Photo from iStock Canadian news media could ironically owe millions to Google and Meta instead of the other way around under the Online News Act regulations proposed by Ottawa late last week. Tech news website The Logic cited an unnamed government official as confirming that the platforms could get credit
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Canadian Dimension: Postmedia uses junk science to make its case for digital millions
Image from Pixabay Non-scholars tend to be impressed by studies that are seemingly scientific but on closer inspection simply don’t hold water. They are often offered by our news media in pursuit of government largesse, and our politicians and bureaucrats usually fall for them. A good example was the National
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Amazon donation to UofT follows ‘greenmail’ strategy of media companies
Photo by Robert Scoble/Flickr Most journalists are so overwhelmed nowadays by the daily grind in short-handed newsrooms—a phenomenon Dean Starkman dubbed “the hamster wheel”—that they don’t have much time for investigative reporting. That makes it even more delicious when an enterprising writer occasionally pulls back the curtain on how things
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Competition Bureau action against Meta would confirm that the fix is in
Photo by Dima Solomin/Unsplash With Meta already blocking news in Canada, hope is slipping away that Google might still be brought onside with the Online News Act, which one critic now describes as “the most spectacular legislative failure in Canada’s living political memory.” Google’s pending exit from the news distribution
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s newspaper chains badly overplayed their hand in attempted tech shakedown
Photo by Sue Thompson/Flickr As the staredown continues between the Trudeau government and digital giants Meta and Google, the awful reality seems to be finally sinking in that the Online News Act, formerly Bill C-18, has been nothing less than a “massive policy blunder,” as Internet law expert Michael Geist
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s old media cling to power, profits like Putin
After Shaw acquired Freedom Mobile in 2016, the company targeted Rogers, Bell and Telus, including in this 2019 ad campaign depicting the big three as ‘monolithic wireless.’ Photo courtesy Freedom Mobile. Institutionalized corruption at a country’s highest levels inevitably allows its oligarchs to enrich themselves. This is as true in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ottawa blinks on Bill C-18 as Postmedia-Nordstar merger talks mercifully break off
Before a sudden about-face over the weekend, Canada’s media seemed to be imploding. Photo from 123RF. What a difference a week makes on the Canadian media rollercoaster. The last time we were able to watch the long-running soap opera that has been Bill C-18, the Online News Act, Google and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ottawa, Meta escalate schoolyard spat over Bill C-18
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodríguez. Photo from Twitter. The schoolyard spat between Ottawa and Big Tech went to another level this week after Facebook’s parent company Meta announced it would take its marbles and go home, refusing to carry links to Canadian news stories in order to comply with the new
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Postmedia-NordStar merger may actually be an opportunity to help restore local news competition
The National Post’s building in downtown Toronto. Photo by Michael Wilson/CBC. Postmedia Network may be trying to pull another fast one in a desperate attempt to stay afloat, but if Ottawa is smart it will put its foot down and say “we won’t get fooled again.” The only problem is
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Bell’s latest layoffs and closures show Canada’s news media need a major revamp
Photo by A Great Capture/Flickr The suits at Bell Canada have once again demonstrated that they have no concept of the social responsibility they owe Canadians for being allowed to profit so richly from communication in this country. As a result, 1,300 more workers—or fully six percent of its Bell
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Google and Facebook may be stealing, but not from news media
Google and Facebook are stealing money, but they’re not taking it from newspapers—they have been stealing from their own customers. Photo from Flickr. Are Google and Facebook stealing? It seems they are, but not news stories, as newspaper publishers claim. The digital platforms have been taking advertising away from newspapers
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Old media may need Bill C-18, but new media need Google and Facebook
The future of newspapers in Canada is in jeopardy if the government doesn’t quickly pass Bill C-18, publishing company executives told Senate hearings into the Online News Act this week. A second panel made up of digital entrepreneurs, however, said that online news media will be in jeopardy if Google
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trust us? Whether it’s government or media, you have simply got to be kidding
Research shows that more than 60 percent of Canadians believe journalists are purposely trying to mislead them, with government not far behind at 58 percent. Photo by Thomas Hawk/Flickr. Special rapporteur David Johnston’s recent report into alleged Chinese election interference said basically “trust me, there’s nothing to see here,” which
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Is this the end of press freedom in Canada?
The ruling Liberals are seemingly doing all they can to bring the Internet under their thumb. Photo from Flickr. Canada remarkably blipped up slightly in this year’s press freedom rankings released by Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) last week to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. We still languish in RSF’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Google argues for media fund to support Canadian journalism
Federal estimates put the digital platforms potentially on the hook for more than $300 million a year in payments if Bill C-18, the Online News Act, passes. Photo from Shutterstock. Google would rather contribute to a fund supporting Canadian news, similar to one it set up recently in Taiwan, than
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Rule #1: Canada’s media bosses always get what they want
A Rogers store offering services from Rogers Wireless. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. The recent government approval of the Shaw purchase by Rogers Communications confirms a seeming iron rule in this country: our media bosses always get their way, no matter how disastrous the consequences might be for Canadians. As a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Financialization is the latest business model for Canada’s media
The Toronto Star sign after being stripped from the 1 Yonge Street building. Photo by Fareen Karim/BlogTO. Canadian media have traditionally been highly lucrative businesses. Some of the country’s richest families made their fortunes in the newspaper industry, including the Thomsons (Globe and Mail) and the Irvings (Brunswick News). Television
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada may be on a path to digital totalitarianism
Photo from Unsplash Another breadcrumb has landed which suggests that Canadians may be on a path to digital authoritarianism, or even totalitarianism, if some politicians in Ottawa get their way. First the standing committee of Canadian Heritage began a legislative spree to regulate the Internet. Now the committee’s MPs want
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Google has made our online lives easier, but we may all be about to become a victim of its success
Google’s headquarters for European operations in Dublin, Ireland. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Google is so successful that it may be about to become a victim of its own popularity, and Canadians may all suffer as a result. One of its many free services might be going away soon because the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: MPs pushing the Online News Act don’t know how the Internet works
Illustration by The Project Twins Eager viewers tuned in online Monday morning to watch as Google Canada head Sabrina Geremia was called before the Parliamentary committee that passed Bill C-18, the Online News Act, late last year. Some viewers out on the west coast, like your humble correspondent, even got
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