Media in Canada — whether it be print, radio, television, or digital — continues to be in a precarious situation. On a yearly basis, we see the closure of traditional media, and in some cases the creation of new digital entities to fill the void. Often, smaller communities are becoming news deserts through closures or consolidation. The risks to a community that has become a news desert are great. Less scrutiny of public officials and how they spend public money; less fact-based information in the community; and the loss of the public record and the community’s history. Media companies genuinely try to represent the communities they serve — including here at The Leader. While there are many challenges facing the industry and journalism in general, one trend that has not helped is governments trying to become the reporters.
One of the most recent examples of this is SDG Counties, which has not only begun providing curated summaries of council and government activities, but expanded into community arts profiles and weather reporting. SDG Counties started producing its “5-Minute Gazette” in early February to provide “a recap of its meetings for dissemination to the general public.” The issue here is the word “dissemination,” along with another communications buzzword — “context.” Who decides what information is disseminated and in what context?
For many years, governments have issued press releases or recapped the events of a council meeting, no different than when one makes major announcements. The best practice is a fulsome release of information stating everything that happened in a meeting. As soon as a person representing a government or agency makes a decision as to what the perceived importance of an item is — then information becomes gatekeeping. Why are details not being publicized? Who picks what is important and what is not? Why are they choosing this?
This is where the role of media, independent from government, is so important. Is there harm in SDG Counties posting weather updates? That is what several companies do already so SDG doing the same is redundant. Is there harm in SDG Counties posting community profiles of people? Yes — because someone decides who should and should not be profiled and therefore context is at play. This applies to business profiles as well. Why is one business featured over another by a government that is funded by all businesses?
Government communications should remain in their role of promoting what they do for the residents and businesses they serve. Those communications should extend to what programs and services government offers, and everything that a council discussed at a meeting. Leave the context and dissemination to others.
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