Last month marked one year since Facebook turned off the news here in Canada, and it’s been a bleak one marked with more closures, and mergers.
Since its passage, Metroland shuttered over 20 community newspapers. CHML in Hamilton- the only talk station in the city shutdown. Postmedia has bought the financially troubled SaltWire Network of Halifax for $1 million. The CBC reports they are keeping newsrooms in Nova Scotia, PEI, as well as Newfoundland and Labrador. The move prompted April Lindgren, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) Journalism Professor to predict there wouldn’t be much investment in local news in that area.
News engagement on Facebook, as well its platforms with local news has dropped by 58 per cent, while national news has seen its engagement decline by 24 per cent. TikTok has seen its engagement increase by 1 million over before the ban, making it the largest purveyor of Canadian news. This is despite criticism of the platform for misinformation, and the persistent rumours of the app being banned. Engagement with news by Instagram users dropped by two million. Instagram, and Facebook declined collectively by 90 per cent.
Google signed a deal to provide the $100 million investment through the Canadian Journalism Collective. As of July, their board structure was before the CRTC, and comments on the submission closed August 6. If they’re that far behind, then it’s a logical assumption that no outlet has seen a cent of this money yet. Meanwhile, news outlets keep closing leaving communities across the country without voice. That’s what the government has to deal with.
Political journalists, and media are being politicized more than ever before. National Post journalist Terry Newman tweeted out comments regarding remarks given by Immigration Citizenship and Refugee Minister Mark Minister Mark Miller in a video about Pierre Poilievre’s tendencies towards slogans based on the issues of the day.
Newman put out two tweets and a link to a column about how alleged terrorist 20-year old Muhammad Shazeb Khan’s arrest while crossing border allegedly to kill Jewish people in New York.
“This guy probably singlehandedly made our country more dangerous than it’s ever been.
Tweet number two: To be fair, he didn’t mess it up all by himself. He had help: "Under Trudeau, the crucial role of guiding Canada’s immigration system has now changed hands five times in nine years. The portfolio was tossed around from John McCallum to Ahmed Hussen to Mark Mendicino to Sean Fraser, and, finally, to Marc Miller, like a hot potato. There has been no continuity. There has been no long-term oversight. One might guess this is a file this government does not take very seriously."
Liberal Taleeb Noormohamed tweeted in response:
Your paper wouldn't be in business were it not for the subsidies that the government that you hate put in place - the same subsidies your Trump - adjacent foreign hedge fund owners gladly take to pay your salary.
But the Liberals aren’t the only ones to tangle with the press. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has had a few exchanges with the media. Most recently in February calling the Canadian Press a tax-funded mouthpiece for the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) in February. The Canadian Press is an outlet providing coverage to media outlets across the country for a fee.
The question was over why the Conservatives didn’t want to support the legislation, which would establish a $100 million fund for Canadian media, which, has been established thanks to negotiations with Google. His answer is completely consistent with his party’s views, at one point late last year calling it “an attempt to ‘control the news Canadians see.’ But in time honoured political tradition, he doesn’t offer any options.
In the year since C-18 was passed, there’s been a change in the way Canadians engage with the news on social media. The very sector the government has sought to help has been politicized making the legislation that was supposed to save the news media, the thing that ruined it.