New immigrants trust news media more than those who lived in Canada for more than a few years or people born in Canada, says Statistics Canada (StatsCan)..The longer immigrants lived in Canada, the less confidence they have in the news media, said a recent StatsCan report.. Person reading a newspaper .“Recent immigrants had a substantially higher level of confidence in media,” said a StatsCan report Confidence. .“For example, among South Asians, 25% of those born in Canada had confidence in the Canadian media compared with 57% of recent immigrants.”.Asked to rate their confidence in media overall, only 33% of the general public trusted news corporations. .The rate was highest among recent South Asian immigrants (57%), Filipinos (54%), Arabs (47%), Blacks (43%) and Chinese immigrants (42%) who had spent fewer than a decade in Canada..However, confidence in media declined the longer they lived in Canada, according to Blacklock’s Reporter. .Among “established immigrants” who spent more than a decade here, only 45% of Filipinos said they trusted the media, followed by 39% of South Asians, 34% of Chinese and 33% of Blacks and 29% of Arabs..No reason was given. .Data were drawn from questionnaires in a StatsCan Series on People survey nationwide..Media analysts testifying at the Commons Heritage committee said federal subsidies like a $595 million press bailout approved by Parliament in 2019 accelerated distrust of newsrooms. .“Canada is facing not one news crisis but two,” Jeanette Ageson, publisher of the Vancouver news site The Tyee, testified on September 27. .“One is financial and the other is the crisis of mistrust,” said Ageson.. Newspaper stackNewspaper stack .“Canadians are expressing unprecedented distrust towards the news and the reporters who deliver it,” said Ageson, speaking on behalf of the Independent Online News Publishers of Canada. .“Canadians need to know who is funding the news they receive and on what terms.”.“Trust in Canada’s media has never been lower,” testified Peter Menzies, former Calgary Herald editor-in-chief. .Public mistrust was fueled by confidential subsidy terms with publishers, said Menzies..“The more government assistance news media gets, the more broken the relationship with readers becomes,” said Menzies. .“The more that relationship is broken, the more subsidy will be required.”.Sue Gardner, a former CBC executive, testified on November 2 that Canadian media are dreadful. .“It’s appalling,” said Gardner, visiting professor at McGill University’s Max Bell School of Public Policy..“It’s terrible. I don’t think anyone is arguing differently.”.“I had lived outside Canada for 11 years and I returned about a year and a half ago,” said Gardner. .“The Globe and Mail is a brochure now. The institutions, even the ones that still exist, are hollowed-out versions of their former selves. They’re memories of what they used to be.”
