Dear Reader,

Canadian media philosopher Marshall McLuhan famously said that the medium is the message. Marshall was right: information is indeed shaped by and for its delivery platform. Television reports are different from radio; online content is prepared and consumed differently from print; even something as simple as a social media post has to be tailored to its platform.

But, Marshall was also wrong. All journalists are media, but not all media are journalists. It’s an important distinction but an increasingly confusing one.

Even the Canadian Association of Journalists admits the challenge of defining ‘what is a journalist’. If a journalist is, as was once thought, a person who upholds the principles of democracy by sharing information, doesn’t that make every blogger, every commentator, every tweeter and Facebook poster, a journalist? The obvious answer is ‘no’, but why?

In all the attempts to define journalism, and there are many, the intention behind the delivery is the common denominator. Objectivity, accuracy, fairness and uncensored are journalistic principles but even journalists struggle with bias. Anyone can share information, but information without context or verification is just gossip.

Objectivity implies due consideration to alternate points of view, but are we doing harm when we give space and airtime to anti-maskers or climate change deniers? Should we share a criminal’s backstory in hopes of shedding light on what made them who they are, or do we deny them that attention to focus on their victims? These are the debates that keep journalists up at night.

As we learned in the explosive 60 Minutes interview with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, online algorithms have no such ethical dilemmas. Have you ever bought or searched for something online and immediately started seeing ads for that item? The algorithms work the same way for information: if you show an interest in a topic or point of view, the search engines will feed you more of the same. And if you see enough of the same point of view on the same topic, you start to believe that’s the only truth there is. The result is an increasingly divisive right-wing/left-wing worldview.

The CBC, for example, is often accused of having a “Liberal” bias. Is it? Or has the “centre” moved that far to the right? It’s a fair question.

Ten years ago, if you wanted the ‘news’, you turned on a local newscast or opened a newspaper or listened to a radio news program. Today, people quote and share memes and social posts as if they were valid sources with journalistic standards.

Who do you trust for balanced news and information — and what have they done to earn that trust? Think about it.

Dawn Chafe
Executive editor & co-owner
dchafe@atlanticbusinessmagazine.ca

P.S. We stand for journalistic excellence:

• Silver, 2017 National Magazine Awards
• 39 Atlantic Journalism Awards
• 14 TABBIE international business press awards
• 4 KRW national business press awards