Culture

Journalism about journalism: why media convergence is bad

by Rob Peters | November 6, 2007 at 04:31 pm

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    The major newspaper around these parts, The Vancouver Sun, now runs the risk of further vanilla-ification.
    CanWest, the media company that owns the two major Vancouver newspapers, is starting to outsource page layout and copy-editing duties to save money.
    This means a portion of the newspaper's production will be done thousands of kilometres away, in Hamilton, Ontario.
    It begs the question: will all of Canada's news eventually come from Ontario? It's a worrisome trend. Doesn't democracy require more than one voice?

Work traditionally done in the newsroom at the Vancouver Sun is now being sent by e-mail across the country to be done by non-union staff of the CanWest empire in Hamilton, Ontario, union sources say, claiming the result will be further erosion of the paper's local character and threatens to the unionized work force here.

"There are important issues here of local control and local voice," Bocking said. "What we're seeing here is an increased homogenization of the news that makes the paper tedious.

"Layout might seem like a mechanical or packaging issue to a layperson, but it isn't really. It determines the play you are giving to a particular story. The layout of content is very important, and we think it should be done in the local newsroom. That's why we've launched a grievance about this matter at the Sun, and will soon at the Province,"