an associate professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology explains the difference in an interview with The Medium: “Google or Facebook is not paying for content that they’re reproducing—this isn’t a copyright case. The bill requires them to pay for a link to an article.”

Professor Caraway explains that the internet and the digital consumption of news has contributed to rising government interest in the role of digital intermediary platforms. “Journalism has been adversely impacted by the internet and the culture of sharing, it’s hard to convince people to pay a fee [to access news sites],” he explains.

In addition to the internet’s easy and free access to content, Professor Caraway explains that targeted advertising has “allowed digital platforms to generate large revenue streams from advertising.” On the other hand, news outlets generate less profit as they are unable to collect large amounts of data for targeted advertising.

Bill C-18 intends to compensate news outlets, but corporations like Google have already shown resistance to such policies. On February 22, 2023, Google began blocking some of its Canadian users from accessing news. In a written statement to The Canadian Press, Google spokesman Shay Purdy stated that Google is “briefly testing potential product responses to Bill C-18 that impact a very small percentage of Canadian users” for around five weeks.

Professor Caraway believes that the restrictions to news content accessibility will become tech giants’ answer to the bill if passed, saying: “The Canadian government is overestimating the significance of the Canadian market to US tech firms.”

As a concluding thought, Professor Caraway raises concern for Canadian news organizations should Bill C-18 be passed. “I just don’t think there’s that much advertising revenue accruing to Facebook and Google from Canada to make it worth their while to negotiate with every Canadian news content creator,” he says. “They’re just going to pull the rug out from underneath Canadian news content creators by making it really difficult to draw traffic to their websites, where advertising margins are [already] so small.”