Media Works is a project funded by CWA Canada Associate Members, and done in collaboration with the National Campus and Community Radio Association (NCRA)and the Canadian University Press (CUP).

Check out the Media Works Handbook, which aims to inform media workers of their rights and to improve labour reporting, at www.media-works.org

      Produced and edited by Arman Aghbali. Supervised by Elissa Matthews

Starting Up examines the world of early startups as they edge their way from obscurity to supremacy. The documentary follows Rachel Pautler and her team at Suncayr, alongside Sami Dalati and Anna Hu at Brizi, each with a unique idea and potential. Together they describe the life of a startup founder, including the long hours, the personal sacrifice and sheer dedication needed to be successful

But the doc goes beyond startups and explores our cultural fascination with tech innovation and entrepreneurship. Experts explain why startups have become a sort of talisman for Canadian politicians, and how students came to clamour for entrepreneurial programs at universities. Plus how do we address an industry that lacks diversity and people willing to fund these early companies, the latter of which has led many a founder to move south of the border.

Starting Up finds the spot in between the startup lifestyle and why we want to have it.

CKUW - The Growth of Feminism in Local 832 

Written and produced by Scott Price. Production help from Kent Davies.

This radio documentary looks at the growth of feminism in United Food and Commercial Workers local 832.When one looks at United Food and Commercial Workers local 832 today you will see a large amount of women involved in the local. From rank and file members, union reps, the executive board and the union executive itself. While today we may take this for granted this was not always the case. Starting in the late 1970s feminist activists started to push and change the situation for women in UFCW local 832. What was going on in UFCW local 832 mirrors what was happening in the union movement across Canada. It was through feminist activists struggles both within the workplace and within unions that brought about significant change that we can see today. The documentary is based on work that has been ongoing at the Oral History Center at the University of Winnipeg on UFCW local 832.

The Doc was produced, researched, edited by Liz McArthur.

“Does gender impact the professional life of people working within the media in Victoria? Through interviews with two transgender broadcasters, we will look at what it means to transition in the public eye and how gender does or does not affect the professional life of two people working in campus/community and commercial radio. A human rights expert, Women’s Collective Coordinator, and MP Randall Garrison also talk about their work in connection with transgender labour rights.”

    Speaking the Unpsoken

Documentary credit: Tiffany Lam and Carolin Huang, CKUT Radio 90.3FM

Jacob Spitzer for music editing

Speaking the Unspoken aims to critically examine McGill University’s celebrated employment practices. It focuses mainly on issues of employment "casualization" and racial discrimination. Though human rights complaints, union strikes, and disputes over McGill's employment practices have been recurrent, many individual employees are concerned that voicing their experiences may result in repercussions due to their employment precarity. This documentary thus seeks to challenge McGill's monopoly over what can be seen and heard about the institution's practices, reclaiming the conversation on employment discrimination that has been strained, at best. In circulating these discussions with employees, union members and community organizers, we hope that this project will incite more conversations and actions to address the systemic issues in employment at McGill.

Living Wage & Labour Equity in Community Media

Obediya W. Jones-Darrell, Madeline Taylor and Maegan Thomas

We began our project interested in what members of the leadership of community radio in Canada knew and thought about the idea of a living wage. We were also interested in contextualizing wage and labour practices in community radio in the wider community (grassroots or volunteer driven) media labour landscape. To do this we spoke to station staff across the country, leaders of other community media organizations, and researchers of various labour areas, from various critical points of view. In that process, what drew our attention were the voices speaking to what wage based equity strategies do not address, and what they may exacerbate. These voices are calling for a conversation and we tried our best here to hear and engage. So this is not so much a document of explanation. It is a document of where this team of producers are at this point in time in our thinking and knowledge about the living wage and labour equity in the context of the NCRA. 

We'd like to note creating this document taught us invaluable lessons about nearly every level of community media production practice. We look forward to continuing these lessons and conversations in more depth. Thank you to Media Works for this opportunity, and thank you so much for listening.