Ottawa -Media workers and journalists from across Canada are in Ottawa this week to meet with Members of Parliament from every political party to discuss the challenges facing the industry, and possible solutions.
“Consumption of news and information in Canada has never been higher,” said Unifor Media Director Howard Law, who is leading the delegation of 20 journalists and media workers.
“Never before have Canadians had such incredible access to media, including news, television and movies, whenever and wherever they want.”
The problem is that the ad-driven model for funding production of the news and ensuring Canadian content in our media is deteriorating under the pressure of cheap digital ads from tech giants such as Google and Facebook, making it increasingly difficult to pay for all that content being consumed at record levels. Polling conducted by the Public Policy Forum of Canada released on January 26th revealed that public awareness of this revenue problem is low.
“We are in Ottawa this week to discuss how to ensure Canadians can continue to get the news and information they need about their communities,” Law said. “Canadians must have access to not only reliable national and international news, but to local news and programming that will inform them about their own communities.”
For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Unifor Communications National Representative Stuart Laidlaw at stuart.laidlaw@unifor.org or (cell) 647-385-4054.
