It has never been so difficult to recruit and retain journalists in the regions, note several French-language media across the country, including Radio-Canada. But without reporting to keep them informed of the issues that affect their daily lives, many local communities turn into a media desert and lose their interest and their confidence in the press.
“Last year, for more than a year, we had 70 unfilled vacancies posted per month. And that’s only for French-language regional media, it doesn’t include Montreal or the CBC,” says Jean-François Rioux, general manager of regional media at Radio-Canada. He was invited to speak on Saturday at a conference on media deserts on the occasion of the Carleton-sur-Mer International Journalism Festival.
Mr. Rioux notices today that fewer and fewer people dream of becoming a journalist. And those who still wish to practice the profession come very rarely from the regions and do not always want to settle there in the long term.
“People come, but for a year or six months, before leaving for the big centers. […] Since they are not from the region, they do not easily identify with it,” he points out, specifying that the retention rate at Radio-Canada is currently 70%, which he considers “insufficient”.
The public broadcaster has also begun to develop partnerships with universities in Moncton, Saint-Boniface, Toronto and Ottawa to recruit young people who come directly from these regions, hoping that they will then choose to stay there to practice job.
This recruitment problem is far from affecting only Radio-Canada, and it is such that local media end up snapping up talent. “I lose two journalists a year for Radio-Canada in Moncton,” says Gaétan Chiasson, newsroom director at The new Acadia, a French-language daily based in Caraquet, New Brunswick. To which Jean-François Rioux hastens to reply: “And then they leave for Montreal. We are in the same boat. »
The challenge is the same The Acadian Voice, the only French-language newspaper on Prince Edward Island. “My director is close to retirement, but she cannot find a successor. However, it is not for lack of searching. It is also difficult to recruit young journalists. This is a big concern for the newspaper, especially within a minority French-speaking community,” warns Marine Ernoult, a journalist for four years for The Acadian Voice.
Citizens without a voice
This lack of personnel forces the media to make difficult coverage choices and to neglect certain regions, which become media deserts. “It creates an imbalance,” notes Gilles Gagné, deputy editor of the monthly GRAFFICI, in Gaspésie. “We are very lucky to have so many journalists in an area of 83,000 inhabitants. But is it normal that there are no journalists based in Chandler and Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, which are the 2nd and 3rd most populous cities? he wonders.
This situation also puts a lot of pressure on other journalists in the area as they sometimes have to travel very long distances to cover the local news more fairly. “It also forces us to make difficult choices and sometimes we miss a good story. Because people come to talk to us when they see us, otherwise they forget about us,” he notes.
Citizens may not understand it, but they are an essential source of information for the media, and even more so in the regions. Gaetan Chiasson, from New Acadia, points out that no less than half of the news in his newspaper comes from the public. “This is where we see the importance of the relationship between journalists and readers. When something happens in their village, they call us directly. And that’s because we managed to develop a relationship with them over time.
Find the nearby link
A relationship which had however almost disappeared in the last two decades, specifies Mr. Chiasson. In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, his newspaper decided to drastically cut local news, to make more room for international and national news. “We took ourselves for the New York Times “, he says, laughing, recognizing today that it was a “bad idea” and working to find this link of proximity with the citizens. “People want to hear about what concerns them, what affects them,” he insists.
“If you don’t connect with citizens, it’s simple, you’ll lose them,” adds Jean-François Rioux, of Radio-Canada. “Before, we had to call a whole list of people or organizations to get news, ask questions, find topics. But with the continuous news channels, the immediacy of the news, we have forgotten what our business really is: talking to people, reaching out to them, listening to them. »
It is all the more urgent to find this close link, he says, in a context of crisis of confidence in the media. “The studies say it: by offering local news, it is easier for people to identify with the story and to verify it in a certain way”.
Our journalist is in Carleton-sur-Mer at the Festival’s invitation.