DM@X

Day Two at DM@X ’26 goes deep 🎯 Morning sessions dig into supporting equity-deserving groups, FAST and broadcast news, Canada/US relations, and the rise of vertical formats, short form, and the creator economy, plus breakfast and a networking lunch. In the afternoon, we turn to Indigenous broadcasting, online harms, new discovery tools and ticketing platforms, algorithms, and practical frameworks for confronting anti-Black racism in Canada’s cultural sector. 🗓 Sat, Feb 7, 2026 · 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM 📍 Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, U of T Be in the room! Registration link in bio.

Day One at DM@X ’26 is all about setting the stage 🎬 Kick off with Nordicity’s big-picture trends, dive into cultural sovereignty, social finance, and AI in Canadian music, then wrap up with a networking reception to meet fellow creators, students, and industry folks. 🗓 Fri, Feb 6, 2026 · 2–7 PM 📍 Walter Hall, Faculty of Music, U of T Save your spot now! Link in bio.

🎬📡 What does the future of Canadian media look like? DM@X 2026 – Digital Media at the Crossroads is a two-day conference where funders, guild leaders, industry execs, creators, policymakers, and scholars come together to talk about what’s changing – and what that means for the people who study, teach, fund, and make content. Over the two days, we’ll dig into: • The Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) • AI + data and creative work • New funding and commissioning realities • Labour, rights, and equity in Canadian content • How we measure and find audiences today 🗓 February 6–7, 2026 📍 Walter Hall, Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto 🎟 Pricing: • Students – $37.76 (all-in) • Faculty/creators – $259.25 • General – $626.50 🔗 Head to the link in our bio to learn more and register. Tag someone who should be in the room 👇

Our final panel of DM@X was a presentation by the Black Screen Office, who have created the first ever framework for confronting anti-Black racism in Canada’s cultural sector. This framework aims to address the unique experiences of Black Canadians that have historically been ignored, dismissed, or folded into general diversity narratives. This framework was developed for a number of reasons, prompted first by Jenkinson’s recognition that within the cultural sector there was “a desire to act, but none of it was grounded. It was coming from reaction rather than intention.” While many organizations turned to action plans to address anti-Black racism in the Canadian cultural sector, such plans are project based, whereas “sustainable plans need policies that are baked into the foundation of organizations.” In the process of its development, the policy was tested at three different cultural organizations. This allowed the BSO to identify who owns policies and who is accountable for them to further fine tune this framework. To learn more, you can access the Black Screen Office Anti-Black Racism Policy Framework here: https://bso-ben.ca/abr-policy-framework/ #digitalxroads

For the panel “The Algorithmic Editor: The Future of Discoverability,” panelists Dr. Afsoon Soudi, Dr. Ope Akanbi, and Brian Bright, moderated by Lorena Escandon, spoke about how audiences are finding content and what role platforms play in enabling the content we get. Currently, audiences are finding content through search and algorithms. Who gets what content - technically speaking, algorithms work on the reinforcement learning model. LLMs receive feedback from their environment and then give you similar types of content. This leads to the philosophical question - who says what “good” content is? - currently it is determined by the organizations that make the most money unfortunately. This is where educators need to come in. Media literacy has become the need of the hour. Creators are definitely stakeholders in populating content on platforms. However, they do not have the power in designing these tools or mechanisms of information sharing. They are, at times, at the mercies of algorithms. Eventually, the true power lies in the hands of the consumers. While children need the most protection, it's the adults in the room that need to be informed on the effects of social media on their minds and daily lives. #digitalxroads

Our final Next Voices presentation is by Parmeet Bhatia and Avneesh Mehta, who presented their vision for a centralized ticketing platform for Toronto’s entertainment industry. Toronto is known for its vibrant entertainment scene, from concerts and film screenings to gallery exhibitions. Yet information about these events is often scattered across multiple platforms, making it harder to discover the city’s hidden gems alongside its most well-known offerings. Their pitch proposed a unified funnel intended to transition a user from event discovery, booking, and finally post event review for indie venues. They take inspiration from ‘BookMyShow,’ a centralized booking application in India. This model, titled ‘BookItToronto’ aims to fill the gap left by the fragmentation of awareness tools and small scale booking platforms to create a centralized entertainment hub. #digitalxroads

With 77% of youth owning smartphones and many using social media daily or even sleeping with their phones; DM@X turned its focus to the growing issue of online harm. The panel featured Amy Awad, who leads the Digital and Creative Marketplace Frameworks branch at the Department of Canadian Heritage, alongside Luke Stark, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. Awad explained how Bill C-63 evolved through extensive consultation, from ministerial roundtables to parliamentary discussion, ultimately expanding from a child-focused bill into a broader framework addressing online harms. While the bill ultimately died, Award feels that “the government remains interested in this type of regime, but it will need to be recalibrated for our new reality.” This new reality includes the integration of artificial intelligence (in particular, chatbots) into most social media platforms. Stark believes that “the implementation of AI chatbots into social media will only magnify its existing harms.” This isn’t a full scale argument against LLMs, however, as “there are ways to engage with LLMs that do not include chatbot interfaces.” Stark proposed that the ability to be persuaded to undertake harmful behaviour at a chatbot's prompting poses the largest threat, and should therefore see the majority of the restriction. #digitalxroads

The DM@X conference continues with a powerful panel on the under-reporting of issues in Indigenous communities by reporter Donna Sound and Journalist Gabby McMann, moderated by reporter Iman Kassam. The three major points touched on were the importance of taking the time to prioritize community, transparency, and accountability when approaching Indigenous stories. Sound explained how prior negative experiences with exploitative stories have made Indigenous communities wary of engaging with traditional news outlets. The authentic connections necessary to write accountable stories can not be rushed to fit strict publishing deadlines. As for transparency, Kassam noted that out of a twenty minute interview, as little as a fifteen second sound bite may be used. Setting expectations as to content use, and offering the opportunity to say no is necessary to maintain journalistic transparency. Finally, for accountability, admitting shortcomings and being willing to take feedback is crucial to accurate reporting. When discussing the lack of Indigenous voices in the newsroom, Sound explained that “there has to be the will” on behalf of major Canadian news outlets to both seek out Indigenous voices and ensure the environment of those newsrooms are conducive to their success. Finally, they discussed the "hypocrisy of claiming journalistic objectivity,” pointing out that what is considered to be objective is based on the expectations of those who founded the (often colonial) system. #digitalxroads

Our final panel of the morning welcomed six subject matter experts on short form content, moderated by Dr. Sara Diamond. Each brought a different perspective to what the rise of the short form economy means, even down to the definition of what short form content is. Despite deviations in definitions, all were in agreement that the rise in short form content represents a shift to reflecting user behaviour trends, meeting viewers where they are and how they prefer to consume content. A crucial takeaway from this panel is that this content boom is only the start. As was noted by Dan Fill, when any new style of media is born, the quality is often lacking but will become more refined as time progresses. He predicts that a similar evolution will take place with short form content. Of course, this rapidly evolving market poses a unique challenge for Canadian policymakers, as by the time a policy is created, “the market has completely changed.” (Rodger) Conversations also touched on Canada’s unique role in the short form economy, being one of the only countries to offer some form of support for short form content as early as 2010. (Douglas) Despite this support, and a notable output of Canadian media, all bespoke short form content apps currently come from abroad. (Tablizo) As short form content continues to grow, Canada will need to invest even further into this economy to get the greatest possible returns. (Zhou) #digitalxroads

Up next is a panel on US/Canada relations, hosted by past Dean of Western University Lisa Henderson. Speakers Angela Murphy (Foreign Desk Editor, The Globe and Mail) and Mark Rendell (Economics Reporter, The Globe and Mail) broke down the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States as we navigate Trump’s second mandate. Murphy explained that she receives a lot of feedback questioning why she gives any airtime to Trump, particularly, as noted by Henderson that much of what he says are objectively untrue. Her apt response is that “he is one of the most powerful leaders in the world. What he says matters, and we have to report it… and fact check it as best we can” Rendell was clear that we should listen carefully to the claims Trump makes, and think analytically about whether or not a claim he is making is truly actionable, or is “just bluster.” As he points out, “Sometimes it's just about knowing he has sent these threats 4 times before and hasn’t followed through.” #digitalxroads

The second of our Next Voices speaker sessions welcomed Steve Ilkiw and Marlene Murphy. With the rise of Fast Ad-Supported Television (FAST), Ilkiw and Murphy explored how news is consumed across these emerging platforms, comparing them with more traditional outlets such as cable news. Ilkiw explained the virtues of FAST-supported streaming, stating that “FAST gets you everything you want for the low low price of watching commercials [and that] cost sensitivity is winning out over user experience.” He also noted the decline in Canadian youth’s interest in watching the news, preferring to receive their news from social media despite the risks of misinformation, disinformation, and becoming stuck in echo chambers. Murphy offers a way out of this trend through the proposition of a single centralized FAST platform where Canadians can find all news outlets. She outlines several possible ways this could take place, whether it be hosted on an existing platform, forming a new platform as a consortium, or advocating for a publicly run platform. These suggestions take advantage of current Canadian user trends, while offering a potential way to lead Canadians back to traditional news outlets. #digitalxroads

DM@X Day 2 kicked off with a panel on ‘To Kill A Tiger’ (2022), a social documentary whose genesis was that of exploring masculinity in an Indian context. Filmmaker Nisha Pahuja discussed the hurdles of getting this type of documentary produced, both in seeking out funding and acquisition. As was noted by Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) Executive Julian Carrington, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fund documentaries on politically engaged topics due to “resistance based in fear.” The conversation then turned to the refreshed CanCon standards, and what it means to support Canadian filmmakers in expressing global stories. #digitalxroads