Thank you for inviting me to contribute to your reflection on the state of the media in Canada and their future. This issue has been at the heart of my work as a scholar and educator at Université Laval for over 20 years now.
Since 2020, I have chaired the Independent Advisory Board on Eligibility for Journalism Tax Measures with the Canada Revenue Agency. This experience has enabled me to become more familiar with the diversity of the Canadian media landscape and to participate in the implementation of an innovative public policy measure to help traditional print media that is fully digital.
Today, I am speaking to you in my capacity as Director of the Centre for Media Studies, a non-profit research and knowledge transfer organization founded in 1992.
I will reiterate what others have said, that this debate you are having with us and with Canadians, on the issue of news and media, needs to be focused first and foremost on the public, on its needs and interests. That may seem simple, but it bears repeating.
Access to reliable, comprehensive and quality news on public affairs is a fundamental condition of democracy — again, simple — but it is also a very old problem. I think we can all agree that the current situation is quite dire. Today, we are facing a crisis that is unprecedented in terms of the speed and complexity of the transformations under way, whether technological or economic, not to mention malevolent interventions into news content.
It is first and foremost an economic and structural crisis, but also, and increasingly, a crisis of confidence and a crisis of the relevance of journalism to the daily lives of citizens. It is probably this last point, the relevance of news to Canadians, that concerns me most. Why bother trying to rethink the business model or rebuild public trust if information isn't present in their everyday lives, if it's not really important to them or, worse, if they actively seek to avoid the news?
May I suggest, then, that you consider citizens as the starting point and the end point of this discussion. This is not to minimize the precarious situation of journalists, companies, unions and the journalistic community as a whole over the past few years, and particularly over the past year. Cuts have been made in the thousands. On the contrary: the working conditions and financial health of the media have a direct impact on the quality and quantity of news. We must support them, but by keeping the needs and interests of citizens in mind first, I believe we can more clearly target the best means of action.
Since 2016, the Centre for Media Studies has been the Canadian partner of the Digital News Report, an annual international survey of news practices and perceptions on various platforms. We have also produced a number of qualitative studies on citizens' information practices, particularly those of young adults. You are likely aware of the trends that have been observed through this work.
Over the past ten years, digital platforms have overtaken television as the main mode of news consumption, and social media have become the default source for many people, even if the majority of respondents have a rather negative perception of these platforms when it comes to news.
We also published a survey conducted last September among Quebeckers on the suppression of news on Meta platforms, following the enactment of the Online News Act. This study showed that most people were aware of this measure, that they were affected by it, and that a third had already adopted different practices for keeping informed. Respondents also felt that government had an important role to play in ensuring access to quality information.
What, then, might measures geared to citizens' information needs look like? Increased support for local news media—