Photo by James Morrison
Media conglomerates, such as America's Big 10, are omnipresent entities that are severely distorting audience perception and reception of news pieces. It is no wonder that many individuals are resisting "traditional" sources and embracing new media to obtain the wider spectrum of "truth".
Publish Then Select Model of Journalism
New media allows for different models of delivery as Cory Doctorow points out. He explains that audiences now are able to consume in the realm of publish then select for information inquiry as opposed to "traditional" mediums that use select then publish.
Individuals are increasingly becoming more media savvy and are beginning to realize the monopolistic nature of media ownership. Publish then select becomes a great alternative as it prompts audience participation in order to add their own knowledge and expertise to further the story. This creates a democratic process that allows a multi-faceted version of the story to emerge.
Conglomerates
Conglomerated media ownership proves to be extremely problematic as editorial censorship may be prevalent, cutting into an audience's reception of full "truth". Upon looking at Canwest's newspaper family, I was able to calculate that 5,324,636 (or 15.95% of the total Canadian population) are part of Canwest's weekly distribution. This figure does not include the areas in British Columbia where Canwest is the sole distributor of a daily/weekly newspaper. Nor does it include daily commuter papers. Throw in Canwest's broadcasting companies and an even larger segment on the population is exposed to the Asper family message.
Understanding New Media's Importance
Doctorow's publish then select is quite revolutionary as it is a model that rebels against current media conglomeration. Describing Canadian conglomeration, James Winter, of Extra!, explains that:
...five companies, including CanWest, control most media outlets. The telephone company Bell Canada owns the Globe and Mail as well as CTV, the largest private television network; it also controls Sympatico, a Web portal and high-speed Internet link. Montreal-based Quebecor owns the Sun newspaper chain, magazines, cable TV, the Canoe Internet portal, music and video stores and the private TVA network in Quebec. Torstar Corporation, publisher of Harlequin romance novels, also owns the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation daily, as well as four other dailies and 69 weeklies. Rogers Communications has interests in cable, radio, television, magazines, video stores and wireless telephone.
It is no wonder why Doctorow writes that finding the "truth" is hard. I agree. After all, the most available fashion of obtaining news (television/newspaper) is inherently flawed within Canada due to conglomerates and their aversion to audience participation in the creation and maintenance of information.
I do have one concern with the new model that Doctorow proposes. I worry that audiences will consume online publish then select information in the same passive way that they have been consuming "traditional" news. This allows conglomerates to usurp a large(r) segment of the active online journalism movement. After all, audiences are accustomed to the one dimensional model where they receive information without being able to offer much feedback and may continue this online. But to do so, the publish then select revolution is doomed to failure as stories will remain only partial "truths", being no different than the censored information that conglomerates offer.
3 comments:
Considering that Izzy Asper died five years ago, I'd say his hold on the Canadian consciousness has faded slightly.
Control doesn't end because of death. Have you seen any openings within the clutches of Canwest media? Editorial freedom within the press? I haven't.
Besides, as a leader passes away, his doctrine still lives on.
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