Our Decaying News Ecosystem is a Political Problem (The North State Podcast)
A tour through the nonsense factory
It's a solo week on The North State, and it's probably for the best. I lay out the biggest stories about journalism during the election, post-debate scrum debacles and how the building blocks of right-wing online disinformation, the Online News Act and apathy from political parties is making journalism far worse. RSS Feed here.
Description
Rebel Media and other right-wing figures dominated the discourse around the two leadership debates this election. After disproportionately representing their perspective in the French-language scrum, their behaviour completely disrupted and stopped the scrum after the English-language debate. It's not a one-off occurrence, this is only going to get worse. This week on The North State, Scott walks through the effect of the Online News Act on Canadian's news habits, how the broader right-wing shift has deteriorated the average Canadian's news diet, what implications this has for our politics and how there is no plan to fix this from any party. Fun stuff!
Sources and Further Reading
Far-Right Media Outlets Dominate Post-Debate Question Scrum - Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Post-debate press scrum scrapped at last minute over lack of ‘proper environment’ - The Globe and Mail
Tense, possibly physical confrontations result in cancellation of post-debate press conferences - CTV News
Post-leaders’ debate scrums cancelled due to security concerns - CTV News
Post-Debate Question Period Cancelled Due to “Security Concerns” - Canadian Anti-hate Network
Old News, New Reality: A Year of Meta's News Ban in Canada - Media Ecosystem Observatory
Like it or Not: The Changing Canadian Information Ecosystem - Media Ecosystem Observatory
Canada Proud is dominating Facebook ahead of the election - The Logic
Political Polarization Triggers Conservatives’ Misinformation Spread to Attain Ingroup Dominance - Journal of Marketing
Who is most likely to fall for fake news? - UBC News
In this B.C. town, big money is bulldozing democracy - The Breach
Canada Proud Launches Attack Ads Linking Mark Carney to 'Notorious Pedophile' Jeffrey Epstein - PressProgress
This Photo of Mark Carney and Tom Hanks on "Epstein Island" is Going Viral. The Photo is Completely Fake. - PressProgress
This Viral Photo of a 'Liberal Boomer' is Missing Context. He Was Being Harassed by Far-Right Activists - PressProgress
Spammers Are Flooding TikTok with Pro-Conservative Content - Pivot via PressProgress
Corus Entertainment 'aggressively' cutting costs, laying off more employees as revenue slumps - CBC News
Bell to cut 4.8K jobs, sell 45 radio stations in major shake-up - The Canadian Press via Global News
Postmedia Completes Acquisition of Saltwire Network - Businesswire
Majority of Canadians say misinformation affected federal election: poll - The Canadian Press via Global News
The propaganda machine: how far-right media has warped Canada’s political discourse - Ricochet
Government, two opposition parties set to show united front in support of Online News Act - Radio Canada
Understanding Bill C-18: Canada's Online News Act and its proposed rules, explained - CTV News
Google sends $100M in funds to journalism collective in exchange for Online News Act exemption - CBC News
Canadian Journalism Collective
Liberals lose closely contested seat to Bloc Québécois after vote validation - CBC News
Total Catastrophe Was Avoided, But Canada Is Heading Rightward - The Maple
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