From WHOM do you get your news?
Thinking critically about whose voices we hear in the media
This is the second post of this series on local news. If you haven’t already, you can read the first post, I Think We Need Local News More Than Ever and I always welcome your thoughts!
When I started to plan this post, I anticipated writing about the places we are getting information from in the absence of local newspapers. Social media, the radio, word of mouth. A small part of me was also hoping I may find some folks who had figured out a model that works for local news today.
But as I started to explore this topic, I realized this is more an issue of “who” we are getting our news from than “where”.
I started my research before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. I always intended this series to look at local news in rural Ontario, but I cannot ignore the atrocities of what is happening right now. It is not something that is just happening “over there”. The grief, fear and sadness for friends and family members in our communities is real. The horrific hate crimes motivated by the war and misinformation are also real.
I have learned the “fog of war” is typical in the early days of conflicts, but I am also reading it is far more pronounced in this case.
On October 9, I saw a Wired article about the volume of disinformation on “X” far exceeding what fact checkers have experienced in the past.
Canadaland did some fact-checking of their own last week and then discussed the challenges with reporting on the war at length in this week’s episode of Shortcuts
In this episode and talking about the reporting on the Hamas attack on the village of Kfar Aza, Pacinthe Mattar states, “the way this has been reported on, especially in Western media has been so unnuanced…. There isn’t the kind of complexity of, this is a grotesque thing to be talking about. But the irresponsible way in which the story was reported facilitated, encouraged, paved the way for further collective punishment of millions of people who have nothing to do with the actions of Hamas…”
It’s an important listen to understand the need for nuanced reporting, and the challenge of doing so in a war zone, like Gaza, where there are so few protections already for journalists.
As a result, much of the reporting is coming from Israel or local civilians, trying to bear witness and share what is happening while also trying to stay alive. It goes without saying this is an unfair burden and all the cracks in the news media are showing right now in this conflict.
So, this is on my mind as I have written this week’s post. I remain so grateful for the safety and security I enjoy here and do not for a second wish to downplay the horror or compare lack of reporting here in my small town, on things which though important, seem quite trivial compared to the fog of war. The state of the world weighs on me. My only hope is having compassion and caring for our neighbours is a small difference we can have locally that may butterfly effect on a larger scale.
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He Who Controls the Message…
In the early days of the Internet, it seemed like information had been democratized in a way we’d never experienced. No longer did you need a publisher or an editor to accept your pitch. Anyone with a modem and a computer and something to say could put it out there in the world.
We celebrated this, and people started blogging and posting on social media. Lifestyle bloggers and influencers took the place of the lifestyle writers at magazines and newspapers, and companies began posting their own content. There was no longer a case to advertise in the lifestyle section, where a big portion of news publications’ revenue came from. And without the ad revenue, the news publications starved.
At the same time, social media platforms were evolving and gearing their algorithm to more eyeballs, which meant prioritizing the most “click worthy” content, regardless of source or fact.
In twenty years, we’ve witnessed an explosion of people and content being shared online and at the same time, a centralization of power worse than ever before. It’s literally a few people who have control over all this information, how it gets shared and who can view it.
We were duped by the vectoralist class, as Tara McMullin refers to them. These are the folks who own the platforms that are “vectors of information”.
Thus far, our government’s effort to do something about this seems to have backfired, despite there being a sense from some that government needs to do something.
Earlier this month, I chatted with Shauna Rae, a journalist and former radio broadcaster turned podcaster and owner of Radar Media (not to be confused with the TLC celebrity with the same name). She has been trying to amplify the voices of people underrepresented in rural communities and the rural Canadian news landscape.
I was surprised to learn in a small study she did on the news consumption habits of rural Canadians, 28% of respondents felt it was the government’s role to fund local news coverage. Granted, the study was only with seventeen people (I said it was small), it still kind of shocked me, given the rhetoric today coming out of many rural circles around the media, that the top funding source suggested was the government.
And as it turns out, there is a fund for local journalism called the Local Journalism Initiative and some local, independent publications have accessed it to pay reporters. My friend Andrew also commented on my last post to remind me there is also a tax credit for digital news subscriptions.
The catch, as Shauna informed me, is that organizations need to go through a rigorous process to be a “qualified Canadian journalist organization” for their subscriptions to be eligible tax credits and to accept large, philanthropic donations.
I liken it to an organic certification for news organizations essentially; you have to be big enough or have enough resources (money and people) to afford the process to be certified that you are doing the things you’re already doing.
Not surprisingly, there’s no small, local, independent organizations on the list.
And in Canada, we don’t have the funding to do investigative journalism that exists south of the border. So, where educational institutions and large foundations are providing news organizations with significant dollars to do this work in the U.S., it just doesn’t exist here.
And even if you can get your story out there, then what?
This article referenced on Shortcuts goes into greater detail on the bias within media organizations that reflects the wider racist, colonial foundation our society has been built on.
“There is the lack of trust toward the Black, Indigenous, and other racialized people whose stories we are supposed to cover as a reflection of the world we live in. Then there is the mistrust of the Black, Indigenous, and other racialized journalists who try to report on those stories.” Says author Pacinthe Mattar.
I realized in conversation with Shauna I have been over-romanticizing newspapers. I have lulled myself into a belief that if we had one, everyone would be better informed, more aware and more engaged in social and community matters.
But in truth, even if we had coverage, it doesn’t mean it will be read. “People don’t read,” is such a common phrase is my life and has been for some time.
And at worst, it may not hold anyone accountable or provide balanced coverage anyway as Rae points out;
“The things that we’ve lost [in journalism] is number one is trust. Who trusts journalism? Who can you trust? And who gets the right to tell stories? Who gets the right to tell news? If you are not financially supported, how do you get your story told?”
So Where Do We Go From Here?
We are in a time of great change when it comes to information and technology. What exists today could quite easily be gone tomorrow with a quick change of code.
Even without the ability to share news links, Facebook is not likely going away anytime soon. We have grown reliant on it for everything from classifieds to community events. Local “buy/sell” groups are the community billboard, for better but also largely for worse, in my opinion.
The algorithm’s bias towards controversy fuels negativity and division. Not to mention, if we’re only learning about community issues from people’s opinions, then we’re likely not getting the full picture.
Blocking news dealt an immediate and significant blow to many news organizations in Canada. A month ago, the “Owen Sound Hub” editor, Anne Finlay-Stewart, shared their website traffic had dropped from 20,000 clicks (when other news outlets’ links were blocked but theirs still worked) on an article to “no more than 300 now”.
On October 2, Finlay-Stewart shared in a post about a series, “We All Belong: Stories of Lived Experiences”, that Facebook would not allow her to share;
“We don’t know how long this fight with the tech giants will continue, but we can see the impact it is already having on community, credibility and civil discourse.
Being dependent on Facebook limits your ability to be accurately informed about your own community.”
She goes on to recommend bookmarking your favourite sources and subscribing to their services, as I also recommend. And I have said before and will again, as a business it’s also important to keep advertising with these sources. We have a lot of radio in our area still, and they are constantly getting creative with packages to have options for small businesses.
I realize there’s many parts of the country where CBC Radio is a critical news source, but my observation of this rural area is that is more for the “urban folks” wheras local AM radio still reigns. From longer commutes and travel times to the need for winter road and cancellation reports, the radio serves a large audience here.
Even local radio folks know the market is challenging though and stacked against them. Rae believes podcasts and subscription-based services will be the future and looks forward to working with other rural-based news journalists to share information and stories relevant to rural Canadians.
“Using a microphone is an easier way for me to influence change, than pointing fingers. Letting other people’s voices tell the story is my journey.” Says Rae.
I reflect on how much in-depth coverage I get from shows like Canadaland and CBC’s Frontburner, even if they are not local.
The Owen Sound Current, a new, online news subscription service will be using this platform, Substack, when it launches next month. They are still figuring out all the details, and it will be interesting to see how it works. If anyone can figure it out though, I trust it will be Miranda and Maryann. Disclosure - I have pitched to write a column for it.
Increasingly, I think we’re realizing the common held belief and push to “scale” is actually part of the problem and not the solution, as previously thought. Small and local may actually be more sustainable, but we don’t have to figure it out all on our own. In this age where we’re all connected, we can figure out another way of sharing well researched, thorough news information with one another.
What do you think? What have you seen working well? Is this the same question I asked last time? What will you do when your Google Newsfeed no longer works in Canada? Drop me your thoughts in the comments and follow Shauna’s work here!
Weekly Link Round-up
What I'm reading, listening too and generally enjoying and challenged by this week
A good portion of this week was spent riding shot gun in a car on the winding, curving mountain roads of São Miguel, so I did not read as much. Yes, I get hugely carsick. I did finish “How to Be Famous”, which I did not anticipate to contain as much sex as it did. So, you’ve been warned if you are planning to check it out.
The Expanding News Desert - Related to the above, I’ve had this bookmarked for sometime and finally gave a read. It’s US-based but relevant.
University life in 1922 - One of the delights of this platform is finding people you know in real life on it. Local musical entrepreneur Lauren Best shares this dive into her great grandmother’s yearbook and I’m intrigued to know more.
To Be (or Not to Be) Online - Another Offline Time post that I read on the plane home and really enjoyed.
Normal Gossip - “Fun” podcasts are not something I have an abundance of some when I came across this show, the episode “Surprise! The Plant Story” caught my attention. It was an enjoyable listen while I was painting in the restaurant last week.
So glad to see my post mentioned by Jen... she's one of the reasons I'm on substack. Seeing local online matters, a lot.