Titanic director James Cameron called the search for the Titan submersible a “nightmarish charade.” The 24-hour news channels grasped at every straw to retain viewers and advertising dollars. The five doomed people aboard the craft were easy to identify and build stories around technology, families, their worries, and their grieving.
Not so thousands of kilometres away, a larger tragedy took place: a boat with 750 people aboard sank some 90 kilometres off the Greek coast. That tragedy hardly received any mention in the news. With the disappearance of the Titan, the Canadian and American governments threw all their resources, ships, and aircrafts to find the missing submersible with five very rich people aboard.
In the Mediterranean, the search for the trawler with the 750 people aboard still has hardly begun. Bodies are being recovered.
Former U.S. president Barack Obama called out the disparage difference in the way the two incidences have played out in media around the world. Were the lives of the five people aboard the submersible valued more than the 750 migrants seeking a better life out of Africa? Questions are now being asked as to why there appeared to be hesitancy in responding to the distress calls of the trawler and the immediate response of Canadian and American governments to the loss of contact of the submersible.
But maybe this is in response to the changing method of gathering news. Hundreds of local newspapers have closed across Canada as local advertising dollars that sustained them have moved south to Google and Facebook. Bell Canada announced that they were eliminating 1,300 positions, laying off senior reporters in Ottawa, Washington D.C., London, Los Angeles, and other locations to centralize news gathering. Nine radio stations were also being closed. Post Media has made the decision to close newspapers across Canada.
Lana Meier, whose family started and operated several newspapers in Manitoba’s Interlake Region explained the changing of publishing best. After her father sold his chain of papers, she remained with the group, becoming the regional publisher and manager. She left the group and started new newspapers in her old market. They focused on the people and businesses of the area and became very successful. With the closing of Post Media publications that her family once owned, her publications are now looking for growth.
Meier notes that she runs her papers differently than large corporations. She supports community activities, and her reporters live and work in the communities. She noted “We didn’t want to be a reporter showing up at an event and leaving. We buy tickets. We financially support every event, and in return, the business community and organizations have supported us.”
More people are reading papers at home, and businesses are buying advertising to announce their service changes. “As long as there’s people out there sharing those stories and the business community supporting them, then I think it’s alive and well,” Meier said.
The stories of the people and businesses in communities that affect their lives are more vital than the easy stories carried by major networks and paper chains. It is often forgotten.
The Fort Frances Times has also chosen to spend more resources covering local stories and leaving it to the major regional and national news media to cover regional and national stories.
