Q&A: How the Meta news block is impacting student newspapers in London, Ont.
CBC
The ongoing blocking of Canadian news content on Facebook and Instagram is making it hard for media organizations across the country to ensure their content is reaching their audiences.
The social media news ban is the result of an ongoing battle between tech giant Meta, who owns Facebook and Instagram, and the federal government over who should pay for news that's repurposed on the platforms.
It's presenting a unique challenge for student-run newspapers at universities and colleges, whose main demographic is young adults who primarily rely on social media apps to find and share their news.
CBC London Morning host Allison Devereaux spoke with student journalists Estella Ren, editor-in-chief of The Gazette at Western University, and Hannah Theodore, editor at the Interrobang at Fanshawe College. They shared how the news block is affecting their organizations.
The following has been edited for length and clarity.
Allison Devereaux: How has the move by Meta to block Canadian news affected your publication?
Estella Ren: It has a huge impact on our publication because after we publish our news on the website, we publish them again on Instagram stories and if it's a big news or feature story, publish them in an Instagram post.
We have 6,900 followers on Instagram, each of them reposts our stories and [they'd] reach thousands of people before Meta blocked us. And we all know that Generation Z lives and breathes Facebook and Instagram, our Gazette readers are students who are in this age group, and Instagram is where we get most of our foot traffic from.
AD: Estella, how much would that traffic gap be? How many people are going to your website versus the amount accessing stories through your social media?
ER: From what I observe, most of our readers will know the stories we publish from Instagram and then they would click on the link to go on the website and read stories, so we get most of our traffic from Instagram
AD: Hannah, how did readers on your end start finding out that something had changed?
Hannah Theodore: It was kind of a slow trickle even for myself, going to our Instagram page and noticing that our content was no longer visible. Members of our videography team were coming into my office asking 'Are we still making vertical videos?' Because I've been working on expanding our multi-media growth because we also know that's how our audience is consuming news, especially on Instagram, they want that video content, so we're losing a huge piece of the way that we're trying to reach students right now.
LISTEN: How campus newspapers are navigating the Meta news ban
AD: Does it feel as though you put a lot of work into social media and it's just not there anymore?
The notion that home ownership guarantees financial security in old age is being challenged by a recent survey.
The family of Nash Prystie has identified him as the man who died in an Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) shooting earlier this month north of Kenora, and is calling for more and quicker help for people with mental health challenges.
Playoff action in the Ontario Hockey League gets underway Thursday night for Guelph and Friday in Kitchener.
UPEI wants its faculty to sign on to an updated version of its sexual assault and discrimination policy, but the union that represents the school's academic staff says it wants the policies to be part of its collective agreement.
In Texas this week for a global energy conference, the federal natural resources minister is proclaiming "Canada is back" and ready to bolster its energy sector and grow exports.
Members of Parliament last year went on the fewest sponsored international trips in the last 15 years, excluding the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ontario is running out of time to beef up rules that would crack down on negligent and misbehaving municipal politicians ahead of the next civic election, some experts and opposition critics warn.
Six London teens are each facing multiple charges following a break-and-enter spree at homes in the city's southwest end early Sunday, police said.
The Department of Transportation and Infrastructure is putting the finishing touches on completing the Team Gushue Highway, but it means drivers might have to change their routes until later this summer.
Passage of the Nova Scotia government's budget bill stalled late Tuesday night when a group of singing protesters shut down the final vote to approve the budget.
Health Minister John Dornan said Woodstock-based eVisitNB will continue to provide virtual health-care services to New Brunswickers for another 90 days after March 31.
The head of Canada's largest airline has been summoned to Ottawa to explain why he spoke only in English when he offered his condolences to the families of those killed or hurt in the collision between a plane and a fire truck at a New York City airport on Sunday.
Manitoba is bucking a national trend by promising to slash its deficit, while boosting health care spending by nearly $1 billion and delivering modest affordability measures, including a PST cut that will save you money next time you buy a soda and bag of chips.