Wanderings – The threat of communications gatekeeping

There has been a continual decline in journalism over the last 20 years—the number of outlets and publications, the number of people employed, and the number of stories published. This decline began in the lead-up to the 2008 recession and has grown through corporate mergers. The news media industry as a whole has not adapted well to digital conversion. Social media platforms have not helped. More and more, many of the media outlets left are under common ownership, espouse a biased outlook or viewpoint, and lack local understanding.

Long gone is much of the long-form investigative journalism of the old days—few outlets can commit the resources needed for it. Many articles no longer disseminate news about subjects; journalists act as stenographers, recording what happened—not what the action means to the reader. Here again, few resources and the need to fill copy space are largely attributed to this issue. Many of Canada’s newspapers (not the one I write for) are owned by an American hedge fund-backed chain. Large telecommunication companies own most of the radio and television networks. At many outlets, news has become the filler that goes between the commercials. When shareholder profits are down, those who remain in the news game are expected to shoulder the mess made through job cuts. The few independent news outlets remaining face their own battles too. Ill-informed politicians claim bias because of access to government funding to help keep the lights on—even though thousands of industries receive much more funding than journalism. Did you buy a car in the last 40 years? There’s a subsidy or government program buried in there as well. Thanks for your support.

In all the flux that is the journalism industry in Canada, there is a threat from within that jeopardizes access to actual journalism—government communications.

All levels of government have communications people. Their job is half gatekeeping and half managing customer relationships. Both of these are not in your interest, however. Government communications is about controlling the news in a very specific way—don’t dare ask questions that go against this. It is not about communicating; it is gatekeeping through interpretation. One common phrase used, and we saw this in the lead-up to the Ontario provincial election, is “investing.” The province of Ontario is “investing” X amount of money into a program, service, or community. That is the interpretation because “investing” sounds good, right? But what one person calls an “investment,” another would argue is a waste. That’s why journalists should call this “spending” and let readers decide with facts if that spending was an investment or wasteful. Government communications people don’t want readers interpreting things for themselves.

This happens at all levels of government, and not just with spending terms. This shouldn’t happen, because a great many of communications people are former journalists who crossed to the dark side—but it does. And it is getting worse because some of those who switched to the government side are trying to turn those government communication tools into their own news sites. This is why you see some local government social media accounts publishing weather reports and tips for how to shovel snow in a snowstorm—all great to read when you’re waiting for the snowplow to go by. Other government accounts provide not just what a council did, but the government’s “interpretation” of what it means to you. If government officials are interpreting news for you, that’s not a good thing. All levels of government practice this – federal, provincial, municipal, and even school boards. This isn’t news; it is gatekeeping because while a government communications person is willing to publish a duplicative weather report, getting a straight answer from them about something actually being done is not. Often the gatekeepers stymie the journalists to hide some or all of the truth.

If you have gotten this far, readers, you are likely wondering why this is a big deal. Look south. If the gatekeepers within government communications were difficult to deal with before, who is in power now? If there was ever a time for proper reporting, it’s now. And that is the threat we face here in Canada – a proliferation of gatekeeping government communications. So long as we are governed from the moderate left-of-centre or moderate right-of-centre, it is not difficult to discern fact from fiction. If our politics go down the road similar to that we are witnessing from our American acquaintances, those gatekeepers will begin to act more like propagandists. As Canada has decimated its authentic journalism industry with corporate-owned entities focused on shareholder profits, and American hedge funds—who will be left to hold those in power to account?

This column was originally published in the February 19, 2025 print edition of the Morrisburg Leader.