News of the impending purchase of 175 English language papers by Postmedia sent shockwaves through the Canadian media a few weeks ago. On October 6th, 2014, the Toronto Star reported that Quebecor Media Inc. plans to sell off its English language publications and their associated websites. If federal regulators approve the sale, one company will control threeĀ out of theĀ fourĀ English dailies that serve Vancouver. The Vancouver Sun and The Province are already owned by Postmedia. As part of the sale, 24 Hours Vancouver would also join the Postmedia empire. The Star article notes, āPostmedia is at least $488 million in debtā and that the sale price isĀ $316 million. Other papers included in the sale are the Toronto Sun and other Sun publications (Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Winnipeg) and the London Free Press.
Apart from the financial considerations in the deal, what are the implications of massive media concentration into a few hands? Has media concentration gone too far? What are the impacts on the quality of the content and on freedom of the press? Will the quality of reporting go down if there is less competition? Will investigative reporting fall even further?
Journalists may be given fewer choices for choosing their place of work. It might not be easy to jump change jobs from one paper to another in the same ownership group. Papers not only employ journalists, copy editors, researchers, editors and photographers. There are also many jobs in advertising, production and layout, distribution and printing services. The Star noted that Postmediaās CEO Paul Godfrey ādid not rule out future job cuts.ā The Star article makes the following point:
The āmassive job sheddingā that has happened at newspapers across Canada lately will only get worse under this deal, said Ryerson Journalism professor emeritus John Miller. The competition bureau rarely blocks big takeovers and has never rejected any big newspaper sale in Canada, he notedā¦ āThe only major English Canadian newspapers Postmedia wonāt own are The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press, Miller noted.ā
Should the federal government instead consider splitting up media empires instead allowing further consolidation in the industry?
The only local English daily newspaper that wonāt be owned by Postmedia is MetroNews. Elsewhere in the Metro Vancouver region, media outlets are already concentrated into a small number of hands. Glacier Media controls a number of papers in the region, including The Vancouver Courier, Business in Vancouver, North Shore News, Surrey Now, Richmond News and Burnaby Now. The Georgia Straight is one of the few independent papers left; itās owned by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. Also serving the Vancouver market are national English dailiesĀ The Globe and Mail, and the National Post.
Is self-censorship more likely to occur if there areĀ fewer players inĀ the media? A media-aware populace mustĀ be conscious of and evaluateĀ not only the tone and facts presented in articles that are actually published. People should also be aware that someĀ noteworthy and newsworthy items may Ā be completely absent from mainstream media coverage.
The public would be smart to realize thatĀ each media organizationĀ isĀ a huge filter that takes in information, processes it, and presents it to readers, viewers and listeners. And in the process, much information is missed, screened out, modified, and interpreted, before being presented for public consumption.
In parallel with changes in mainstream media, do non-traditional and new media have a bigger role to play in society? How about the Internet and social media? Along these lines, we encourage people to check out the Media Democracy Project (http://mediademocracyproject.ca/), which holdsĀ the Media Democracy Days everyĀ year in Vancouver. Organizers put together an excellent program of lectures, discussions, workshops, and exhibitions. Some of the material is posted online in video and text for anyone to see anytime. CityHallWatch has participated as an exhibitor for the past three years, and will be there again. This year, 2014,Ā Media Democracy Days are November 7 and 8 (see program).
Below weāve included a few quotes from the writings of political commentator and activist Noam Chomsky, as food for thought:
āIn sum, the dominant media firms are quite large businesses; they are controlled by very wealthy people or by managers who are subject to sharp constraints by owners and other market-profit-oriented forces; and they are closely interlocked, and have important common interests, with other major corporations, banks and government.ā
āLarge corporate advertisersā¦ will rarely sponsor programs that engage in serious criticisms of corporate activitiesā¦ā
Noam Chomsky & Edward S. Herman, Manufacturing Consent
The major media-particularly, the elite media that set the agenda that others generally follow-are corporations āsellingā privileged audiences to other businesses. It would hardly come as a surprise if the picture of the world they present were to reflect the perspectives and interests of the sellers, the buyers, and the product. Concentration of ownership of the media is high and increasing. Furthermore, those who occupy managerial positions in the media, or gain status within them as commentators, belong to the same privileged elites, and might be expected to share the perceptions, aspirations, and attitudes of their associates, reflecting their own class interests as well. Journalists entering the system are unlikely to make their way unless they conform to these ideological pressures, generally by internalizing the values; it is not easy to say one thing and believe another, and those who fail to conform will tend to be weeded out by familiar mechanisms.
Noam Chomsky, Necessary Illusions ā Thought Control in Democratic Societies
References
Postmedia buys 175-paper Sun Media for $316 million. Deal includes the Sun dailies, the free 24 Hours and the London Free Press (Toronto Star, October 6, 2014)
Sun-Postmedia merger narrows readersā options, fattens Paul Godfreyās wallet: DiManno (Toronto Star, October 7, 2014)
PostmediaāSun deal: Three key questions. Why are community papers key, who is backing the deal, and what happens to Sun TV? (Toronto Star, October 6, 2014)
