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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, O ct ob er 4, 20 18 | 46464 www.fabricland.ca NOWOPEN IN OAKVILLE AT 2501 HAMPSHIRE GATE, UNIT 7A (South side of Dundas, just west ofWinston Churchill) TEL. 905-287-4148 .fabricland.ca McCall's patternMcCall's pattern 7693, featuring our "Suede and Leatherette Looks" OFF OUR REGULAR PRICES ON SELECTED MERCHANDISE SAVE UP TO OFF OUR REGUL 50% ARREGUL and more! NEW NHL FLEECES ARE HERE! NEW NHL®NEW NHL PlusPlus NEW NHL Plus NEW NHLNEW NHL Plus NEW NHL FALL intoFASHION! Sale in effect October 3-17, 2018, on selected in-stock merchandise. A lot to be Thankful For! This time of year, we are reminded of the the many blessings that surround us - our family, friends, our health and our community. At Kerr Street Mission we feel blessed to have so many community partners who share in our vision to bring help for the present and hope for the future. One of our valued community partners is Moe's Family Restaurant, located at 467 Speers Rd, Oakville. For the past 9 years they have generously offered a delicious Thanksgiving feast to thank the community for their continued support, with proceeds going to support the children, youth and adults that depend on Kerr Street Mission. This year is no exception. They will be continuing this giving tradition with the 10th annual Thanksgiving Dinner on Monday, October 8th starting at 5:30 pm. The first 301 customers will receive a free holiday meal of dinner, with soup and tasty dessert (Beverages will be an additional fee). Voluntary donations are requested for Kerr Street Mission. Cash, cheque, Visa or MasterCard are all accepted. We hope you can join us! Kerr Street Mission depends on the donations from the community. To learn more about KSM and how you can support the essential services provided to children, youth and families - please reach out to us @ 905.845.7485 or visit www.kerrstreet.com Kerr Street Mission 485 Kerr Street, Oakville P: 905.845.7485 Charitable Reg. No. 897106845RR0001 Veteran journalist She- rine Mansour, who teaches at Oakville's Sheridan Col- lege, says the arrival of the internet in the 1990s changed the news land- scape drastically. "Almost 20 years ago we saw the internet as an excit- ing new medium for the ex- change and distribution of news and information," she said in a Sept. 26 email. "We were right to be excited and we were naive to not realize how this new medium was about to destroy many in- dustries including the news business." She said that once infor- mation became more widely available, fewer people were interested in paying for content and audiencesfor content and audiencesf became fragmented, mak- ing advertising less attrac- tive. Net advertising reve- nue at newspapers dropped from $3.87 billion in 2007 tofrom $3.87 billion in 2007 tof $2.13 billion in 2016, accord- ing to News Media Canada. "I've seen local news de- partments stripped bare of staff and entire newspapers close up shop," said Man- sour, who worked at Global, CHCH, CTV and CHUM over her TV career. "It's not an easy time." In addition to tighter budgets, one of the biggest changes Mansour has seen is in the way people value - or don't value - local news. "I think the two actually go hand in hand because if you understand the value of something to the quality of your life, then you are will- ing to pay for it." Ryerson University jour- nalism professor April Lindgren - principal inves- tigator for the Local News Research Project - says community newspapers help residents feel part of a shared narrative. "(Local news coverage) holds power accountable but also brings people to- gether by bringing a com- mon narrative for them about their community," she said. "It creates a com- mon denominator of infor- mation. Similarly, in the ab- sence of that sort of news there's a vacuum ... Misin- formation and deliberatelyformation and deliberatelyf fake news canfake news canf jump in to fill the gap." Lindgren's research pro- ject tracked the number of news outlets that opened and closed in Canada be- tween 2008 and 2018. It found that only 69 brand new out- lets emerged in that time, while 214 closed. Her team also studied 2015 federal election cover- age in eight communities across the country, finding that some areas had signif- icantly more information available than others to help guide voters' decisions. "There were quite large discrepancies based on where you lived," she said. "Some people are informa- tion-rich in terms of their ability to be informed, where others were relative- ly impoverished." Sharing personal stories to help better understand each other is another key function of local media,function of local media,f says Kurt Muller, dean of the McKeil School of Busi- ness, Media and Entertain- ment at Hamilton's Mo- hawk College. A former broadcast journalist, Mull- er says local coverage helps people better appreciate the circumstances of those who are different than them- selves. "It's very important to tell people's stories." When it comes to educat- ing today's journalism stu- dents, Muller said times have changed from when he started as a journalist about two decades ago. Back then, TV reporters did TV, and writers wrote. Now, stu- dents must be able to work in a multifaceted way in or- der to produce content for the web. "Even if you're a newspa- per reporter now, it's a very valuable skill if you can shoot and edit video," he said. "You're expected to (be skilled with) social media. The skill set has really grown, but the core skill, which is storytelling, has remained the same." It can sound like a lot of bad news for local news, but Hinds - the News Media Canada CEO - is hopeful that informing readers through campaigns such as National Newspaper Week will help them think more critically about their roles. "We want to send a mes- sage to readers and to ad- vertisers that these are in- stitutions that are worth supporting," he said. "Peo- ple can support them by reading, buying and sub- scribing." This article is part of ourThis article is part of ourT special content for Nationalspecial content for Nationals Newspaper Week, whichNewspaper Week, whichN runs Oct. 1 to 7. Use the hash- tag #NowMoreThanEver to join the conversation on so- cial media. NEWS NEWSPAPERS 'INSTITUTIONS THAT ARE WORTH SUPPORTING,' SAYS NEWS MEDIA CANADA STORY BEHIND THE STORY Oct. 1-7 is National Newspaper Week, which serves as an opportunity to reflect on the important role of newspapers in communities. Continued from page 3 THE QUESTION: WHY DOES JOURNALISM MATTER NOW MORE THAN EVER? THE CONCLUSION: BECAUSE YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW. BECAUSE DEMOCRACY MATTERS. BECAUSE YOU MATTER.