OTTAWA and GATINEAU – Community media groups are taking exception to being left out of two recent Canadian media reports.
The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) and the Fédération des télévisions communautaires autonomes du Québec (la Fédération) are criticizing the Public Policy Forum’s report The Shattered Mirror: News, Democracy, and Trust in the Digital Age and Heritage Canada’s #DigiCanCon report, What We Heard Across Canada: Canadian Culture in a Digital World.
In a joint statement, CACTUS and la Fédération said that it is “surprising and disappointing to find but a passing mention in both of community media and their long-understood contribution to democratic expression and civic journalism.”
“For 50 years, community media have ensured a participative and democratic media landscape, and local information that has all but disappeared from the big media groups”, reads the statement. “Community media are the 'farm teams' that drive our creative industries, and guarantee a platform for the voices of thousands of ordinary Canadians.
Unlike online-only platforms that are the subject of 'fake news' concerns captured in the two reports, community broadcasters are licensed, and directed by trained journalists who catalyze, guide and curate content in communities that would otherwise have no voice. And we do this for 1/10th the cost of the public and private sectors, while fulfilling civic engagement and creative incubation roles for our media industries to boot.”
