Newsgathering In the Harper Era: Adaptation and the Perpetuation of Sameness

At the heart of political journalism is the gathering of information about the affairs of government, necessary for developing public opinion and keeping the government accountable. Under the current Conservative government mandate, political journalists have experienced heightened controls over information, rendering access to primary sources limited. In turn these journalists have developed a reliance on secondary sources to collect information for their stories. The barriers set in place by the government and its use of PR have created a distance between journalists and their sources of vital information, as well as furthered the perpetuation of sameness within the news industry. Political journalists operate under the expectation that they will practice newsgathering and engage in the tug-of-war over information with their sources while upholding journalistic values. Currently, however, their primary source is increasingly dominating this dynamic, impeding journalists’ ability to fulfill such expectations and continue to keep government accountable.