Seems like both a reduction in quality and quantity.
> Canadians continue to learn about politics and current events through Facebook and Instagram, but through a more biased and less factual lens than before and many Canadians do not even realize the shift has occurred.
Although this makes me wonder about the nature of news that tends to get shared on social media. Is it factual reporting or is it opinions we pretend are factual because they’re on the right domain?
All media are under some influence and has an agenda. "factual" information is another way to say that the narrative is controlled in accordance with societal values.
I think the take away is that Canada is loosing the ability to keep macro beliefs in check.
It I'd going it be interesting to see what the long term management of this is.
Interesting previous cases is how we shaped the media landscape after the second world War in order to (attempt to) eradicate nazist beliefs.
If there is an increase in the quality of news consumed it is not the result of the quantity of news consumed decreasing. It would have to be the result of the consumers seeking alternate sources, or some other factor.
> If there is an increase in the quality of news consumed it is not the result of the quantity of news consumed decreasing.
If you read 10x less news from Joe and Billy on Facebook but start reading from professional sources of news, they still might be bad but it will probably be a better article to read.
I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.
You are essentially saying that if you decrease the amount you read but increase the quality of what you are reading, the quality of what you are reading will likely go up. That is bordering on a tautology.
In the situation you describe you happen to be able to consume less news but increase the quality. That is not the same as the increase in quality being a result of a decrease in news. You seem to be confusing correlation and causation.
Seeing that more users are getting their news from TikTok, I doubt that the average quality has increased. Considering that TikTok is under control of the authoritarian Chinese government, the Canadian Facebook ban may have opened the door for a far more concerning situation.
> Canadians continue to learn about politics and current events through Facebook and Instagram, but through a more biased and less factual lens than before and many Canadians do not even realize the shift has occurred.