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Newspaper headline, "Great Storm Hits after 4-inch rain"
Understanding climate change means reading beyond headlines
By
David Suzuki
| February 8, 2017

Seeing terms like "post-truth" and "alternative facts" gain traction in the news convinces me that politicians, media workers and readers could benefit from a refresher course in how science helps us understand the world. Reporting on science is difficult at the best of times. Trying to communicate complex ideas and distill entire studies into eye-catching headlines and brief stories can open the door to misinformation and limited understanding.

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Image: C-SPAN
Media literacy in a post-fact age
By
Penney Kome
| February 6, 2017

Fake news is as old as the Internet. From the 1990s, I remember spam, scams, and ghost ship "rolling" petitions that sailed the white-font-on-black-background PINE and LYNX seas -- almost as soon as the first e-list was compiled.

Spam couldn't easily penetrate Usenet -- the threaded online discussion Bulletin Boards, or BBSes that scientists used before email. When email lists proliferated, however, spamsters found ways to hop on board other people's trains, at open relays.

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Image: Flickr/Policy Exchange
Ted Byfield is back, cyber-crusading for Jason Kenney's bid to lead Alberta back to the '50s!
By
David J. Climenhaga
| January 30, 2017

Like the proverbial bad penny, Ted Byfield is back.

It should come as no surprise that Byfield, now 87 and still apparently furious the world has changed, is once again hoping to influence Alberta's political course.

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Image: Flickr/Roland Tanglao
In Greenspon report, corporate media blames everything but itself
By
Nick Fillmore
| January 27, 2017

What a difference some 50 years has made in one of Canada's most important and powerful industries!

Back in 1970, the Senate of Canada called an inquiry to investigate the exorbitant profits made by Canada's handful of media barons.

Skinflint media mogul Roy Thomson had declared that owning a radio or television station was like having a license to print money. He added that owning a newspaper was even better, because a license was not required.

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Image: Flickr/Michael Vadon
In his first press conference, President-Elect Trump faced nothing but dumb questions
By
John Miller
| January 16, 2017

Scientist Carl Sagan once wrote: "There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question."

Unfortunately, journalists covering Donald Trump's first press conference as president-elect proved Sagan wrong. They asked a ton of dumb questions.

And if the four years of a Trump presidency are going to be any good for democracy, journalists need to stop trying to be sycophants and shouters and start trying to be who they need to be: Watchdogs holding power to account.

They can start by embracing one fact: A dumb question is a question that doesn't get an answer.

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Redeye
Redeye

The transformation of Canada's media landscape

December 24, 2016
| Ian Gill, a former editor at the Vancouver Sun, and Marc Edge, journalism educator and media critic, address the present and future state of Canadian media in talks recorded in Vancouver on Nov 29.
Length: 23:07 minutes (21.17 MB)
rabble news

Revolutionary program empowers girls with media literacy and activism skills

Photo: Access to Media Education Society (AMES)

In this social media age where the youth demographic is expected to be proficient in all media platforms and propel this technological evolution at an unprecedented rate, it truly matters who continues to take up space and whose voices are at the table.

If young people, particularly marginalized and underrepresented voices, "don't have the skills to use online, they don't have a voice in society," said Megan Ryland, program coordinator of #HerDigitalVisions, a project of B.C.-based organization Access to Media Education Society (AMES).

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Tags:
women's rights feminism media Digital Media media literacy #HerDigitalVisions

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Right-wing media takes an Islamophobic twist on the tragic deaths of two Ottawa sisters
By
J. Baglow
| December 19, 2016

A tragic story out of Ottawa -- and the carrion-eaters are already out in force.

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Needs No Introduction
Needs No Introduction

Protecting the right to protest: Free speech versus corporate power

December 15, 2016
| Slap suits are a common tactic which corporations use to shut down criticism. Four speakers talk about how to slap down slap suits at Media Democracy Days 2016.
Length: 1:03:08 minutes (83.15 MB)
Needs No Introduction
Needs No Introduction

Ryan McMahon: Red Man Laughing

December 9, 2016
| Indigenous comedian and storyteller Ryan McMahon delivered this year's Media Democracy Days 2016 keynote address.
Length: 59:02 minutes (77.73 MB)
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