You may not realize it, but the local media is dying a slow, painful death.
I’m not talking about lost jobs, because compared with what we’ve seen in mining, forestry and retail, it’s minuscule.
Instead, the impact of media cuts represents something I would argue is even more important — the muting of our northern Ontario voices. We’re losing the ability to be informed on local happenings and share our stories with one another. This impacts everyone from individual Greater Sudburians who want to know what’s going on, to the organizations that serve us and want to tell the public what they are doing — from post-secondary institutions, school boards and hospitals to politicians, municipalities, and police forces.
In the past five years, I’d estimate we’ve lost anywhere from one-third to one-half of all journalists in northeastern Ontario — and there weren’t that many to begin with. There have been media cuts in large communities as well, but the cuts have been disproportionate — northern Ontario is taking a much larger hit. One main reason is that most media outlets in our community are not locally-owned.
It’s not like the old days where you could run into the guy who owned the local newspaper, radio station, or TV station down at the grocery store. No, most media outlets today are not owned by local people, they are owned by national companies or organizations, many of whom are accountable primarily to shareholders and not to the communities they serve — including CTV, Rogers Radio and Quebecor Sun Media. The same can be said of the publicly-funded CBC, which recently cut jobs in places like Sudbury, Thunder Bay, and Windsor to save jobs in big cities like Toronto.
They’re all operating the same way these days.
Now, I’ve had people say to me, “Why should I care? I listen to satellite radio and I don’t read the paper or watch local TV — I get my news off the Internet.” Well, if it’s local news you get off the Internet, it has to come from somewhere, and it’s likely local journalists.
I also tell them that even if you don’t consume the actual journalistic product, you do benefit from it. Who do you think asks the tough questions of politicians, corporations, and publicly-funded organizations? Who keeps them accountable when there’s no local media asking questions? Do you think a newsroom based in Toronto will ask tough questions about the proposed property tax increase in Sudbury?
Local journalism is a crucial check and balance in a democratic society.
Without a free, local media, officials will be free to do almost anything they want, without public accountability. We’ve already seen this happen to some degree because we’ve seen major cuts over the past two decades to our northern Ontario media. But, my fear is that there’s nothing else to cut — that the next step is full and outright closure of some of these media outlets.
So, what can we do? I believe we need to speak as one unified voice — and that voice needs to be heard.
Over the summer, I have slowly begun a lobby group called “Friends of Northern Ontario Media.” I’ve started with a Facebook group and this fall will be holding public meetings in Sudbury and across the entire north with anyone who wants to save our local media — to ensure we keep our voice, and maybe even strengthen it. It will allow us to stay informed, communicate with one another, tell our positive local stories, give our region a national platform when the time comes, and maintain our local check and balance on power players. It’s free and all I would ask is that when the time comes, you be ready to speak up along with thousands of others in the north.
The group, hopefully, will grow, as will our voice.
So, the next time, one of these national companies thinks of cutting the north to save jobs in Toronto, we’ll be there, ready for them. Will it work? Will they listen to us? We won’t know until we try. It’s better than sitting back and taking it, without a fight.
It’s just not the way we do things around here.
Conway Fraser is the former producer of news and current affairs with CBC Radio Sudbury and now owns Fraser Strategies, a strategic communications company based in Sudbury.
