Time to look back on the news stories and PR snafus that had us all talking and tweeting in 2019. What can we learn? And, what trends can we expect in 2020?

We take a deep dive into artificial intelligence and its impact on journalism around the world. How is it shaping news production and should we be scared that the robots are taking over?

With shifting sands in media and communications, what’s the best strategy to hire and get hired for the jobs in the middle? Are journalists & communications people becoming interchangeable? What are the skills young people need now to survive in the future?

The volume and variety of podcasts has increased dramatically over the last year. What’s the point though if everyone has a pod? How can podcasters breakout? More importantly, can you make money at it?

What is the current state of fact-checking both in and beyond the newsroom. Who is ultimately responsible to get things right? Does anyone care about the truth anymore?

Is the volume and velocity of content rewiring our brains & attention spans to the point where creativity might be choked? How can we protect creativity in a noisy world?

Trust in CEOs is low. Purpose-driven business is lacking. The audience is in control. In a world where, power does not necessarily mean influence how should business leaders respond?

How is social media use impacting audiences? How is the audience behaving online? From performance anger, to trolling, to stress around an online profile, how is it impacting PR & journalism?

The news moves by so fast that it’s difficult to see patterns and trends while we’re in the thick of it – so the end of the year is a good time to pause and reflect on the world around us. Join host Sophie Nadeau as she looks back at 2018 and takes a leap forward into 2019 trends with two favourites from our first season: Columbia Journalism Review’s Mathew Ingram and the City of Toronto’s chief communications officer Brad Ross.

Being original has never been easy. And in a world where everybody gets a channel, what does it mean to be creative? We’re long past the influence of Mad Men telling us what’s cool and fresh. It’s also never been noisier. What does it take to cut through? On this episode of the Middle, is creativity dead? Join host Sophie Nadeau as she dives into creativity in the digital age with Google Canada's Miles Savage and Edelman Canada's Andrew Simon – two guys who haven’t given up on chasing a brilliant ideas. Miles Savage is the agency lead at Google Canada. He works at the intersection between the advertising agencies and Google, supporting the creative work that flows through the platform. Before working at Google, he worked with many of the brands you know and love, including McDonald's and Unilever. Andrew Simon is the Chief Creative Officer for Edelman Canada. He is our arbiter of our great ideas, with a career’s worth of advertising and creative experience on both sides of the border. He is redefining what creative persuasion looks like in an evolving media ecosystem. "Creativity doesn't need to be defined by a channel and I think that's the biggest problem that exists today – we all try to put things in boxes. That's where creativity is getting watered down from what it really is." (Miles Savage)