CHARBONNEAU – Decline of mainstream media hurts democracy
(Image: ShatteredMirror.ca)
DEMOCRACY DEPENDS on an informed citizenry. Without it, as we have seen in the U.S., tyrannical leaders can emerge.
An informed citizenry depends on professional journalists.
Unlike social media (Facebook, YouTube, X/Twitter, Instagram, TikTok), trusted news sources adhere to established norms such as ethical standards, fact-checking and protection of vulnerable sources.
Freedom of the press is critical in uncovering facts. It allows journalists to investigate and report on critical issues such as policies, governance, corruption, public safety, homelessness and inequality; giving citizens the knowledge they need in selecting leaders.
Mainstream media, the pejorative name given by social media trolls, is what we know as reliable sources of news. They include established sources like television, radio, newspapers, and their online equivalents.
Mainstream media, I’ll use the term in a positive sense, is essential in ensuring that democracy remains participatory, transparent, and resilient.
Mainstream media is being discredited by propagandists who prefer misinformation that suits their own ambitions.
With the bloom of the internet, there was hope that “citizen journalists” would flood the streets with news.
But that didn’t happen. The decline of mainstream media has led to the rise of social media with a prevalence of falsehoods and hate speech, propelled by opaque algorithms that favour engagement over factuality.
Social media is a commercial enterprise in which we are the product being sold to advertisers. We are fed content, god and bad, that keeps us glued to our screens.
Elon Musk defends misinformation and hatred on X as “freedom of expression.” Any reasonable person realizes that hateful speech leads to harm, misinformation, and the marginalization of vulnerable groups.
Social media has become the preferred source of information for a growing number of people according to a worldwide survey by IPSOS and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Last year they surveyed citizens in 16 countries, where elections were to be held this year, in order to find the impact of social media on disinformation and hate speech.
On average, 56 per cent of those surveyed said that they stay informed through social media, followed by TV, mainstream media websites, messaging apps, radio, and lastly, newspapers.
That number is even greater for young people. Those under 35 much more inclined to use social media for information (67 per cent) compared to those over 55 (32 per cent).
However, young and old agree that disinformation is highly prevalent on social media. Across all 16 countries, 68 per cent of internet users said that disinformation is widespread on social media.
In 2023, with elections in the following year, 87 per cent of respondents were worried about the impact of disinformation on the upcoming elections in their country.
I find this incredible: a majority of people go to social media for information knowing it’s a source of disinformation. It’s like a sick addiction.
Social media users find the allure so seductive that they will continue to use it knowing that it’s harmful.
And populist politicians discredit and financially deprive mainstream media further.
We see the future of democracy in the U.S. with the election of Donald Trump. It’s going to be a world of illusion and with a social media meme as president.
David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
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Yes, I believe the general loss of mainstream media has hurt democracy.
Appearing on Castanet yesterday morning was the story of Councillor Bill Sarai deliberately misleading the public about the “secret” recording that was made of his verbal altercation with the Mayor in the Mayor’s office.
That fiasco has cost Mayor RHJ financially in legal fees, pay cuts and sanctions put forth by the 8 councillors. One of those 8 councillors is none other than Bill Sarai who knew all along the truth of the “secret” recording and what the repercussions of it might be.
Where do we go from here? Should Sarai offer his resignation to Maria Mazzotta CO, Byron McCorkell CAO or the elected Mayor? Should he have the right to choose one of three?
Over the last few days, I had an exchange of emails with Deputy Mayor Bass. It started with me sending a pointed question for the DM to support claims made about the Mayor having been responsible for the hacking of the Zoom presentation where some porn slipped through until the IT department closed off the feed. The first response was, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” The second response included a rambling concoction of nonsense including a statement that she has as little as possible to do with the Mayor.
Her final email was a doozy. I was introduced to the acronym, “Rotflmao”. I did a search on the Internet and found out the meaning to be, “Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off”. Nicely done, Deputy Mayor, addressed only to me using the City email address and server system.
If someone could help me with this one, I’d appreciate it. I need to get rid of the picture that formed in my mind: an elected Councillor rolling on the floor laughing her ass off. Where did that happen; in a closed meeting? What about the attire that was being worn at the time? Please, with Christmas coming, I just need a way to rid myself of that part of my imagination.
Maybe, in time for Christmas, could we have a double resignation from City Council?
Yes, I believe the general loss of mainstream media has hurt democracy.
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Great post dear John.
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Unfortunately, mainstream media is no longer viable in smaller centers. However, there still exists some great reporting. (For how long, who knows.) Here are just a few examples.
….the great Vancouver Sun crime reporter, Kim Bolan, who has extensively covered gangs and crime in this province, as well as overseas when there are connections. When covering the Falkland super lab, she pointed out some reasons why BC has become the choice of Mexican cartels, namely the Sinola Cartel. Some are: we are a port province and no longer have port police. (That’s right. They were completely defunded in 2015). Our laws are a joke. Only one person has been charged in the Falkland bust. Also, our infrastructure for fighting crime is weak. There is a well known drug corridor all the way from Vancouver to Sinola and further to Manzanillo.
….the Fifth Estate, who sent a crew into Dawson Creek to investigate a town of 12,000 besieged by violence and eleven missing or murdered people in a span of three years, shedding light on the town’s plight.
…..CBC Marketplace: debunks food labeling claims and exposes Canada’s weak labeling claims; uncovers shocking details about how some unqualified new recruits are finding their way onto our roads. ETC, ETC, ETC.
…..Jessica Wallace, when working at Kamloops This Week, exposed the TNRD spending scandal. Without her brilliant work, the TNRD might still be bathing itself in luxury on our dime.
……The Mike Smythe talk show on CKNW. I stream his show as it is so well researched, balanced and informative, although sometimes more about the lower mainland. Along with Keith Baldrey, I enjoy his critiquing of Provincial politics.
Yes, it is difficult to be well informed at the local level. City Council’s are using this lack of oversight to pursue their own agendas. Fortunately, concerned citizens are uniting and working to uncover facts and call out local politicians. One such local Facebook group is KAMLOOPS CITIZENS UNITED
Times, they are a changing.
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What’s Hate Speech? What’s Disinformation? What’s Misinformation?
You want to know why mainstream media is dying? Failing to captivate audiences? Because media tries desperately and pathetically to hold the power over these phrases, only to wind up losing credibility when the cracks of their own narrative became apparent instead. When they themselves become the “disinformation”!
You mentioned Trump. Okay, you want to know why he won? One of many examples was Trump’s interview on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The beauty of Rogan’s interviews is, “he’s just a guy, asking questions” that’s his appeal. And Trump stood up, and took any question Rogan asked him no matter which uncomfortable position it puts him in.
And Kamala could not compete on something that simple. To just sit in a room with a guy, and answer questions organically and authentically. As Rogan and Harris’ were negotiating a time and place to do the interview, they wouldn’t allow it unless there were pre-approved questions from their campaign office. Rogan wouldn’t comply, so Harris wouldn’t show up. And that actually hurt her campaign.
And how did the media spin this? A cowardly candidate who couldn’t compete with Trump on the same level playing field. But the media outlets who still endorsed Kamala still needed to deify her as the potential President-elect; someone who couldn’t think past the script she is given. As to see the desperate attempts by CNN and MSNBC to make Kamala a victim, instead proves how delicate phrases like “misinformation” is being used…. and YOU think we still need to listen to YOU? Knowing full well the games YOU play on the general public?
But that’s “hate speech”, because she happens to be a woman backed into the corner she herself wasn’t strong enough to pull herself out from? Narratives against the her policies is “disinformation”? Mentioning that she kinda-sorta slept to her way to the top with Willie Brown that somehow gets swept under the rug during her campaigns is “misinformation”?
… where is media’s responsibility to the public, if things “they” don’t want us to know, is being revealed via social media and podcasts? Put into a proper context as opposed to selective editing to frame a narrative to achieve the goals of “their” agenda?
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Yes, you are absolutely right Mr. Charboneau “DEMOCRACY DEPENDS on an informed citizenry.” You write that “Mainstream media, [—] is essential in ensuring that democracy remains participatory, transparent, and resilient. Yes, it is essential but it is not an established fact that the present “Mainstream Media” ensures that democracy remains participatory, transparent, and resilient but you write it as a fact that it is. That’s not how the burden of proof works. It takes a lot of educating to keep us this stupid.
As you write “Freedom of the press is critical in uncovering facts” You and I may provide facts but we are not entitled to them. There are many who post on Mel’s blog and they are not entitled to their facts either. We present a thesis that others challenge and if the controlling narrative finds what we have to say contrary to their agenda they pass appropriate legislation to silence us, jail, us exile us, torture us, send us to one of our show tribunals where we die from heart failure, or erven assassination. Your Mainstream Media is silent about this or as in most cases its used to target us as you are doing in this article calling anyone who disagrees as social media trolls, propagandists, or as Mainstream Media calls us ‘useful idiots’
You write “Social media is a commercial enterprise in which we are the product being sold to advertisers.”. What exactly is Mainstream Media, but a commercial enterprise who has lost its readership and with it advertising. Mainstream Media inundated their pages and news with atrocity propaganda to sway us emotionally to support illegal activity of our governments.
I think people that think will agree that the purpose of journalism is to disseminate objective documentation of what happens in the world, without inserting the journalists’ or any institution biases that pays his wages, leaving the reader to form their opinion on the events about which they are reading. The distortions in journalism which are rampant by omission did not arise from external influences, but from the very process of sourcing and delivering information to the public. Sourcing comes from three wire services, and ownership of Mainstream Media in consort with the government which champions democracy but subverts it on the national and international level.
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Democracy depends on a well-run educational system capable of producing great minds, period. And out of it we may even get some “professional” journalists willing to really look at both sides of any and all issues. The internet provides us with an unprecedented amount of quality content and a plethora of information. It is never been easier to be properly informed.
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the problem with main stream media is it no longer reports the news but puts out opinions all the time. Also mainstream media of late have been Doctoring what people have said and have called out on it.
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hahahaha, this guy. It wasn’t more than 2 months ago a prominent member of the mainstream media in Kamloops was declaring all salmon stocks permanently depleted and chinook salmon as good as extinct.
This was in the middle of some of the biggest chinook runs in BCs recorded history and just previous to a UBC study which showed far more chinook salmon in the Salish sea (where resident Orcas are supposedly starving without those salmon as reported by mainstream media) than in the northern waters where resident Orcas with supposedly the same dietary preferences are thriving.
Mainstream media lies and gets facts wrong just as often as those who make their reports through social media platforms. The only difference is one group gets a paycheque subsidized by the government when they mislead the public, the other is small business.
Trying not to dwell on the irony that with yet another ludicrous article Charbonneau also proves his own point.
X – Marshall@TruthWorksLoops
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The mainstream media in Kamloops and most other small cities in the country have been gutted, it’s an oxymoron to say there are any “prominent” members left. Clearly you don’t understand what the author is stating, it’s quiet clear that he is stating that with the erosion of the mainstream media in recent decades we’ve seen a corresponding erosion of principles, professionalism and most importantly quality content in the delivery of information or the “news” as editors and publishers compete for eyeballs with the ever increasing cesspool which is social media.
The dwindling stock of seasoned professional reporters today, stems from the lack of commerce in the industry leading to less skilled, more inexperience reporters filling the void, along with sensational reporting to compete with the cess pool. With less time to devote to stories, mistakes are made, mistakes are not lies, mistakes are examples of bad reporting. Stating “Mainstream media lies and gets facts wrong just as often as those who make their reports through social media platforms” is not a lie, but rather an example of bad reporting.
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