Media and Communications

Future students will be wired differently, thanks to AI

Maggie Macintosh 4 minute read Preview

Future students will be wired differently, thanks to AI

Maggie Macintosh 4 minute read Friday, Jan. 16, 2026

Teachers were urged to stop asking children what they want to be when they grow up and focus on building creative, self-directed and critical thinkers at Manitoba’s AI in Education Summit.

“How do we prepare kids for a future we can’t yet see, but we know it’s going to be radically transformed by technology?” futurist Sinead Bovell asked a crowd of educators at a first-of-its-kind conference Friday.

“That is the moment that we are in.”

The province invited Bovell, founder of tech education company WAYE, to share her predictions about artificial intelligence and related advice for schools.

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Friday, Jan. 16, 2026

Disconnect from digital, embrace an analogue life

Jen Zoratti 4 minute read Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026

It looks like 2026 is already shaping up to be the year of the analogue.

All over Instagram I’ve seen posts deriding, well, spending all your time on Instagram. People are setting intentions to listen to, read and watch physical media, pick up tactile hobbies such as painting, knitting, collaging and crocheting and buying alarm clocks and timers.

Screen time is out. Reconnecting with real life is in.

Over on TikTok, creators are encouraging people to pack an “analogue bag,” which is just a TikTok trendspeak for “sack of activities.” You can put whatever you want in there, but suggestions include books, journals, puzzles and sketchpads — things that do not require an internet connection or a phone.

Is latest tech ‘game-changer’ just more of the same?

Russell Wangersky 5 minute read Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026

Maybe they’ve already thought of this. Maybe they just don’t care.

But building an artificial intelligence system that could leave one in five people without a job might not be the best idea in the world, or for the world.

Overseas manufacturing has already proven that cheap and sometimes barely functional is the enemy of the good: high-quality, locally manufactured products have their niche, but for the majority of sales, cost seems to regularly trump quality.

And if AI can make cheaper products — even if it fails to make better ones — well, the market will quickly pick the winners and losers.

Attention-grabbing screens demean us, bit by bit

Melissa Martin 8 minute read Preview

Attention-grabbing screens demean us, bit by bit

Melissa Martin 8 minute read Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026

The first time I read Oryx and Crake, Canadian author Margaret Atwood’s haunting dystopic novel, I couldn’t put it down. I devoured it in just days, engrossed by the fictional world Atwood wove from the most discomfiting new threads of our own.

Over the years, I returned to the book many times, always finding new depth in its pages. Each time, I finished it at the same brisk pace. I was a fast reader as a child, and for most of my life, that didn’t change.

Until now. In November, as part of an effort to calm my restless mind, I put Oryx and Crake on my nightstand, and made a pledge to myself to read a little bit every night. This time, it’s been over two months, and I’ve made it through only 92 pages.

It would be easy to say I’ve been too busy, but that would be a lie. I’ve had time to read. The problem is now, unlike when the book came out in 2003, I struggle to read more than a page without checking my phone quickly; and checking it once means falling into the chasm of raw content the internet has become.

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Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026

AIRAM DATO-ON / PEXELS.COM
A planned January digital detox starts with deleting time-wasting apps, including social media, and occasionally going phone-free.

Fewer than one in five Manitobans are sure they know fabricated online content when they see it: survey

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Preview

Fewer than one in five Manitobans are sure they know fabricated online content when they see it: survey

Ben Waldman 5 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026

When Weekly World News stories about a half-boy, half-bat lined supermarket checkout lanes in the 1990s, most consumers — including Probe Research partner Curtis Brown — could readily, easily and confidently identify the eye-grabbing tabloid reports as false.

“When it comes to (content generated by) AI, people have a bit less confidence,” says Brown. “Sometimes it’s very obviously so-called AI slop — like a historical figure talking about something contemporary. The last couple of months I’ve seen a lot of videos of JFK talking about what a fool his nephew is.”

Even if a quick Google search to note RFK Jr. was nine when his uncle was assassinated in 1963 — marking such videos as debris in an artificial intelligence mudslide — new media literacy polling conducted by Probe for the Free Press reveals that only 18 per cent of Manitobans feel very confident that they can identify whether video footage is “fake or AI-generated.”

Of the 1,000 Manitobans randomly surveyed by Probe between Nov. 25 and Dec. 10, 13 per cent believed that they’d personally shared video, images or text on social media that they didn’t realize was fake.

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Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026

Bat boy appeared in the supermarket tabloid Weekly World News in the early 1990s.

Regulators up surveillance of ‘gamification’ techniques used to game investors (potentially) of their money

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Preview

Regulators up surveillance of ‘gamification’ techniques used to game investors (potentially) of their money

Joel Schlesinger 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

Fun and games aren’t just for children this holiday season. Turns out, investing is increasingly gamified.

However, it’s more of a year-round thing, as online investment platforms use “gamification” techniques, which can make the business of dollars and cents a little more fun.

In essence, gamification involves leveraging powerful behavioural psychology tools that nudge, through video game-like design, consumers toward engaging in certain behaviours — for better and for worse.

Canada’s largest investment regulator — the Ontario Securities Commission — has conducted a few studies examining gamification to understand its potential for benefiting and harming investors.

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Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

Disney invests $1B in OpenAI in deal to bring characters like Mickey Mouse to Sora AI video tool

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Disney invests $1B in OpenAI in deal to bring characters like Mickey Mouse to Sora AI video tool

Kelvin Chan, The Associated Press 3 minute read Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

Disney is investing $1 billion in OpenAI and will bring characters such as Mickey Mouse, Cinderella and Luke Skywalker to the AI company's Sora video generation tool, in a licensing deal that the two companies announced on Thursday.

At the same time, Disney went after Google, demanding the tech company stop exploiting its copyrighted characters to train its AI systems.

The OpenAI agreement makes the Walt Disney Co. the first major content licensing partner for Sora, which uses generative artificial intelligence to create short videos.

Under the three-year licensing deal, fans will be able to use Sora to generate and share videos based on more than 200 Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars characters.

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Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

Open AI, Microsoft face lawsuit over ChatGPT’s alleged role in Connecticut murder-suicide

Dave Collins, Matt O'brien And Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Open AI, Microsoft face lawsuit over ChatGPT’s alleged role in Connecticut murder-suicide

Dave Collins, Matt O'brien And Barbara Ortutay, The Associated Press 6 minute read Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The heirs of an 83-year-old Connecticut woman are suing ChatGPT maker OpenAI and its business partner Microsoft for wrongful death, alleging that the artificial intelligence chatbot intensified her son's “paranoid delusions” and helped direct them at his mother before he killed her.

Police said Stein-Erik Soelberg, 56, a former tech industry worker, fatally beat and strangled his mother, Suzanne Adams, and killed himself in early August at the home where they both lived in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The lawsuit filed by Adams' estate on Thursday in California Superior Court in San Francisco alleges OpenAI “designed and distributed a defective product that validated a user’s paranoid delusions about his own mother.” It is one of a growing number of wrongful death legal actions against AI chatbot makers across the country.

“Throughout these conversations, ChatGPT reinforced a single, dangerous message: Stein-Erik could trust no one in his life — except ChatGPT itself," the lawsuit says. “It fostered his emotional dependence while systematically painting the people around him as enemies. It told him his mother was surveilling him. It told him delivery drivers, retail employees, police officers, and even friends were agents working against him. It told him that names on soda cans were threats from his ‘adversary circle.’”

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Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

Denmark plans to severely restrict social media use for young people

James Brooks, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Denmark plans to severely restrict social media use for young people

James Brooks, The Associated Press 5 minute read Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — As Australia began enforcing a world-first social media ban for children under 16 years old this week, Denmark is planning to follow its lead and severely restrict social media access for young people.

The Danish government announced last month that it had secured an agreement by three governing coalition and two opposition parties in parliament to ban access to social media for anyone under the age of 15. Such a measure would be the most sweeping step yet by a European Union nation to limit use of social media among teens and children.

The Danish government's plans could become law as soon as mid-2026. The proposed measure would give some parents the right to let their children access social media from age 13, local media reported, but the ministry has not yet fully shared the plans.

Many social media platforms already ban children younger than 13 from signing up, and a EU law requires Big Tech to put measures in place to protect young people from online risks and inappropriate content. But officials and experts say such restrictions don’t always work.

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Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025

FILE - Caroline Stage, Danish Minister for Digitalization and representatives from the agreement parties attends a press conference about a new political agreement for better protection of children and young people online, in Copenhagen, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (Thomas Traasdahl/Ritzau Scanpix via AP, File)

Scams, threats and fake opportunities: stay sharp

Editorial 4 minute read Preview

Scams, threats and fake opportunities: stay sharp

Editorial 4 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025

Hopefully, this editorial is not coming to you as a posthumous publication.

And yes, we’re backing into this editorial a bit. (In newspaper terms, burying the lede. Hopefully, not burying its author.

But here goes: this is your regular reminder that e-mail scams abound, and come in all shapes, sizes, and threats of danger, most often imaginary. They put the pressure on with the severity of dangers you face, and urge you to act quickly.

Don’t.

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Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025

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Not everyone sees the new Cancon rules as a win. Five takeaways from CRTC’s decision

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

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Not everyone sees the new Cancon rules as a win. Five takeaways from CRTC’s decision

Alex Nino Gheciu, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Monday, Nov. 24, 2025

An overhaul by the federal regulator of how Canadian content is defined has been met with mixed reaction from some of the country's biggest film and TV players this week.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) issued its long-awaited expansion of the range of creative roles that qualify a film or TV show as Canadian, setting new rules for foreign streaming companies that operate in the country.

However, not everyone sees the changes as a win.

MORE ROLES, MORE POINTS — AND MORE WORRIES FROM DIRECTORS

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Monday, Nov. 24, 2025

An assistant director stands by as a stunt car drives down Yonge Street during a film production in Toronto in 2015. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

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Winnipegger’s artwork chosen for Walmart’s national Orange Shirt offering

AV Kitching 5 minute read Preview

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Winnipegger’s artwork chosen for Walmart’s national Orange Shirt offering

AV Kitching 5 minute read Monday, Sep. 22, 2025

As she walked into the Unicity Walmart department store, Indigenous artist Brooklyn Rudolph-Nicholas felt her excitement levels rising.

She headed towards the racks of instantly recognizable orange T-shirts, smiling as she glimpsed the familiar image on the front.

It was a pinch-me moment: her work was emblazoned on Walmart Canada’s National Day for Truth & Reconciliation orange shirts stocked in stores across the country.

The granddaughter of two residential school survivors, Rudolph-Nicholas made her T-shirt art in honour of her late grandparents.

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Monday, Sep. 22, 2025

Ruth Bonneville / Free Press

ENT - TnR shirts / Walmart

Photo of local artist, Brooklyn Rudolph-Nicholas with her designs on TnR shirts at the Walmart in Southdale.

Story: Winnipeg Artist selected for Walmart Canada’s Orange Shirt Day Campaign
Indigenous artist Brooklyn Rudolph-Nicholas, a member of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation and granddaughter of two Residential School Survivor is the artist and designer of Walmart ‘sCanada’s National Day for Truth & Reconciliation campaign. Her design will appear on Orange Shirts which are currently on sale Walmarts throughout the country.

Story by AV Kitching

Sept 19 h, 2025

Canadian researchers create tool to remove anti-deepfake watermarks from AI content

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Canadian researchers create tool to remove anti-deepfake watermarks from AI content

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

OTTAWA - University of Waterloo researchers have built a tool that can quickly remove watermarks identifying content as artificially generated — and they say it proves that global efforts to combat deepfakes are most likely on the wrong track.

Academia and industry have focused on watermarking as the best way to fight deepfakes and "basically abandoned all other approaches," said Andre Kassis, a PhD candidate in computer science who led the research.

At a White House event in 2023, the leading AI companies — including OpenAI, Meta, Google and Amazon — pledged to implement mechanisms such as watermarking to clearly identify AI-generated content.

AI companies’ systems embed a watermark, which is a hidden signature or pattern that isn’t visible to a person but can be identified by another system, Kassis explained.

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Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman participates in a panel discussion during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024. OpenAI was one of the major tech firms that promised to pursue watermarking technology. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Trump’s education secretary threatens to pull funding from NY over its Native American mascot ban

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Trump’s education secretary threatens to pull funding from NY over its Native American mascot ban

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press 5 minute read Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. (AP) — New York is discriminating against a school district that refuses to get rid of its Native American chief mascot and could face a Justice Department investigation or risk losing federal funding, President Donald Trump’s top education official said Friday.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, on a visit to Massapequa High School on Long Island, said an investigation by her agency has determined that state education officials violated Title VI of the federal civil rights law by banning the use of Native American mascots and logos statewide.

The department's civil rights office found the state ban is discriminatory because names and mascots derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the “Dutchmen” and the “Huguenots,” are still permitted.

McMahon described Massapequa's chiefs mascot as an “incredible” representation of Native American leadership as she made the announcement backed by dozens of students and local officials in the high school gymnasium.

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Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, front right, visits Massapequa High School, Friday, May 30, 2025, in Massapequa, N.Y., along with local elected officials. (AP Photo/Philip Marcelo)

Cohere asks U.S. court to toss complaint from media alleging copyright infringement

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Preview

Cohere asks U.S. court to toss complaint from media alleging copyright infringement

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press 3 minute read Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

TORONTO - Cohere is asking a U.S. court to throw out complaints from media outlets that have accused the artificial intelligence company of infringing on their copyright.

In a dismissal motion filed in a New York court on Thursday, Cohere accused publishers including the Toronto Star, Condé Nast, McClatchy, Forbes Media and Guardian News of deliberately using its software to "manufacture a case."

The Toronto-based company said the outlets must have "stylized" prompts they entered into Cohere's software to elicit portions of their own work, which sometimes included inaccuracies.

It argued nothing in the complaint filed by the outlets suggests that any real customer has ever used the company's software to infringe on the publisher's copyright.

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Saturday, Sep. 20, 2025

A man uses a computer keyboard in Toronto in this Sunday, Oct. 9, 2023 photo illustration. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

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Former mechanic gives a face to Rainbow Stage's Beast

Randall King 5 minute read Preview

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Former mechanic gives a face to Rainbow Stage's Beast

Randall King 5 minute read Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025

It’s not exactly a tale as old as time.

About 20 years ago, Christian Hadley was an auto mechanic dissatisfied with the grind of machining auto parts and deflated at the prospect of repairing another tire.

He needed a change, and not the kind involving 5W30 motor oil.

His career pivot was, quite literally, dramatic. At the age of 25, he went to the University of Winnipeg to study theatre arts. He emerged with skills in both set-building and makeup design. And he brings those skills to fruition in the Rainbow Stage production of Beauty and the Beast.

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Sunday, Oct. 12, 2025

ANDREW RYAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Chris Hadley works on the prosthetic Beast head at his home studio in Winnipeg.

‘Mistake’ leads to Canadian Forces ad on far-right website

Dylan Robertson 5 minute read Preview

‘Mistake’ leads to Canadian Forces ad on far-right website

Dylan Robertson 5 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 6, 2018

OTTAWA — The Canadian Forces have been running a recruitment ad on the American website Breitbart — a digital force in far-right politics that’s among U.S. President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies and one of Canada’s biggest critics.

The military indirectly paid Breitbart, in violation of Ottawa’s advertising rules, but has since pulled its ad off the site.

The ad popped up several times across Breitbart. In one case, it appeared in an article about a Italian mosque, weighing into that country’s Sunday election, which was accompanied by an October 2016 photo showing scores of Muslims praying next to the Colosseum in Rome.

The military took down the ad after the Free Press asked how it was spending taxpayer’s money. But the fact it appeared on a far-right website speaks to the unpredictable nature of online advertising, with Ottawa using a system that provides no idea of exactly where its ads will appear.

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Tuesday, Mar. 6, 2018

Screen capture of a Canadian military recruitment ad on Breitbart.com. The military has taken the recruitment ad that appeared on Breitbart, in violation of Ottawa's advertising rules.

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Un festival qui fait confiance aux enfants

Ruby Irene Pratka 4 minute read Preview

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Un festival qui fait confiance aux enfants

Ruby Irene Pratka 4 minute read Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016

Depuis 20 ans, le Festival international de films pour enfants de tous âges Freeze Frame valorise la perspective des plus jeunes et les incite à penser. Le cofondateur du festival, Pascal Boutroy, est un cinéphile de longue date.

“J’ai découvert le cinéma pour enfants dans les années 1990, quand j’ai travaillé comme critique de cinéma à Montréal. Surtout, j’ai découvert quelque chose d’extraordinaire: des films intelligents et sensibles. Et j’ai vu l’effet que cela pouvait avoir sur les enfants. Quand ils sortent de la salle, ils ont appris des choses à propos d’eux-mêmes.”

En 1996, nouvellement arrivés à Winnipeg, Boutroy et sa conjointe, Nicole Matiation, cofondent le festival Freeze Frame. En 20 ans le festival, qui met à l’affiche des films en plusieurs langues, y compris le français, est devenu le festival de cinéma le plus fréquenté au Manitoba, avec entre 6,000 et 8,000 participants chaque année.

Boutroy attribue le succès du festival à la diversité de la programmation.

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Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016

RUBY IRENE PRATKA PHOTO
Pascal Boutroy, le cofondateur du Festival international de films pour enfants de tous âges Freeze Frame, invite enfants et adultes à élargir leurs horizons cinématiques.

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Ad another thing: sounding the alarm about advertising’s ill effects on society

By Jen Zoratti 5 minute read Preview

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Ad another thing: sounding the alarm about advertising’s ill effects on society

By Jen Zoratti 5 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013

Jean Kilbourne was an adbuster long before there was anything close to resembling Adbusters.

When the acclaimed feminist scholar, author, filmmaker and media literacy pioneer, who speaks Thursday at 7:30 p.m., at the University of Winnipeg's Convocation Hall, began tearing advertisements out of magazines and posting them on her refrigerator back in 1968, she didn't know she would start a movement, let alone a respected field of study.

At the time, she just wanted to open people's eyes. She assembled the ads she collected into a slideshow presentation that she took to college campuses in the 1970s. She had one goal: tell anyone who would listen about the damaging effect ads were having on women.

"I was the first person to start talking about the image of women in advertising," Kilbourne, 70, recalls. "(The ads) were outrageous and no one was paying attention to them."

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Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013

Postmedia Getty Images
Kate Moss in an advertisement. Jean Kilbourne has dissected the ways in which ads create impossible ideals that women must spend an incredible amount of time, energy and money chasing.

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Le Fil des francophiles – Monique LaCoste

Camille Harper-Séguy de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Preview

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Le Fil des francophiles – Monique LaCoste

Camille Harper-Séguy de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013

LA voix de la Franco-Manitobaine Monique LaCoste est l’une des plus connues au Manitoba, et même en Amérique du Nord, sans pour autant que les gens le réalisent. Depuis 25 ans en effet, en plus de son emploi, Monique LaCoste travaille comme voix-off sur de nombreux projets corporatifs et communautaires.

“Ma voix est dans des musées partout au Canada, en anglais et en français,” racontet- elle. “C’est aussi moi qui ai enregistré la narration des films au Planétarium du Manitoba, en anglais. De plus, j’enregistre beaucoup de systèmes téléphoniques pour des entreprises et des organismes partout en Amérique du Nord, notamment en français aux États-Unis pour leurs clients québécois.”

Quand elle était annonceure à Radio-Canada, de 1988 à 2006, Monique LaCoste a commencé à recevoir et accepter des contrats d’enregistrement de voix-off pour des textes en français.

“Je prends plaisir à bien lire des textes dès la première prise,” confie Monique LaCoste. “J’ai toujours eu de la facilité avec la lecture à haute voix et j’ai toujours adoré ça. J’aime le défi d’explorer divers registres de voix selon le produit. On ne lit pas une annonce commerciale comme un documentaire ou comme un texte pour enfants.

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Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013

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Silence, ça tourne!

William Sineux de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Preview

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Silence, ça tourne!

William Sineux de La Liberté pour le Winnipeg Free Press 4 minute read Saturday, May. 12, 2012

C’EST l’heure des grandes premières pour Gabriel Tougas.

À 21 ans, il signe la réalisation de son premier long métrage, Héliosols, qui n’est autre que le premier long métrage de fiction francophone réalisé au sein d’une communauté minoritaire de l’Ouest.

“Avec mon premier film je veux raconter une histoire fictive en français sans parler du français,” explique le scénariste et réalisateur du film, Gabriel Tougas. “Tous les films ou documentaires qui ont été faits jusqu’à présent par des Franco-Manitobains traitent de la francophonie, de notre communauté, de notre langue, culture ou histoire. Je pense que plutôt que d’expliquer qui sont les Franco-Manitobains, il est temps de prendre la francophonie comme naturelle, d’en être fier et de faire un film qui inscrit une histoire fictive dans notre contexte francophone mais sans en parler,” déclare-t-il.

Dès l’âge de 18 ans, Tougas a fait ses premiers pas dans la réalisation audio-visuelle, en signant de nombreuses réalisations avec Les Productions Rivard, notamment des documentaires. Mais pour la première fois, il va réaliser son rêve de mettre sur pied une fiction.

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Saturday, May. 12, 2012

January 24, 2026