Darvin Jasper introduced Mr. Reg Sherren as our guest presenter tonight. Reg is a very familiar face to most Canadians. He has been presenting social issue stories to Canadians on the CBC for 30 years. He is an award-winning journalist and has traveled to the Persian Gulf, Europe and Japan for stories to present. He is a proud Newfoundlander as well as a storyteller to the real people that make the news.

 

Reg advised that he has been a journalist for 40 years. He thanked Darvin for the invite as well as the Charleswood Rotary Club’s welcome to him. He has visited at least a half dozen Rotary clubs across Canada during his travels. He stated that service clubs are having a hard time increasing their memberships these days. People need to get off their phones!

 

Reg left the CBC at the end of December 2017, after 36 years with the broadcaster. He is keeping busy writing a book and making documentaries when he wants and on the topics he wants. For 40 years he has not been able to make a stand on any topics. He had to remain neutral while working at the CBC, those days are gone!

 

Just for context, the Great Flood of 1997 was 20 years ago. That story was the lead on The National – CBC News with Reg reporting, for 25 days in a row. That remains a record to this day.

 

A lot has changed in journalism during his career. Reg feels that he is on the verge of knowing nothing! He asked if news is something that we absorb – is it better or worse? Consensus was -worse.

 

The way we get our information is changing. Who reads newspapers now? Actually, a large part of the club still reads the paper!! The current move is towards“Populism”. At its root, populism is a belief in the power of regular people, and in their right to have control over their government rather than a small group of political insiders or a wealthy elite. (Vocabulary.com)

 

In the world of news, this has allowed shows like Entertainment Tonight to become a source of news. These types of shows provide juicy stories about celebrities and other public figures. Media has to give the people (eyeballs) what they want for ratings. Ratings determine everything. Ratings = Revenue = Profit. He believes that the CBC should not be in the business of making a profit.

 

What is covered for the CBC news is determined by what the ratings will be. The boring news about education, health etc. are dropped for sexier stories. Media organizations are buying up each other to become fewer but much larger. This leads to fewer journalists required to feed the news to the large consortium. Decreased jobs results in increased profits. The CBC has faced cutbacks, private entities are doing the same. This also leads to fewer news stories being covered, it is only the CRTC rules that force these companies to continue providing news programming.

 

The CBC used to be a good source for coverage of the news events related to basic social issues (education, health, poverty, homeless, drugs), but now the eyeballs / ratings demand celebrity stories.

 

Now the next issue to arrive in the newsroom has been social media. No one could have predicted what was going to happen with the explosion of social media and cell phone use in the world. Early on, Reg was interested in streaming a story online. He was told at the time that no one would watch a video of significant length online.

 

Facebook and Google have all the eyeballs now. Facebook alone has 2.23 billion monthly users. Reg has made a video story for the CBC that has 370 million views on Facebook.  The story is about a young Canadian in the Montreal area that has invented a hoverboard that actually works.   https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/inventor-who-starred-in-viral-cbc-hoverboard-video-aims-higher-1.3744892 . The National is lucky to get 600,000 views per night. The CBC has become dependant on an outside source for it`s content. Ratings are now followed by the second if a broadcaster wishes. The CBC is a public service but decisions about what to cover are made by looking to see what is trending online. No actual decisions need to be made. Just follow where the eyeballs are already going.

 

Newspapers used to be the media of record. They would provide the in-depth, ground-breaking coverage that the nightly news programs would follow. The papers are now fighting for their lives. The newspapers are caught between the old world and the new world.

 

The advertising dollars are going to digital media. Digital media advertising in Canada is now a $6billion dollar business, 3 out of 4 dollars goes to Google and Facebook. There are currently no taxes paid for online advertising. These ads also provide no local employment.

 

The CBC is addicted to online eyeballs. CBC.ca is one of the top websites in Canada. The problem is that it is subsidized by the government while its competition in the private sector gets no public funds. The CBC needs to stop selling advertising. It sold $36 million to advertisers last year, while receiving $1.1 billion from government. The CBC should not be helping to put the private sector entities out of business.

 

In closing, Reg stated that he gets asked if he is going to leave Manitoba now that he is retired? The simple answer is no. He is a proud Newfoundlander, but he is remaining in Manitoba.

 

Q/A

 

1.-Bob Antymniuk – do you receive any royalties from the work with CBC?

A.- No, CBC owns all the work / stories he produced.

 

2.- Martin Labossiere asked if the younger generations will watch longer, documentary style stories?

A.-Yes they will and studies have proved this.

 

3.- Nancy Hansen asked Reg to talk about his book.

A.- Called “That Wasn`t The Plan”. These are the stories behind the stories.

 

4.-Paul Brault, Bob Cox -Winnipeg Free Press Publisher- has suggested that newspapers may have to turn into foundations in order to survive.

A.- The CBC will have to turn it`s resources towards investigative journalism.

 

5.-Jack Wilson questioned what his next documentary will focus on?

A.-All he would say is that it involves a criminal psychiatric institution and LSD experiments.

 

6.- Darvin Jasper, any stories that stand out from the rest?

A.-i. POW John Ford return to Nagasaki 57 years after the bomb was dropped.

     ii. The story of Darlene Necan trying to not be homeless by building a shack on her family`s traditional land in Savant Lake. She is facing up to $10,000 in fines for building on crown land.

 

7.- Ranjan Sehgal asked who should be able to sell advertising time /space, the CBC, CTV or media around the world?

A.- Facebook and Google are invading our digital space and selling ads with impunity. There needs to be control. Netflix was going to be the first target to get taxed. Netflix dodged the taxes when it said it would invest $500 million into local Canadian production….a drop in the financial bucket! Quebec is going to tax Netflix in 2019. Australia is thinking of taxing as well. There needs to be a Legislative change and the political willpower to stand behind it.