[Wamvan] Very Bad News - How will we resist a media oligarchy in Canada??

[Natalie Hill]

As some of you may have heard, today Postmedia announced they were buying a
chain of 175 English-language newspapers from competitor, Quebecor.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/10/06/postmedia-buys-sun-newspapers_n_5938462.html>These
include the 24 hrs free dailies, and the tabloid-style ‘Sun’ papers in
cities like Toronto and Ottawa (confusingly, these papers are more similar
in style and tone to The Province).



With this deal, Postmedia essentially transforms from a national media
giant to a national media uber-monster, with even more power and control of
our news channels.



This is very bad news.



Postmedia already owns the two leading newspapers in Vancouver, The
Vancouver Sun and The Province. Up until now we have had the ill-fortune of
being one of the Canadian cities in which one media chain owns both leading
papers. If this deal is approved, the mainstream press in most other
Canadian cities will be like ours – dominated by one powerful, conservative
voice.



Beyond the general reasons why media conglomeration is bad, * this deal has
additionally negative consequences for gender justice - and the exploration
of social justice issues generally - in the media.* As a staunchly
conservative chain, Postmedia is notorious for having the voices and
opinions of white dudes dominate its pages; for neglecting to do in-depth
reporting on a wide range of social justice issues, or treat them as news
period; and for propagating harmful myths that further oppress so many of
us (rape culture narratives, Islamaphobia, just to name a few).



Apparently the deal still has to be approved by the Competition Bureau
(government body that regulates corporate takeovers), before it’s final.



So what are we going to do about it?!
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