(Note: Please forward to any folks that might like to look into setting up a paper.) News outlets in Canadian communities are falling like bowling pins. At least 171 media organizations in 138 communities closed between 2008 and this January, says the Local News Research Project, a project led by
Continue readingTag: Canadian Media Crisis
A Different Point of View....: We shouldn’t weep for broke but lying mainstream media
What a difference some 50 years has made in one of Canada’s most important and powerful industries! Back in 1970, the Senate of Canada called an inquiry to investigate the exorbitant profits made by Canada’s handful of media barons. Skinflint media mogul Roy Thomson had declared that owning a radio
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: We shouldn’t weep for broke but dishonest mainstream media
What a difference some 50 years has made in one of Canada’s most important and powerful industries! Back in 1970, the Senate of Canada called an inquiry to investigate the exorbitant profits made by Canada’s handful of media barons. Skinflint media mogul Roy Thomson had declared that owning a radio
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Old Canadian media promote Washington’s agenda word for word
An analysis of Canadian mainstream media’s reporting of U.S. President Obama’s visit to Vietnam recently was so biased that stories may as well have been written by the White House. Just about all traditional media provided Washington’s pre-packaged message to the Canadian public: The good guy Obama was in Hanoi
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Old Canadian media promote Washington’s agenda word for word
An analysis of Canadian mainstream media’s reporting of U.S. President Obama’s visit to Vietnam recently was so biased that stories may as well have been written by the White House.Just about all traditional media provided Washington’s pre-packag…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Old Canadian media promote Washington’s agenda word for word
An analysis of Canadian mainstream media’s reporting of U.S. President Obama’s visit to Vietnam recently was so biased that stories may as well have been written by the White House.
Just about all traditional media provided Washington’s pre-packaged message to the Canadian public:
The good guy Obama was in Hanoi to lift the U.S. arms embargo on Vietnam so it could defend itself against the aggressive Chinese, and do what the U.S. could to help the country modernize. In return, the U.S., one of the worst violators of rights in the world, expects communist Vietnam to improve its human rights record.
Obama’s visit to Vietnam wasn’t an important story for Canadians but, nevertheless, it is a good example of how American interests dominate coverage that appears in our mainstream media.
The Toronto Star apparently was the only major Canadian news outlet to carry a substantial story clearly outlining China’s concerns over the implications of U.S. expanded relations with Vietnam.
The Winnipeg Free Press ran a story that briefly mentioned China’s concerns.
Major news companies covered only one point of view
However, the following news organizations reported the story the way Washington would like to have it: At CTV News Channel and CBC News Network hosts read just about the same story ad nauseam for hours. The stories likely came from The Associated Press, which is strongly biased in favour of the United States.
In addition, CTV News Channel carried an interview with Donald Baker of the UBC Asia Studies Centre in which Baker presented only U.S. objectives.
A Global News reporter in Toronto voiced over a full report that laid out the U.S. point of view. From what I could see, CTV National News did a 30-second voice over, while CBC’s The National apparently didn’t cover the story.
The Globe and Mail reported the basic pro-U.S. story only on its website
The Ottawa Citizen and The Calgary Herald posted a clip of Obama’s speech on their websites, while The Edmonton Journal did not appear to cover the story.
As frequently happens at old media, three papers covered the lighter side of Obama’s visit. The Vancouver Sun, The Montreal Gazette, the and the Halifax Chronicle-Herald reported on Obama’s pre-arranged $6 lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant with celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain.
Important views left out of stories
There was a lot more that could have been reported on the real self-interest objectives of Obama’s visit and the implications for countries in the Pacific region.
It would have been best if all stories could have been better balanced and covered the views of the U.S. and other players from the region.
Just as Obama was announcing the lifting of the arms embargo against Vietnam in Hanoi, China warned the U.S. President not to spark a fire in Asia. The China Daily bluntly stated that Obama’s move was meant to “curb the rise of China.”
The Chinese nationalist Global Times called Obama’s claim that the Vietnam move was not aimed at China “a very poor lie,” adding that it would exacerbate the “strategic antagonism between Washington and Beijing.” It said the U.S.is trying to knit three nets around China — in ideology, in security and in economy and trade — in an attempt to secure its dominance of the region.
Meanwhile, the Russian news service Sputnik quoted U.S. analyst and author Dan Lazare: “Just as the United States has sought to cordon Russia off in the West by ringing it with nearly a dozen hostile states extending from Georgia to the Baltics, “it is plainly intent on doing the same in the east by orchestrating an anti-Chinese alliance from Vietnam to Japan.”
China and Russia are also concerned that the U.S. may be willing to sell deadly, sophisticated arms systems to Vietnam that the Russians have been refusing to sell them, at the request of China. Such sales would escalate militarization in the region. Vietnam may also spend millions to purchase U.S.-made drones.
Corporate media’s failure to cover these stories in a more balanced way can be blamed only slightly on media cutbacks. Any and all of the Chinese and Russian stories referred to here were available to all Canadian media.
The way Canadian mainstream media covered the Vietnam visit is typical of how they report on practically all U.S. international adventures, whether it’s the While House effort to demonize Russia, U.S. interventions in the Middle East, or U.S. denying it is involved in helping overturn elected democracies in Latin America.
The international news coverage of publicly-owned CBC News is only slightly better. For the most part, it uses the same news sources used by corporate media.
Not surprising corporate media likes U.S. message
Considering who owns mainstream media in Canada, it’s not surprising there’s strong support for U.S. policies. Big private media outlets are owned by corporations that also benefit greatly from doing business with the United States. Corporate owners are also ideologically aligned with the right-wing U.S. government. They wouldn’t want their newspapers, TV and radio stations to report stories that contradict U.S. foreign policy.
In addition, most editors know what’s expected of them. Many of them still have their minds set in the years of the Cold War: Ruskies and Chinamen are bad people. The thinking is that communists are out to destroy democracy, so what they say does not deserve to be covered.
The victim in all this is the Canadian public, which is denied learning about the views and positions taken by governments in much of the world. The biased coverage also encouraged people to support U.S. policies and think that there are no worthwhile alternative views.
Can old media be changed to provide a better balance of international news? No. This would require a total revolution occurring in mainstream media, and this isn’t going to happen. Canadians who want better and more balanced news should support the growth of independent media. The future of media exists on the Internet, and several news sites are working hard to provide a strong alternative to old, biased corporate media.
A Different Point of View....: MEDIA IN CRISIS – 1: Why feds should step in to help democracy’s watchdogs
former senior editor at The Toronto Star
How has this happened?
If Justin Trudeau’s apparent concern for our democracy is sincere, he must know that Canadians are not getting the basic information about events and developments that we need to be able to exercise our role as citizens.
Their situation may soon be even worse. If Postmedia cannot meet a $336- million debt payment by August 2017, the chain will likely go bankrupt. Beyond that is another payment of about $36-million by July 2018. At either point the papers may be put on the block.
A Different Point of View....: MEDIA IN CRISIS – 1: Why feds should step in to help democracy’s watchdogs
“I think newspaper readership is strongest among people who are soon going to be dead.” — John Miller former senior editor at The Toronto Star A flourishing, capable news media is the oxygen of democracy. In Canada, our traditional oxygen-providers, the mainstream corporate-owned newspapers, are dying. We need to come up
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: MEDIA IN CRISIS – 2: Citizens, government need to plan now to have quality media in future
Canada’s mainstream media are in a state of incipient meltdown. They no longer deliver the volume or quality of news that Canadians need to be informed about important happenings in their communities, let alone to participate in a healthy democratic process.
The corporations that own traditional newspapers, seeing their revenues and readership dissolve, have opted to cut jobs and slash the content that used to provide their product’s value.
News on the Internet: Everyone will get in on the act! |
This is a serious problem for the way our democracy is supposed to work, and it is not going away.
It is time for governments—federal, provincial, and municipal—to step up and find a way to make sure that Canadian communities once again receive the news and information they need to function properly.
I explained in an earlier column why it would be the wrong choice for governments to support the same media that are failing under profit-driven corporate ownership.
Instead, the best solution to our growing news crisis is for governments to provide the financial support needed so that community-based Internet news sites will be sustainable.
Finding government money for public interest news shouldn’t be a problem. Governments already spend millions of dollars to support the diversity of Canadian magazines, privately owned TV stations, and, of course, the CBC.
We also all need to recognize that the transition to Internet-based delivery for disseminating news and information is only accelerating, will soon be virtually complete.
Instead of thinking about the way news dissemination is now, with newspapers hanging on, we need to envision what conditions will be like in, say 10 years, and begin working toward that time frame now.
How? Here’s what I’d like to see happen.
First, we need to remind ourselves that our governments belong to us. If we are being poorly served, and there’s no other way to get the news we absolutely need, we have a perfect right to demand that government help solve the problem.
Without launching yet another multi-year Royal Commission on the media, the federal government should conduct a tightly focused investigation into the quickest, cleanest, and least-costly form of support for digital non-profit community news.
Scores of independent, digital non-profit news outlets already exist in Canada and the United States. But in neither country have they developed business models that can reliably support serious numbers of journalists and also break even.
In the U.S., the Pew Research Centre reported that 172 digital non-profit news outlets had been launched in the country between 1987 and 2013.
But while the sector showed promise of economic health, many sites “face substantial challenges to their long-term financial well-being.” Several had received substantial start-up money from foundations, but lacked business expertise to broaden their funding once the endowments ran out. [List of US non-profits:]
Canada has at least 20 independent Internet news sites, several providing broad, general information. But none serve a large community.
Highest ranked is The Tyee: it comes in at a distant number 2,911 in viewership among all sites in the country, as measured by the search engine Alexa . In second place is National Observer (at number 3,567). rabble.ca (at number 3,582), comes next, closely followed by the specialist paywall site iPolitics (3,651).
All the main corporate media, which mostly republish the same content as their affiliated newspapers, rank much higher.
In addition to providing support for existing sites, we need to look at supporting new sites to serve communities, cities and even provinces that are not well served.
Research is needed to find out how people who do not seek out news on the Internet can be lured to the new sites.
If citizens feel their area is not being covered by existing media, they need to form a community group to assess the situation.
Groups should attract members who have both business and journalism skills. They need to develop a plan, prepare a draft budget, and assess what funding they can generate on their own.
A well-connected community group should be able to tap into a number of funding sources: sustaining donors, memberships, ad sales, possibly foundations, on-line sales of compatible products such as books, fundraising events, special reports, or even develop relations to do contract for community groups and companies.
In Guelph, where TorStar closed The Guelph Mercury last week, it was unclear whether the paper’s website would continue to operate and whether another small Tor-Star free paper can serve the community.
Citizens in Guelph should assess after a period of time whether they are getting the news they need. If not, perhaps they will need to take action as a community.
There are dozens of non-profit sites in the U.S. that could serve as a model for Guelph and other communities if folks decide to have a site. For instance, the Dallas South News has been operating since 2009, using traditional and citizen journalists as well as bloggers to provide news and commentary to the community’s 500,000 residents.
In general, public support for non-profit community media should be awarded in a competitive process run by an arms-length, non-political body. Some might be awarded based on the number of people who visit a site, or by matching funds contributed by the community.
In addition, a non-profit group could apply to the federal government to obtain charitable tax status for the dissemination of educational material. This way donors would be able to receive a tax receipt.
Furthermore, Tax rules could encourage donations to non-profit and educational journalism.
Whatever vehicle is adopted, it will need to satisfy critics of any government involvement in the media, who will be watching like hawks. There will need to be more research.
What’s already clear is that yesterday’s profit-obsessed media market has failed. A new one needs some support so we all can receive the news and information we need.
A Different Point of View....: MEDIA IN CRISIS – 2: Citizens, government need to plan now to have quality media in future
Canada’s mainstream media are in a state of incipient meltdown. They no longer deliver the volume or quality of news that Canadians need to be informed about important happenings in their communities, let alone to participate in a healthy democratic process. The corporations that own traditional newspapers, seeing their revenues
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Series Discusses Failures of Mainstream Mediaand the Challenges Facing Public Interest Journalism
Mainstream media is failing to meet the needs of Canadians. News organizations lack the resources to cover many important stories and investigative journalism has all but been eliminated. Too often, corporate-owned media continues to filter and censor …
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part 1: Canwest latest ‘media giant’ to exploit news operation
This is the first of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet-based — in Canada.The long-anticipated collapse of the Asper family’s Canwest Global media empire — which included 11 da…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part II:Why we must limit the influence of corporate media
This is the second of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet based — in CanadaWARNING: News from corporate-owned media is bad for our country’s health!Traditional for-profit media,…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part III:Globe’s pro-business reporting example of bad journalism
This is the third of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet based — in Canada. Staff reporters at the country’s most prominent business news publication, The Globe…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part IV:Sustainable independent media needs a breakthrough
This is the fourth of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet based — in Canada.Canadians might be surprised to discover the difference between the content of independent media and…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part V:Could a ‘mini-paper’ nip at the heels of mainstream press?
This is the fifth of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet based — in Canada.While I have many criticisms of traditional, corporate-owned newspapers, I am still saddened to some …
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part VI:Independent media advocates must develop creative news sites
This is the sixth of a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet based — in Canada.Fully a dozen years after the Internet began growing and launching thousands of exciting projects aro…
Continue readingA Different Point of View....: Part VII:Funding for Non-profit Media or Public Interest Activities
This is the last in a seven-part series that will address the need to develop independent media — print, broadcast and Internet based — in Canada.Today – with the mainstream media failing to adequately serve the public in many parts of the countr…
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