By Kathy Kiely, University of Missouri-Columbia and Laurel Leff, Northeastern University These days, anybody with an internet connection can be a publisher. That doesn’t make everybody a journalist. This distinction has become more important than ever in light of two recent events. One was the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. The other was a…
Despite an endless cycle of missteps, call-outs and apologies, Canadian journalism has a terrible track record holding far-right groups to account – whether they’re in the streets or public office. Until there’s a much deeper reckoning, it’s unlikely to get any better Continue Reading Can a news media that doesn’t really oppose fascism ever cover it well?
Justin Brake, a former reporter for the Newfoundland news site The Independent, wasn’t the only winner when the Newfoundland and Labrador Court of Appeal cleared him of a civil charge of contempt last week. The ruling — an encouraging one for a news media that has undergone a spate of legal battles in recent years…
We shouldn’t need a Super Bowl commercial costing around $10 million to remind us that information is supposed to matter in a democracy. Yet the Washington Post thought we did, so it told 111 million Americans watching the Super Bowl that “knowing empowers us, knowing helps us decide, knowing keeps us free.” It was another…
Besides everything else I do, I am first of all a business owner. I started Halifax Examiner Inc. in 2014 with all my life savings, $10,000. By the time the first post went live, I had something like $2,000 in the company bank account. Since then, I’ve operated the company very conservatively, and I think…
The government capitulated to the demands of traditional publishers with its financial package of “support for Canadian journalism.” If you missed the news, it’s probably because after months—make that years—of lobbying, public awareness campaigns and many, many editorials written in the country’s newspapers, there’s been almost no coverage of the media (don’t call it a…
We’re not looking for a handout. But we didn’t expect the government to distort the playing field so dramatically Continue Reading Liberals’ journalism funding makes it harder to launch news startups
The federal budget has finally answered some of the questions about the Liberal government’s plans to subsidize the news business, which were first floated late last year. But the details revealed by Finance Minister Bill Morneau raises many more questions about Ottawa’s reasons for supporting journalism. There will be a 25-per-cent refundable tax credit (up…
By Heather Rollwagen, Ryerson University and Ivor Shapiro, Ryerson University Ottawa has finally announced the details of how it will offer financial assistance to the country’s struggling news media industry — a controversial policy that will lead to suggestions that journalistic independence is compromised by government funding. Under a heading called Support for Journalism, Finance…
Women of colour in journalism bring a lot to the job. And take a lot, too Continue Reading Working as the newsroom’s ‘diversity hire’