Alt-weeklies have fallen on hard times recently with the flight of advertising to social media, but Prairie Dog and its Saskatoon sister newspaper Planet S have endured through ingenuity and community support, and co-op ownership is one reason. Photo by D. McFadzean. When television station CHEK in BC’s picturesque capital
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Canadian Dimension: Non-profit news is also infected by corporate ‘pink slime’ in US
“Pink slime’” journalism is a murky world of partisan websites and print outlets that deceptively pose as local news to push political candidates and parties. Photo by lane Becker/Flickr. The explosion of non-profit news in the US seen over the past decade, which a small but growing movement in Canada
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why non-profit news might not be such a great idea
“The Fin de Siècle Newspaper Proprietor” by Frederick Burr Opper, Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1894. Image courtesy the Library of Congress/Wikimedia Commons. Having been down a couple of rabbit holes recently and emerging from the last one covered in pink slime, I am now having sober second thoughts about the non-profit
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Online News Act has been like MAiD for emerging media in Canada
Cartoon by Greg Perry The hare-brained Online News Act has only been in effect for a few months, but already it has proved a disaster for small and emerging news media in Canada, with the country’s Indigenous media perhaps the hardest hit. Just last month, Saskatchewan’s Eagle Feather News, which
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Corporate ownership of media has failed Canadians
For-profit media ownership has decimated journalism in Canada and continues to gouge us with some of the highest prices in the world for telecommunications services such as cellular phones, cable TV and Internet access in order to meet the ever-greater profit expectations of their owners. The private equity players and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Eby says the true part about Big Media out loud
It’s too bad that David Eby, BC’s new NDP premier, isn’t Canada’s prime minister, because at least he isn’t afraid to take on Big Media in this country. We call him The Tall Guy out here on the Left Coast because Eby stands six-foot-seven, but what he had the courage
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Asper’s legacy of media control lives on in HonestReporting Canada
Israel “Izzy” Asper and his son Leonard Asper in the early-2000s. Photo courtesy La Presse. One of the benefits of teaching overseas, as I was forced to do for most of my 20-year career in higher education because I am a bit too critical of Canadian media for most journalism
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Is journalism really dying? No, it’s just evolving
A recent spate of bad news for the news business has triggered yet another round of lamentation that journalism is dying, which is kind of funny when you think about it in the broad sweep of history. When you pull back your camera for a really wide-angle view of what
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Liberal studies students subjected to decidedly illiberal guest speaker
Jen Gerson. freelance writer and co-founder of The Line. Photo from LinkedIn. What kind of Institute for Liberal Studies funds a Calgary-based conservative commentator to spread right-wing conspiracy theories to its students about government censorship of the news? Apparently the one at Vancouver Island University does. The irony is that
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Black Press sale would increase American ownership of Canada’s news media
Yet another Canadian community newspaper chain is going to court under our bankruptcy laws, but again it has nothing to do with it going out of business. This time it is more a legal power play to force its sale to largely American interests over the objections of its minority
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The National Post should be the last to lecture anyone about media bias
There is something profoundly ironic about the National Post lecturing anyone about media bias, as it did on Saturday in a package complete with a distorted front-page picture of Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre under the headline “A more damaging media bias.” Its teaser to the story inside read “Why conservatives
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Bogeyman of federal interference in election coverage explodes on websites, social media
We live in a dangerous age of misinformation and disinformation which can quickly grow into conspiracy theories fueled by partisan online echo chambers. One story that hit the Internet late last week shows just how big a problem this is. The flames of misinformation were lit on Thursday by Ottawa-based
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Progressive journalism outlets come together to form Unrigged
In response to the Online News Act, 20 local, regional and national media outlets, including Canadian Dimension, banded together to launch their own news aggregator, Unrigged. Image courtesy NB Media Co-op. One of these things is not quite like the other ones in the new progressive media coalition Unrigged, specifically
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: CTV News brings in a propagandist to spin the Online News Act
Consultants Mohit Rajhans (L) and Andrew Perez (R) debate the details of how Google’s $100 million commitment to Canadian media will be divided among news organizations. Still image courtesy CTV News/X. A quick compare and contrast shows that while CTV is again doing its best to ensure that the C
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Google’s promised $100 million a year brings hope for Canadian news
Photo by Sebastian Hillig/Flickr Google has proved that it’s not evil after all by coming through with $100 million a year for Canadian news, but history is starting to again repeat itself, as it’s still not enough for some newspaper publishers. The announcement last week that Ottawa had accepted Google’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Sim-sub now being used by Bell to promote sports betting
Bell, which owns CTV and TSN, partnered with US bookmaker FanDuel last year on its FanDuel Sundays segments “to give fans a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes during every game, thanks to contextually relevant insights from FanDuel oddsmakers.” Photo courtesy Tekeyah Singh/X. Canadian television’s biggest money maker
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Ottawa extends, doubles news media bailout
You really have to hand it to the suits at News Media Canada, who have pulled yet another lucrative rabbit out their hat by persuading Ottawa to not only extend its five-year $595 million bailout for two more years, but to more than double its allowed payout per journalist. The
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Trudeau interview reveals uncomfortable truth
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sits down for a one-on-one interview with Village Media Editor Michael Friscolanti in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Photo courtesy Timmins Today. It’s not often that the prime minister of Canada gets his lunch handed to him by a small-town journalist, but that’s exactly what happened last
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canadian media’s promotion of sports betting should have limits
Sports betting activities have proliferated in recent years due to increased visibility through pervasive advertising campaigns. Photo courtesy Play Canada. Rick Dhaliwal was just about to launch into his show-opening banter with co-host Don Taylor on their popular Donnie and Dhali sports talk show on Victoria’s CHEK-TV this past Thursday
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Closure of weeklies leaves communities without a print newspaper
Photo by Ryan Berry/Flickr KAMLOOPS, BC – The final edition of Kamloops This Week was emblazoned with a giant “-30-” on its front page when it appeared last Wednesday as a reminder of the way reporters ended their typewritten articles back in the days before computerized typesetting. The newspaper in
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