By David Farrell
Local radio station hoping to restore a sense of pride with our national anthem
If you’re a radio lover living in Orangeville, you might have recognized the familiar instrumental tune of Canada’s patriotic soundtrack playing out through your speakers. Queued with the music and commercials, the familiar beat of O Canada plays before the noon news goes out each and every day.
In addition to seeing it as a patriotic reminder, myFM also sees it as a salute to the men and women serving in the Canadian forces, as well as to first responders. – Paula Brown, Orangeville Citizen
Canada’s film and TV workers launch support campaign ahead of October’s federal election
“If the government doesn’t act now and modernize the legislation, it puts the creation of Canadian content at risk,” says Dave Forget, national executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada, talking about the need for digital regulation in Canada. – Tony Wong, Toronto Star
Canadian companies must prepare for disruptors to come knocking
Yesterday, the disruptors focused primarily on consumer sectors such as the music industry, travel booking, newspapers, magazines, and book publishing. Today, it’s groceries, entertainment, and personal transportation, thanks to Amazon, Netflix and Uber, respectively.
But consumer-focused sectors were just the start for the disruptors. Before long, I believe we will see them try to disrupt varied industries such as banking, insurance, health care, real estate and even agriculture and mining; no industry will be immune. – John Ruffolo, The Globe and Mail
The political persuasions of Canada’s ethnic media
More than 800 ethnic media outlets reach a range of distinct communities across this country, publishing and broadcasting in more than 30 major languages — including Mandarin, Punjabi, Farsi and Ukrainian.
It’s only rarely that the so-called mainstream English- and French-language media learns what issues are hot at such media outlets, given the barrier of language. But buried within the country’s proliferating ethnic-language media are potentially high-impact stories. – Douglas Todd, Vancouver Sun
Mike Stafford tipped to return to GlobalNews Radio
Sources tell CanadaLand that they expect Mike Stafford to return to the airwaves today, after he posted and deleted offensive tweets. – Twitter feed
Young people in UK abandon TV news 'almost entirely'
The Ofcom findings provide further evidence that the British media is splitting along generational and ethnic lines. Older people and white Britons are largely sticking with television and print newspaper outlets, while younger people and those from minority ethnic backgrounds are following a largely separate news agenda on social media. – Jim Waterson, The Guardian
Baltimore Sun rises to POTUS’ invective
…While we would not sink to name-calling in the Trumpian manner — or ruefully point out that he failed to spell the congressman’s name correctly (it’s Cummings, not Cumming) — we would tell the most dishonest man to ever occupy the Oval Office, the mocker of war heroes, the gleeful grabber of women’s private parts, the serial bankrupter of businesses, the useful idiot of Vladimir Putin and the guy who insisted there are “good people” among murderous neo-Nazis that he’s still not fooling most Americans into believing he’s even slightly competent in his current post. Or that he possesses a scintilla of integrity. Better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one. – Baltimore Sun editorial
The 24/7 war against Fox News
Media Matters’ efforts to hammer away at Fox News’ advertiser base picked up speed after founder Roger Ailes left in 2016. For all the extremism he allowed, Ailes also kept the network on message, and periodically pulled the reins in on his hosts. Without him, they ran wild. Hannity provided grist for a boycott by pushing the discredited theory that the DNC hack was an inside job by the late Seth Rich, victim of a still-unsolved murder; Laura Ingraham compared detention centers for child migrants to “summer camps.”
Media Matters estimates that Fox News has lost as much as $200 million in potential ad revenue since 2017, although Fox News denies this. – Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone
Political ad spend on US 2020 election could hit $6B
Of the $6 billion in political campaign spending this cycle, Kantar expects 20%, or $1.2 billion, to go to digital. TV still wins the lion’s share of campaign budgets, with almost three-quarters of the total split between broadcast and cable TV. – Nicole Perrin, eMarketer
Junky TV is actually making people dumber — and more likely to support populist politicians
In research published in the American Economic Review this month, Italian researchers showed that people with greater access to former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s trashy entertainment TV network, Mediaset, in the 1980s were much more likely to vote for Berlusconi later in later elections. Furthermore, people with greater exposure to Mediaset as children were “less cognitively sophisticated and civic-minded as adults, and ultimately more vulnerable to Berlusconi’s populist rhetoric.” – Laura Hazard Own, NiemanLab
