Southam Lecturer explores journalism in polarized times
At a time when unity in the face of American threats is crucial, Canadians are increasingly divided. While Americans may be on the brink of civil war, Canadians are sorting ourselves into mutually hostile camps. The fragmentation of our media ecosystem is both cause and symptom. Journalists are being similarly sorted into opposing camps, reporting starkly different stories to divided audiences even as the industry shrinks.
As this year’s Harvey Stevenson Southam Lecturer, award-winning political journalist Stephen Maher will examine the role reporters play in an increasingly fractured society, arguing that in order to keep faith with a shrinking audience, mainstream journalists need to question their own biases.
All are welcome to hear his free public talk, Journalism in Polarized Times, running from 7-8:30pm Wednesday, October 8 in room A104 of UVic’s Bob Wright Building.
Rise of the algorithm
As Stephen Maher explains, one of the main shifts that has led to the dramatic decline of the mainstream media is the rise of algorithmic social media.
“Before Facebook, everyone consumed their news from outlets with a shared sense of news values. Since the rise of the social platforms, the old outlets lost their monopolistic role as clearing houses for advertising,” he explains. “The platforms took the revenue but don’t fulfill a journalistic function. In order to maximize user attention, the platforms prioritize emotional content — particularly anger.”
Read more of Maher’s insights on current journalism in this October 6 interview in The Tyee, written by Writing professor Deborah Campbell.
Maher well knows of which he speaks: he’s been writing about Canadian politics since 1989 for the likes of the Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Walrus, Time and the Chronicle Herald, Postmedia News, Times of London and others. He has often set the agenda on Parliament Hill, covering political corruption, electoral wrongdoing, misinformation and human rights abuses.
But putting emotion ahead of facts has led to an increase in what sociologists call “affective polarization,” says Maher, where people have become more intensely identified with their partisan community . . . and hostile to other communities.
Misinformation & regionalism
Add to this both the pandemic, when misinformation became more widespread, and a sense of regionalism — especially a rural-urban divide — and you’ve got the groundwork for what he describes as “a powerful emotional reaction to what many people see as an assault on traditional values.”
While this has created a ground-up phenomenon not being led by political parties, Maher says it’s clear that vote-seeking politicians are taking advantage of this shift in the opinion environment, making Canadian politics more ideological and less traditionally oriented. Apply that to the media landscape, and Maher feels news outlets are now able to tailor their content to narrower communities, helping to intensify this divisive process — think Fox News or True North News — so that Canadians increasingly find themselves in “information silos”.
But, he warns, “we should note that journalists, like other Canadians, undergo this same processes as non-journalists.”
The annual Harvey Stevenson Southam Lectureship — named after UVic alumnus Harvey Southam — is made possible by a gift from one of the country’s leading publishing families.
