As it says in the title, the BBC is starting its own Mastodon instance. I think the CBC (and other news networks) should do similar. Particularly with the recent passing of Bill C-18 it seems like a world where the links we share are crossposts to news organization’s own content is the perfect resolution to that whole issue.
I sent a couple emails to them around the time Musk labelled them as state propaganda. They sent one reply back saying they’d forward it to whoever is in charge of social. No way to know whether or not is was just basically flushed down the toilet though. I don’t know if there’s a particular way to reach them to recommend that they set up a presence here.
I don’t really see the downside for them. A private server would be relatively low cost and it could be hosted on servers they control in Canada. Beyond an official place for their work, it also means their employees and journalists wouldn’t have to worry about where to sign up, plus give them instant account verification.
As much as I love the CBC, they always seem a bit too reluctant to lead.
Edit: Just wanted to add that it’s important to reach out to CBC any way you can. I’m not sure about other Fediverse projects but Mastodon at least uses Rel=noreferer in the header. Traffic from Mastodon users will show up in analytics as direct traffic so they can’t see how many people are originating from there.
I emailed them today. It is clear that the “free” platforms they rely on are now openly hostile to them and their users. We need to put public services back onto public infrastructure
I sent them a note via their feedback form too. If we all do that they might start paying attention.
It is unlikely they have the know-how. The OECD doesn’t call Canada the “most educated nation” because we believe in learning how to learn. We believe that one needs to be trained before they are able to do anything. At this time, it is all but certain that nobody has gone through a Fediverse/Mastadon/Lemmy college course.
I kind of agree with your premise about education vs training. But, I know someone who just finished a PhD thesis on an aspect of social media. These people are out there & could probably establish rapport without much friction. And at the end of the day, I’d say it’s better if these projects are spearheaded by people who have some wisdom about the waters that we’re going out into. Though, yeah, I share your pessimism more generally.
I know it’s a cliche, but I wonder if that’s a ‘Canadian’ thing.
Maybe? I think it’s also because they’re constantly under attack from conservatives. Anything too progressive or new could make them stand out more as a target. “The Fediverse?! Look what the Liberal CBC is doing with taxpayer money now!” It’s maybe put them in a box where they think they can only do whatever other news or media organizations are doing.
I also think they probably underestimate the amount of support they have from Canadians too.
Yeah, could be. I’d like to see funding for the CBC maintained, and think it’s so valuable to have a national broadcaster. At the same time, can I take a moment to bellyache about CBC radio? Some of their programming makes me a bit sad. Like having a show that simply repeats podcasts produced by other people, occasionally about American news stories. There’s no reason for that to be on the airwaves in 2023. Programs like The Sunday Edition, and Writers and Company are gone, and it seems like a lot of the spoken word programs are in the weeds on fringe issues. It’s just not the first preset on my dial anymore. And it’s too bad because I used to really look forward to tuning in. Maybe radio is dying, I don’t know.
Why’s that? A radio show that curates the best of other radio shows is a perfectly fine use of the medium. In fact, it makes a lot of sense as if you like listening to one radio show you will probably like listening to others as well.
Huh? Writers and Company is still there, and is streamed to legacy devices on Sunday at 3PM.
Quite the opposite. It is alive and well. That show you spoke of earlier being able to regularly find new content from other radio programs to present to the audience is telling about just how strong radio is. If radio was dying, that show would have died long ago.
Speaking specifically about the ‘Podcast Playlist’ show - while I don’t disagree that it can be an interesting nexus for new information, I don’t think it needs to be on the air at all. If the objective is curation, that could easily and more effectively be done via an online feed where the shows are actually hyperlinked, tagged, & made accessible. I’m not a radio producer so, grain of salt. But from my armchair, seems to me that the CBC should aspire to something higher than ‘content aggregation’ or rebroadcasting material from other stations. I expect that sort of thing from a donation funded campus & community radio station where maybe someone isn’t in the booth at 2am, but not from a national broadcaster that receives funding from Canadian taxpayers.
With Writers & Company, I was referring to the host stepping down. I don’t know about you, but in my opinion, she kind of was the show in a sense. AFAIK there won’t be any new episodes, and that’s a loss.
More broadly, I like that Canada has a national broadcaster, I just think it could be better.
Well, it is, just like every other CBC Radio program. Podcasts is the business they are in.
The OTA broadcast is there merely to stream the same content out to legacy devices which are not compatible with the modern feeds. If it were a campus/community run venture, even if it were a commercially run venture, they would no doubt only offer the feed, but as they have taxpayer support they are also able to accommodate those who are unable or unwilling to adopt newer devices.
Now, maybe there is a case to be made that the program isn’t worth producing for any medium, but I don’t have listenership data to delve into that. It would not surprise me if a lot of people enjoy it, though. It seems far less niche than Writers and Company. Assuming it is well received, that is a pretty good reason to produce it.
Fair. Hard to lament someone wanting to move on with their life, though. That show has been on the air seemingly forever. It is not like Podcast Playlist is displacing it. They have been produced in parallel. Its actual replacement is yet to come – and it might be even better!