Media

In this Op-ed, Ed Greenspon and Taylor Owens discuss some of the policy options which would help address the threats to democracy posed by hate speech and disinformation, and which has been empowered by a highly consolidated digital media landscape.

Ed Greenspon spoke on CBC's Power & Politics about different policy options which would help Canadian content creators and address threats to democracy posed by increasingly consolidated Internet media giants.

In this Nieman Journalism Lab article we get an overview of the policy recommendations in the PPF report "Democracy Divided" as part of PPF's ongoing Shattered Mirror Series. The report addresses questions of disinformation and hate speech and its spread through social media marketing tools.

Democracy has been made vulnerable to attack by hate speech and disinformation on digital and social platforms. Policy must be implemented to reconcile freedom of speech and freedom of the press with these online news threats to democracy.

At the start of 2018, PPF, with the support of our six partners, decided to dive deeper into the state of local and community news media. We set out to examine how, exactly, journalistic coverage of communities across Canada has changed over the past decade.

This model of 'journalism as non-profit' buys time, but it isn't necessarily a long-term solution, especially not on its own. Read what PPF's President and CEO Edward Greenspon told Nieman Labs following LaPresse announcement that it was going to become a non-profit entity.

Past Event

Activists, politicians and partisans compete intensely for attention and influence online. Today, malevolent actors seem to have the upper hand. They push disinformation and hate using fake accounts, bots and algorithms designed to keep us scrolling through the latest outrage. News organizations and social media platforms struggle to deal with these media manipulators, particularly after major tragedies or during heated political campaigns like the current one in Ontario.

Are we amusing ourselves to death while darker forces of disinformation undermine our democracy? By Edward Greenspon

On April 4, the Public Policy Forum and the University of British Columbia School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, in partnership with the National Arts Centre, are hosting a discussion with some of the world’s leading experts on social media, including Jonathan Albright, Ben Scott, Julia Angwin, David Carroll, Sue Gardner, and Taylor Owen.

Past Event

Watch the April 4 panel on the role digital platforms play in our democracy. The issue has dominated the news, sparked public outcry and become a priority for governments around the world. Jonathan Albright and other leading thinkers on digital media and democracy take a deeper look at the issue and whether anything should - or can - be done.

Internet giants like Facebook and Google should play a direct role in investing in “trusted local journalism” and Canadian culture, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly said