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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, N ov em be r 22 ,2 01 8 | 22 closures - and don't al- ways provide verified journalism. "What springs up might be a website or some sort of commu- nity Facebook group that has information on it, but it's not veri- fied or it might not befied or it might not bef timely," she said. "You don't know if it was produced indepen- dently or represents a particular view or group. There certainly are legitimate online news sites spring- ing up. I wish we were seeing more of them." A focal point of Lindgren's pro- ject, produced with the Spatial In- formation for Community Engage-formation for Community Engage-f ment Lab at the University of Brit- ish Columbia Okanagan, is the Lo- cal News Map. The interactive map allows users to add changes to local news in their area, such as outlets closing, opening, merging or reduc- ing service. An Oct. 1 report summarizing data collected since 2008 states that 189 community newspapers are among the local news entities that have been shut down. In the same time, 39 new community newspa- pers were launched, and only one new daily paper was reported. Lindgren has long been re- searching "news poverty," the idea that in some places, there is not enough verified coverage for citi- zens to make informed decisions. She believes access to eight key news categories is required for an informed populace: • Emergencies and risks, both immediate and long-term; • Health and welfare, including local health information and group-specific health informationgroup-specific health informationg where it exists;where it exists;w • Education, including the qual- ity of local schools and choices available to parents;available to parents;a • Transportation, including available alternatives, costs andavailable alternatives, costs anda schedules; • Economic opportunities, in- cluding job information, job train- ing and small business assistance; • The environment, including air and water quality and access to recreation; • Civic information, including the availability of civic institutions and opportunities to associate with others; and • Political information, includ- ing information about candidates at all relevant levels of local gover- nance, and about relevant public policy initiatives affecting commu- nities and neighbourhoods. After studying coverage of theAfter studying coverage of theA 2015 federal election in eight com- munities across the country, Lind- gren found that some areas had sig-gren found that some areas had sig-g nificantly more information avail- able than others to help guide vot- ers' decisions. While she studied the quantity of coverage, she notes it's important to consider the qual- ity of information and analysis as well. Lindgren cited research by Uni- versity of North Carolina's Pennyversity of North Carolina's Pennyv Abernathy, the school's Knight chair in journalism and digital me- dia economics, that focuses on "ghost newspapers." The term re- fers to news outlets where the stafffers to news outlets where the stafff has been "cut so severely that the remaining reporters can't do an ad- equate job ... This is a really rele- vant issue and something that'svant issue and something that'sv even more important to try to un- derstand and assess." Other American researchers have looked into the idea of "news deserts": Areas where local news is unavailable. They found such com- munities tend to have lower voter turnout, higher municipal expens- es and reduced social cohesion. Lindgren says the concept has not been studied in Canada, so it's un- clear whether news deserts exist here as well. Etobicoke resident Sarbjit Kaur says suburban areas - such as Brampton and Mississauga, where she grew up - often don't get the cov- erage they deserve considering their significant size. With the com- munity papers often strapped for resources and Toronto's dailies generally unenthused about the 'burbs, major stories are often over- looked, she says. "The suburbs are operating in this bubble where there's a real lack of scrutiny," said Kaur, the for- mer editor of Canada's largest South Asian newspaper, The Week- ly Voice. "In Toronto, if a councillorly Voice. "In Toronto, if a councillorl or mayor says something, TV or the newspaper is on it and talking about it for days ... In the suburbs, there's not any type of real investi- gative journalism, just 'the cat was in the tree' and whatnot." She says the area's vast array of multilingual media outlets - in lan- guages including Punjabi, Hindiguages including Punjabi, Hindig and Gujarati - are well-read and thriving, but also have their own set of issues. "Sometimes the standards are not that great," said Kaur, noting it sometimes appears as though ad- vertisers are swaying the content ofvertisers are swaying the content ofv the articles. "They can be political- ly biased (but) they're filling a void.ly biased (but) they're filling a void.l "There are stories not being cov- ered in the mainstream media that people have an appetite for." Kaur, who runs a communica- tions firm, says more diversity in mainstream newsrooms would help them tap into the stories being covered in other languages. She'd also like to see the government do more to support news outlets that do high-quality work. "In this era of fake news and in- formation overload ... it's importantformation overload ... it's importantf to make sure people have access to good-quality journalism," she said. "There's government funding for every other type of industry. I'm not sure why there isn't for media." Sue Traboulay lives in Beeton, about 45 kilometres south of Bar- rie, and used to get the Bradford Times. That paper was closed in 2017 following a newspaper swap between Torstar and Postmedia that resulted in the companies shutting down 36 small Ontario papers. Traboulay says she misses seeing the death notices, but other- wise, doesn't really mourn the loss of the paper. She says there was more advertising than articles in the Times by the time it closed. These days, she get local news through word of mouth at the bank where she works, and from newswhere she works, and from newsw website Bradford Today. She checks the site for articles about crime in the community, local art- ists and people she knows. "If there's a parade that I've al- ready seen, I don't need to see an ar- ticle about it," she said. "If you wanted to see if that bad, you should have gone." Traboulay says the main differ- ence to her since the newspaper closed is that she reads local news less often. "I don't check (the website) as frequently as I would have pickedfrequently as I would have pickedf up the paper and read it." We welcome your questions and value your comments. Email our trust committee at trust@met- roland.com. According to the Local News Research Project, 216 local news outlets closed between 2008 and Oct. 1, 2018. Metroland graphic DATA SHOWS COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS ARE CLOSING FASTER THAN THEY ARE BEING REPLACED BY NEW MEDIA NEWS THE ISSUE: LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS ARE SHUTTING THEIR DOORS THE IMPACT: NEWS POOR COMMUNITIES LEAVE CITIZENS WITHOUT ENOUGH VERIFIED COVERAGE Continued from page 3 STORY BEHIND THE STORY While newspapers matter -- now more than ever -- more than 100 news outlets have closed their doors in this province alone over the past decade. We take a look at the impacts of these closures on communities and their readers.