News is everywhere, in every form imaginable. The world is deluged everyday with information on everything imaginable. Or is it? Who decides what is ‘news’, what people will read and how to sell it to an audience? A further analysis of any major news/media corporation reveals that they all have a plan, they all market to an audience, and they all make money.
In Canada CanWest Global is the conglomerate which produces your daily news. It owns, or operates many sectors including publishing companies including newspapers, Canadian Television and CW Media, and Australian television. A brief look at their website shows a company history which did what many others did in the last 10 years. Buy everything on the market and more. Can West is held by the Asper family. Not only does the Asper family bring you your news via Global, it also owns the National Post, many metropolitan newspapers, 21 weekly newspapers and 7 shopping guides.
Looking at the National Post web page, reveals a link to the corporate policies of CTVGlobe Media. Just like any other major corporation, CTV has a mission statement, goals and objectives. Most of these statements are similar to many other corporations, and read mundanely to comply with the business laws of Canada and conduct oneself with honesty and integrity. Another statement reads “foster a work environment based on trust and respect for all stakeholders of the CTVglobemedia community”. While ambiguous in nature, it does state that the stakeholders in the company are to be respected, and foster an agreement of trust. Underlying our daily news is a corporation, one that wants to make money and one that values high ethical standards and morality at all times.
Do they actually make money? Can West Media reports that revenues went up 2% last quarter, and although they lost money, it was due to holdings that were waiting on CRTC approval. So even in an economic downturn, they are still generating revenue through advertising and investments.
At a recent conference a speaker presented the idea that no news source is unbiased. Not only did he state that, he also suggested while no one is without bias, that doesn’t mean that the news is invalid. What the Editor of Planet S suggested was that readers need to be aware of who owns their daily news source, the television station, and web page that we get our news from. While the National Post and every other Newspaper or news media source out there have a myriad of writers working for them. The reader should remember that they are working for that company unless they are freelancers. By choosing to work and get paid by the National Post or any other company, employees follow Codes of Conduct and agree with or conform to the standards of the owners of that company.
The front page of the National Post may not make it obvious that it is owned by a news conglomerate, but in tiny type at the bottom of all their pages is a link to CTVGlobe Media, or another subsidiary of that company that owns them.
The news business is not unlike any other major business thriving or struggling today. It has a CEO, managers, employees and stockholders. This affects the content of the news that you see certainly. If an unbiased view is important to you, check out one of the other new sources. By glancing at a number of different outlets, diving into a sea of good and bad information, the whole picture eventually emerges. Every story has two sides or more, and most media outlets portray only one. While it is not a crime to portray only one opinion, readers, news savvy or not, should be aware of the fact that other opinions exist and money underlies every news source.
It's %100 true that money drives the news. It's also true that reporters don't often tell both sides of the story.
ReplyDeleteBut as you and I both know (as we've both been in news) its just not practical.
All the stories I've put to air could have been twice as long. But in TV you have to wrap up the story in a minute to two and half minutes. Anything longer and people just don't want to watch. When they don't watch you don't make money from ad revenue. When you don't have money you can't make the news.
Its unfortunate that this is the way it works. People really need to understand that just like the rest of the world, CTV, The Brandon Sun, The Today Show, and everyone else have bills to pay.
But some people for sure put too much of their spin on a story to get the money to pay their bills.
Oh well! as Forest Gump might say "Stupid is as stupid does" or something like that.