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In 1882, Maria Beasley secured a patent for an improved version of the life raft, which featured airtight containers for provisions and collapsible metal floats that made it easier to be stored on board a ship.
Her invention is credited with saving countless lives. Four of her life rafts were used on the Titanic.
Maria Beasley’s improved life raft. (Google Patents)
Beasley’s lifesaving work began 10 years after the first edition of the Free Press rolled off a hand press in a rented shack on Main Street.
At the time, the Free Press wasn’t conceived of as a life raft. Today, however, as we all steam ahead on a course increasingly dictated by algorithms in a sea where the icebergs of artificial intelligence lurk, maybe we all need to ensure a newspaper like the Free Press is aboard for the ride.
I’m making the link between Beasley’s life raft and my newspaper tonight because it’s Media Literacy Week and the shipping forecast is foreboding.
According to StatsCan, 43 per cent of Canadians report it’s harder to distinguish between true and false information today than it was three years ago.
Part of the problem is Canadians are increasingly unsure of who to trust.
The other part of the problem is there’s no shortage of actors increasingly profiting from the uncertainty they helped foster.
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When corresponding with readers, I frequently end my note with this line: I hope we continue to earn your trust.
I use that line because I recognize your confidence is not a given and must never be taken for granted. I’m echoing that line tonight because those of us in the information life raft industry are reminding Canadians of the importance of independent and fact-based reporting this week.
Credibility, accountability and transparency are critical to ensuring we aren’t drowned by misinformation and disinformation.
Credibility, accountability and transparency were the motivations for making myself available to our patron-level readers to field any and all questions earlier this month during National Newspaper Week.
And credibility, accountability and transparency you’ll always find aboard the Free Press life raft.
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