PUBLIC POLICY FORUM JANUARY 2017 THE SHATTERED MIRROR News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age About the Public Policy Forum The Public Policy Forum works with all levels of government and the public service, the private sector, labour, post-secondary institutions, NGOs and Indigenous groups to improve policy outcomes for Canadians. As a non-partisan, member-based organization, we work from “inclusion to conclusion,” by convening discussions on fundamental policy issues and by identifying new options and paths forward. For 30 years, the Public Policy Forum has broken down barriers among sectors, contributing to meaningful change that builds a better Canada. © 2017, Public Policy Forum Public Policy Forum 1400 - 130, Albert Street Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1P 5G4 Tel/Tél: 613.238.7160 www.ppforum.ca @ppforumca ISBN 978-1-927009-86-4 Table of Contents 2 Introduction 12 Section 1: Diagnostics 36 Section 2: News and Democracy 70 Section 3: What We Heard Section 4: Conclusions 80 and Recommendations Some Final Thoughts 95 Moving Forward 100 Afterword by Edward Greenspon 102 Acknowledgements In a land of bubblegum forests and lollipop trees, every man would have his own newspaper or broadcasting station, devoted exclusively to programming that man’s opinions and perceptions. The Uncertain Mirror, 1970 The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy and Trust in the Digital Age When he made this fanciful remark in his landmark The Internet, whose fresh and diverse tributaries of report on the state of the mass media in this country, information made it a historic force for openness, now Senator Keith Davey was being facetious, not has been polluted by the runoff of lies, hate and the prophetic. He and his special Senate committee manipulations of foreign powers. The ‘truth neutrality’ were agitated by what they considered the ill-effects of the dominant digital platforms is incompatible of concentrated media ownership on Canadian with democracy. society. Proprietors of newspaper chains, they Meanwhile, much of the traditional media is hurtling argued, were making fat profits, but the mirror they toward an unhappy date with destiny, and digital-only held up to the communities in which they operated competitors remain journalistically under-developed. was inadequate. Their report lamented–as did that of the Kent commission in 1981 and a second Senate Today, we deal with a reality almost unimaginable inquiry in 2006–that, because the media rested back in 1970. The far-fetched bubblegum and lollipops in fewer and fewer hands, the quality of Canadian notion has come to pass: Every man–and woman–can journalism and the health of our democracy were now literally communicate his or her “opinions and being compromised. perceptions.” Blogs, social media feeds, podcasts and smartphones give citizens unprecedented voice, and In the decades since Senator Davey declared sometimes place them at the scene of breaking news the media mirror “uncertain,” it has cracked and that, in an earlier time, would have gone unreported. now appears shattered. The odd blend of content To lean in and engage publicly or lean back and fragmentation, revenue consolidation and indifference consume passively is a choice that now rests with to truth has overtaken simple concentration of individual citizens, not just media companies. ownership as the main threat to holding public officials to account and reflecting Canadian society The digital revolution has made for a more open and back to its citizens. diverse news ecosystem–and a meaner and less trustworthy one. It has also upended the model of 3 journalistic “boots on the ground” backed up by a The disruption of news media has been taking place second platoon in the office upholding such hallowed for a long time. But it has risen to an entirely new standards as verification and balance. plane with the shockingly sudden consolidation in unseen hands of both Internet ad revenues and Established news organizations have been left control of who sees what among the thousands gasping, while native digital alternatives have failed of competing political and social narratives. The to develop journalistic mass, especially in local loser is not just the incumbent news media, whose news. The financial degradation has been insidiously models and management have struggled to adapt. incremental, but one whose accumulation and now The question now before Canadian policy-makers acceleration has brought to the fore the issue of is whether democracy itself is being put at risk. As sustainability of newsgathering in our democracy. the authors of the FCC study observed, “Information Do the media, and particularly the civic function goods are public goods. The failure to provide them of journalism–the coverage of public institutions, is, in part, a market failure. But carefully crafted public public affairs and community–need a lifeline? If so, policy can address [the] gaps.” Similarly, a 2014 report how can we ensure that it does not lock in privilege, commissioned by a concerned Dutch government stifle innovation and weaken democracy itself? And found that the new media order looked incapable can accountability and commonweal continue to under most scenarios of “providing broad layers exist without compromising the media’s essential within society with reliable and completely factual and independence? relevant information”–what it termed the public role of “What happens to the catsup or roofing tile or widget journalism. “If we are increasingly beginning to doubt industry affects us as consumers,” Davey commented this, and we believe that quality journalism is a vital in his report. “What happens to the publishing part of a properly working democracy, then it is time business affects us as citizens.” to do something.” Imagine for a moment a community without news: When the Public Policy Forum (PPF) began thinking how atomized and dysfunctional it would be. about a study on the state of the news media in Canada, in early 2016, the headlines were all bad. In 2009, the Knight Commission on the Information Within a fortnight in January 2016 alone, Rogers Needs of Communities in a Democracy–a blue- Media and Postmedia announced new rounds of ribbon panel of U.S. media, policy and civic leaders– staff reductions, Torstar revealed plans to close its concluded that news is as vital to democracy as printing plant, and Confederation-era newspaper titles “clean air, safe streets, good schools and public in Guelph, Ont., and Nanaimo, B.C., were shuttered, health.” Three years later, a study for the U.S. Federal the first of six daily papers to close, merge or reduce Communications Commission (FCC) cited eight their publishing schedules before year’s end. The “critical information needs” the media help to provide, situation wasn’t much better on the broadcast news ranging from emergencies and other public risks to side, where revenues, especially in local television, health, education, the environment and economic followed the downward track of the newspaper opportunities to civic and political knowledge of policy industry, inducing the Canadian Radio-television and initiatives and the conduct of public officials and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to step in. candidates for office. 4 News is as vital to democracy as “clean air, safe streets, good schools and public health” 5 A parliamentary committee was formed. News We reviewed the available literature, organized six companies and industry associations queued up roundtables across Canada, co-hosted a symposium with complaints of inequities in the marketplace. on digital-news innovation, sought out industry Some made requests for public assistance. leaders and experts domestically and abroad, commissioned our own research, and conducted The Government of Canada contracted with the PPF, four focus groups in English and two in French as a non-partisan and independent think-tank, to assess well as an online survey with a random sample of the situation and make recommendations on what, 1,500 respondents. if anything, should be done. The object was not to defend any mode of news delivery, but to evaluate the risk to democracy. PPF has devoted the past 30 years to working with partners on consequential issues. We brought publicly spirited backers into the tent–the McConnell, Atkinson and Max Bell foundations and CN, TD Bank Group, Ivanhoé Cambridge and Clairvest Group. We are grateful to all for their assistance. We also recruited a team of academics (Colette Brin of Université Laval, Christopher Dornan of Carleton University, Elizabeth Dubois of University of Ottawa, Taylor Owen of University of British Columbia), along with pollster Allan Gregg of Earnscliffe Strategy Group, and a loose band of other advisers. 6 To begin, we drafted three questions: Doesi. the deteriorating state of traditional media, particularly but not exclusively newspapers, put at risk the civic function of journalism and media and therefore the health of our democracy? Ifii. so, are new forms of digitally based media and communications filling the gap, or can they reasonably be expected to do so after a transition period? Ifiii. no, what is the role for public policy in ensuring the healthy flow of news and information deemed vital to our democracy, and what are the least intrusive and most efficacious ways of designing and delivering these policies? 7 In the summer, a fourth question became apparent funds were established after negotiations with in our conversations: Were algorithms that were Google. Germany is considering legislation to hold intended to tailor online information to individual Facebook to account for fake news that appears in its preferences instead segregating people in social feeds and then goes uncorrected. “filter bubbles” and thereby eroding a sense of Those who fear the state will take up residence in commonweal? By the time of the U.S. election the newsrooms of the nation should realize it has in November, filter bubbles and fake news had been well ensconced there for a long time–although moved from the sidelines to centre stage as a generally at a safe distance from the journalists.