{"id":108866,"date":"2023-09-20T08:28:11","date_gmt":"2023-09-20T12:28:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=108866"},"modified":"2023-09-20T08:28:35","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T12:28:35","slug":"mass-journalism-layoffs-dont-just-mean-a-gap-in-news-coverage-experts-worry-theyll-hurt-democracy-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/mass-journalism-layoffs-dont-just-mean-a-gap-in-news-coverage-experts-worry-theyll-hurt-democracy-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass journalism layoffs don’t just mean a gap in news coverage. Experts worry they’ll hurt democracy too"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"16853\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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The mass layoffs of\u00a0more than 600 people at Metroland Media Group, along with the news that Nordstar plans to stop printing most of its 70 community newspapers across\u00a0Ontario, spells trouble for a healthy democracy, say\u00a0industry experts.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The layoffs included 68 journalists, while the Nordstar cuts mean no more community papers covering everything from the fight for a local hospital to late-night school board meetings. The company’s six daily newspapers, including the Hamilton Spectator, Peterborough Examiner, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune, and the Waterloo Region Record, will continue both in print and online.<\/p>\n

Karim Bardeesy, the executive director of the democracy group The Dais, and himself a former journalist, says that isn’t good news for accountability.<\/p>\n

“There’s some evidence that in news deserts or places with less attention on local politics, there’s some relationship between that and more local corruption,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The presence of journalists in the community keeps those in power, and those who were trying to court those in power, a bit on their toes.”<\/p>\n

\n
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\"Karim<\/div>
Karim Bardeesy says local journalism layoffs mean fewer eyes on municipal governments.\u00a0(Jenna Muirhead)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

As laid off journalists look to their next steps\u00a0and those who remain try to do more with less, experts like Bardeesy stress that\u00a0the layoffs affect everyone in a community. Bardeesy\u00a0says an all-hands-on-deck approach is needed to respond to the situation.<\/p>\n

He says\u00a0politicians or activists can’t take the place of well-resourced journalism to dig into an issue.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes it just takes one journalist working in a local community to really draw attention to what might be happening at the city level,” he said.<\/p>\n

‘A missing gap’<\/h2>\n

Brian Capitao\u00a0aimed to be that kind of\u00a0journalist.<\/p>\n

He told CBC\u00a0Toronto\u00a0his\u00a0stories about issues like housing\u00a0resulted in council debate and policy shifts. But on Friday, he learned\u00a0he’d be losing\u00a0his municipal affairs reporter job at the Vaughan Citizen, a Metroland paper.<\/p>\n

“It made me feel good, because there was a real cause and effect there,” he said.\u00a0“Without a local reporter, I think that there is going to be a missing gap.”<\/p>\n

The layoffs and elimination of physical papers are also worrisome to some who hold political power.<\/p>\n

Whitby Mayor Elizabeth Roy said she is “very concerned” about how community members will get the information they need.<\/p>\n

Roy said the city has long taken out ads in the physical paper, calling it a key communication tool for seniors in particular.\u00a0Community events, information about potential developments and candidate events during an election are\u00a0posted in the paper, she said.<\/p>\n

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\"Whitby<\/div>
Whitby Mayor Elizabeth Roy is very concerned about how residents will learn about local events and issues.\u00a0(Submitted by Elizabeth Roy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“We had a full page print that would show what is happening within our community,” she said.<\/p>\n

She says the town will\u00a0look\u00a0to try and close the communication gap, but it won’t be easy.<\/p>\n

Roy\u00a0says many issues, like the\u00a0push for a new hospital in Whitby, received most of their coverage from the local Metroland reporter.<\/p>\n

“In comparison to Toronto, we don’t get coverage and the information does not get shared to our local community,” she said. “The local paper is the avenue of the delivery of the news that covers ourselves.”<\/p>\n

The dangers of shrinking newsrooms<\/h2>\n

It’s unclear how the layoffs were distributed. CBC asked Metroland for a breakdown by paper, but did not receive a response by publication\u00a0time.<\/p>\n

The company said in a statement\u00a0last week that the\u00a0“the media industry continues to face existential challenges,” referencing the\u00a0changing preferences of\u00a0consumers and advertisers.<\/p>\n

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\"Boy<\/div>
Hundreds of Metroland workers are being laid off, from journalists to those who delivered the papers.\u00a0(Judy Trinh\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

April Lindgren, a journalism professor at Toronto Metropolitan University researching\u00a0local news, says many of the local newsrooms affected were already understaffed.<\/p>\n

“These newsrooms typically had maybe three or four, if they’re lucky, people,” she said.\u00a0“This is a significant blow to small newsrooms.”<\/p>\n

Lindgren\u00a0says it’s now less likely a journalist will be able to stay for a full council meeting or cover a school board meeting.<\/p>\n

The local journalism landscape already\u00a0had less competition than ideal, she adds.\u00a0With various other\u00a0outlets closing or laying off people\u00a0over the last several years, the recent cuts by Metroland only worsen the situation, she says.<\/p>\n

An opportunity for misinformation to spread<\/h2>\n

Lindgren says the absence of “timely and verified independently produced news” also creates more space for misinformation, disinformation, and speculation to proliferate.<\/p>\n

Brent Jolly,\u00a0president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, says he worries fewer news sources will leave more people turning to\u00a0unverified information on social media.<\/p>\n

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\"Brent<\/div>
Brent Jolly, president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, says fewer journalists creates the conditions for the spread of misinformation.\u00a0(Supplied by Brent Jolly)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Journalists spread thin will also likely have less time to focus on investigative pieces that often take more time, he says.<\/p>\n

Jolly says the CAJ will\u00a0advocate\u00a0to all levels of government to support local news. It will also\u00a0try to help the journalists affected by these layoffs.<\/p>\n

If the situation continues, he says: “I think what we’re going to get is more journalism based off of press releases, which makes us susceptible, frankly, to being manipulated by the messages of politicians or lobby groups,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mass layoffs of\u00a0more than 600 people at Metroland Media Group, along with the news that Nordstar plans to stop printing most of its 70 community newspapers across\u00a0Ontario, spells trouble …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":108867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3539],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/16853.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108866"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108870,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108866\/revisions\/108870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}