Does Democracy Need a Healthy Traditional News Media?

I often hear people saying that a "healthy news media industry enhances democracy”. But is there any objective way to measure what "healthy" means, what "enhancing democracy" means, and whether the two are actually correlated?

For argument’s sake, I’ll define a “strong democracy” as a society where there’s genuine and open public dialog, where most people engage in civic life - especially by voting - and whose public institutions:

• Act in good faith

• Are not corrupt

• Work to represent the will of the people

In my unscientific opinion, so long as unhappy Albertans are talking about a separation referendum and political activism rather than armed revolution, I’d say the citizens are still carrying their share of the load. Should the Front de libération du Red Deer blow up its first Canada Post mailbox, I’ll reconsider.

No journalist can be perfectly apolitical - they’re (arguably) human, after all - but they can certainly be objective and fair. And deciding which stories a media organization will suppress will have at least as much of an influence on media consumers as how the stories that do get through are reported. So I’ll suggest that the ideal of a “healthy news media” includes:

• Respect for accuracy and transparency

• Being upfront about ideological bias

• Independence from external or internal censorship

• A commitment to inform rather than persuade (besides stuff on the op-ed page)

To say that Canada's establishment print media market as a whole skews hard left (or hard right) is simply incorrect. There are multiple major newspapers unreservedly leaning toward both sides of the political spectrum. When it comes to broadcast media, I have to acknowledge my ignorance: I’ve never actually owned a TV and I haven't watched a TV news broadcast since peak Knowlton Nash. But I still stand by my analysis of CBC.ca “news” coverage from a year ago.

Nevertheless, it would be helpful if we could somehow measure the impact media actually has on civil society.