Seite - 203 - in VULNERABLE - The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19

203The Media Paradox and the COVID-19 Pandemic continue to remind us of terrorism and those 9/11 attacks, too willl certain long-term institutional and attitudinal changes be woven into our lives after COVID-19. Just which ones, when and how, remains unclear. COVID-19 is different from 9/11. Instead of one unexpected blow, as with 9/11, the virus crept up on the country: vague, early reports about a virus in faraway China; comments and concerns from the World Health Organization (WHO); dismissive remarks from a loud, foolish voice in the White House; and few early alarm bells in Ottawa or provincial capitals. Outbreaks then occurred in places Canadians knew better: Italy, Spain, and elsewhere in Europe, until finally, slowly at first, then with growing and deadly rapidity, the coronavirus took hold here. Canada became part of a worldwide pandemic. The Canadian media took its cue from international reports about the coronavirus overseas from foreign sources, because Canadian reporting about and from the world has almost completely disap- peared. Twenty years ago, Canadian correspondents were sprinkled around the world. A gaggle of them, some very perspicacious, were posted in China. Only The  Globe  and  Mail today maintains a bureau in China. The Globe’s Beijing correspondent Nathan VanderKlippe was alive to the COVID-19 story in Wuhan early. If events that might directly affect Canadians happen elsewhere, except in Washington, chances are Canadians will not hear about them from their own foreign correspondents, because only The  Globe  and  Mail and the state-subsidized Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/ Radio-Canada deploy them. The shrivelling of foreign coverage by and for Canadians is part of a wider story of the decline of the traditional media, as opposed to the digital media. COVID-19 exacerbated this decline with conse- quences that are already apparent and will intensify whenever the crisis ends. Newspapers, radio, and television have been losing revenues in recent years as the digital age unfolds. Younger people turn elsewhere; advertisers look elsewhere to reach consumers; digital giants such as Google suck up advertising. Digital advertising rev- enues are increasing, but traditional advertising is declining faster. A thorough, detailed report about the media from the Public Policy Forum in 2017 stated: “Journalism’s economic model has collapsed, profoundly and structurally.” For example, newspaper classified