Abstract

Valuable journalism—a concept that aims to enhance civic engagement and news consumption by making journalism a more enjoyable and meaningful experience—offers a potential response to the contemporary challenges faced by journalism as an institution. This research-creation project explores how this approach can be applied through the production of a podcast that tells stories from the Latin American music scene in Montréal.
Rooted in the personal experiences of Hispanic musicians, the podcast navigates themes of immigration, identity, cultural clashes, and adaptation, while highlighting these artists’ contributions to Montréal’s cultural life. This project highlights lifestyle journalism’s political significance and relevance. It responds to the lack of media coverage of Hispanic musicians in the city and examines how music journalism can amplify the voices and traditions of the diaspora in a way that is both informative and entertaining. It also explores how, through the use of engaging storytelling, music journalism can educate a non-Hispanic audience about Latin American music, its instruments, its cultural significance, and the lived experiences of the people who create it. This project demonstrates how entertainment and information can coexist to create journalistic pieces with social and political impact—promoting empathy and appreciation for the Hispanic community in a context where anti-immigration discourse, particularly against Latin American people, is spreading rapidly.