It has been another bad year for journalism. More than 20 newspapers in Canada ceased to exist in 2016 in response to declining advertising revenues. Postmedia cut the equivalent of 800 full-time staff while combining newsrooms in Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa. Among the many papers that closed last year was Nanaimo Daily News, which had served its community for 141 years.
The collective losses mean there are fewer journalists looking out for the public interest in communities across Canada.
Public relations professionals now outnumber journalists four to one in Canada. This means there are fewer reporters to check out the messages that governments and business are pumping out.
Many people are indifferent to the loss of journalists. “Why should I care, I get my news from the social media,” they say.
The Internet is definitely a force, although not always a force for good where news is concerned.
Perhaps it is more than coincidence that there is a rise in concern about fake news. The topics include everything from political events, crimes, deaths and even killer clowns – stories that simply were not true. But try to tell that to the scores of people who will argue with you. After all, it must be true, they read it on Facebook.
A Stanford Graduate School of Education study on online news literacy released late last year raises some alarm. The study, involving more than 7,000 students in 12 U.S. states, showed students have trouble judging credibility of information online. They don’t always recognize bias of social messages, have trouble distinguishing between advertising and news or even identifying the source of information.
The authors suggested that democracy is at risk because of the ease with which untruths can be disseminated online.
Even more disturbing is the indication that truth no longer matters to many people.
Oxford Dictionaries declared the word of the year was post-truth. This is an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion that appeals to emotion and personal belief,” Oxford says.
All of this makes the loss of journalists all the more disturbing. Journalists individually and collectively act in the public interest. They shine lights in the dark corners. They ask the hard questions and they report on both what happens and explain why it matters. They are curious and nosy and want to know how government at every level is spending your money. They help to keep you informed about things you are too busy to check into. Journalists put news in perspective. They remind us what election promises were kept or broken.
Journalists are not perfect. They do have blind spots. But who would you prefer to trust for your news? Would you rather trust the person that is pitching for one company, or a political party who is appealing to your emotions? Or would you want to listen to someone who is genuinely trying to report all sides, consider the impact of that information, and convey it in a way that tells you why you should care?
Earlier this week at the Golden Globe Awards, actress Meryl Streep used her platform to share her outrage that president-elect Donald Trump had mocked a disabled journalist.
Ironically, Trump denied ever mocking a disabled journalist, despite the fact the interchange was recorded. Perhaps this is evidence of post-truth, where the facts don’t matter.
Each and every one of us should care when our elected officials lie to us. We should care that the news can be verified. The truth matters.
