A man of many titles, including journalist and educator, is shining a light on how newsrooms are changing and how journalism plays a role in democracy.
The Kiwanis Club of Sarnia-Lambton Golden K hosted a hybrid meeting (virtual and in-person) earlier this week, with guest speaker Larry Cornies.
He briefly shared how newsrooms once operated and alluded to how "those ships have sailed."
Newsrooms across the country are working with fewer reporters or are closing their doors altogether.
As mentioned by Cornies, one consequence of thinning news organizations is the reduced ability to hold governments accountable.
"As information about governments become less and less robust, citizens become disengaged. They feel like the machinery of government is going to grind on with or without their participation," he said.
In the 2022 municipal election, the voter turnout for the City of Sarnia was down at 40.41 per cent.
Voter turnout in last year's provincial election hit a record low at 43.5 per cent, and according to Elections Canada, the voter turnout in the 2021 federal election was at 62.2 per cent.
"If we really are interested in democracy and democratic governments, we're now skating on very thin ice," Cornies said. "Democracy really works only if citizens are interested in making it work."
Some other changes noted during Cornies' presentation was the shift to online media, where organizations focus on "clicks" which may have resulted in some skepticism from readers.
"We citizens tend to distrust each other … We are becoming somewhat more tribal," Cornies said. "We have separated ourselves into the media magnified clans of vax and anti-vax, right and left, urban and rural, convoy lovers and haters; and we shout at each other across the divide through memes and slogans."
During the question portion of the meeting, one person inquired about CBC and if revenue from the federal government affects its journalistic integrity.
Cornies, who knows many CBC reporters, said he knows them to be so dedicated to their craft that funding likely isn't something thought about when writing stories.
"They will go about their duty -- same when I worked at the London Free Press or the Globe and Mail, I did my job. I thought, the biggest contribution I could make to this enterprise was to give it all the credibility I could muster. Why else would people come to it? So, where the money came from, I suppose I should have cared, I didn't," he said. "I figured there's an entire section of the newspaper, hundreds of people [who] are worrying about revenue, that's not my concern."
He also said one of the first principle's in journalism is fairness.
Cornies then posed another question regarding whether many reporters "lean left." He answered with "probably" and said journalistic organizations generally do, as journalists are often interested in stories involving change.
"Not for change sake but always to be improving, to be progressive. Sometimes, we have to rein in, as newsroom managers, we have to reign in people who are excessively progressive," he said. "That's sort of just in the character of journalists, that they want to tell stories that produce change and they're not terribly interested in protecting the status quo. Good newsrooms will find their own antidotes for that."
During his presentation, Cornies also spoke about the importance of supporting journalism and a campaign launched in Waterloo, ink-stainedwretches.org.
Municipalities across the country jumped on board with this campaign, including nearby areas such as London, Chatham-Kent, and Windsor.
"I noticed that Sarnia is not yet on board. This year's World Press Freedom Day is May 3. Is there still time?"
