Spring is in the air in Vancouver. But even as the warming weather adds a skip to my step, there’s a trend that has me deeply worried. You should be worried too — because local democracy is at risk.
The trigger for my concern: Postmedia, one of Canada’s biggest media companies, kicked off the season with . Fifty-four people, including 29 journalists, are slated to leave the papers by the end of the month. It’s the latest in a string of newsroom downsizing in recent years, driven by falling revenues from advertising and classifieds. It means less and less is invested in local news — like what’s being debated at city hall and whether or not laws being made in Victoria are good for our city.
In 2010, worked at the both newspapers. With these layoffs there will be about 70 left. And this after Postmedia combined the two newsrooms of the Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»Sun and the Province into one before laying off all of the last year. Now, local content for three newspapers is essentially produced by the same people. With TV news revenues in decline, big players like Global News and CTV are also feeling the pinch.
Some days, it feels like a pretty crappy time to be a young journalist. But what has me worried is that, too often, this doesn’t seem to be of much concern to many of my non-journo friends and acquaintances. I don’t blame them. When we’re not watching cute cat videos or Netflix, the Internet, smartphones and social media bring a seemingly endless supply of news and analysis to our fingertips. Activists, politicians, entertainers and others now directly communicate their views on current affairs to their followers online. Not to mention that the Internet has spawned exciting media start-ups and solid, young publications, including ones started in Vancouver, like the Daily Hive, the Tyee, the National Observer and Discourse Media.
But as we’re flooded with information, there is one thing we lack more and more: deep coverage of local news. Whatever it is that gets you going — whether it’s preservation of heritages homes, the quality of our schools and hospitals, affordable housing, the environment, the legalization of marijuana or corruption in the provincial government — there are fewer journalists to keep their eyes on the ball, to conduct investigations and to tell you how it affects you. Those who remain are increasingly tied to daily stories and breaking news, with less and less time to step back and take a hard look at the factors driving social, political and economic problems — or what our politicians are up to. That’s bad for democracy.
Meanwhile, the media seems more and more out of touch with the public. Walk into any newsroom and it is usually overwhelmingly white. Newspapers — long dominated by middle-aged, white men — are offering fewer entry-level opportunities and often keep more senior staff, while letting younger ones go (that’s what the Â鶹´«Ă˝Ół»Sun and Province did last month). This affects what stories get priority, even when those in charge may have the best of intentions, and what opinions are expressed.
In fact, my column — written by a female journalist of colour in her late 20s — is a rare breed. Â
“Canada’s news and general interest columnists are overwhelmingly male, white, straight and middle-aged,” according to a survey last year. Just 37 per cent of the 125 columnists surveyed were women, their median age was 57 and 11 per cent identified as visible minorities, as compared to 19 per cent of Canada’s population.
Hidden behind all this is a class problem. As it gets harder to make it as a journalist, well-off young reporters are more likely to do unpaid or poorly paid internships, and stick it out between contracts, than poorer ones. I certainly got a hand up with parental support. In fact, most young reporters I knew well did too.
Even so, I’m optimistic, at least about the long run. Thanks to technology and the Internet, journalists can hunt down and tell exciting stories in so many new ways. It’s what happens while we figure out a new sustainable journalism model that has me concerned.
But not all of it us up to us in the media. If you don’t already do it, not taking news for granted and paying for some of what you consume is up to you.
In the United States, it took the election of Donald Trump and the role of fake news in his election to alarm the public into buying more newspaper subscriptions so journalists could keep them better informed. Let’s hope we can sort it out long before something like that happens here.
@alia_d
