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Bias in media

Please review each article prior to use: grade-level applicability and curricular alignment might not be obvious from the headline alone.

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Churchill’s future has looked bright in the past, then politics dimmed the lights

Dan Lett 5 minute read Preview
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Churchill’s future has looked bright in the past, then politics dimmed the lights

Dan Lett 5 minute read Monday, Nov. 24, 2025

The future of the often-troubled and chronically overlooked Port of Churchill and Hudson Bay railway looks exceedingly bright.

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Monday, Nov. 24, 2025

Why AI is poised to become Santa’s little helper this holiday

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Preview

Why AI is poised to become Santa’s little helper this holiday

Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press 6 minute read Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025

Dan Box tells ChatGPT about his kids all year long.

By the time the holidays roll around, his hope is that OpenAI's artificial intelligence-based chatbot will have gleaned enough about their hobbies and interests to identify the perfect gifts and where they're priced lowest.

"For years, I always felt stressed out by things like Christmas because I really wanted it to be great and I really wanted to buy great gifts, but it's always just so much work and time," said Box, a Vancouver-based gaming executive. "This feels easier and I like it."

The way Box is shopping is no anomaly. Consumers are increasingly turning to AI to recommend products, notify them of sales, help them make purchases and arrange deliveries.

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Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025
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F-bombs abound

Paul Moist 4 minute read Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025

Is it just me? Or is swearing on the rise, on television, in print, in our daily lives?

Toronto Blue Jays manager, John Schneider, let loose a few F-bombs during the Jays’ recent playoff run. Former Blue Bomber star Jermarcus Hardrick, in town to play for Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup, revealed the meaning of the tattoo on his forearm from his Grey Cup wins in Winnipeg.

The tattoo features the Grey Cup, the Bomber logo and the letters, FIFO, which stands for “Fit in or F-off.”

I expect few are surprised that the sports locker room remains fertile ground for swearing. What is surprising, at least to me, is the steady rise in so-called “colourful language” in public settings, including mainstream media, and of course social media platforms.

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Charleswood residents weigh in on 55-plus development

Joyanne Pursaga 4 minute read Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025

A multi-family complex proposed for Charleswood has triggered a mixed response, with some residents concerned it would bring unwanted traffic and clash with the surrounding community.

The proposed development, which has 132 housing units on Roblin Boulevard, must be approved by city council.

The 4.7-acre (1.9-hectare) site contains three properties, including the Charleswood United Church at 4820 Roblin Blvd., as well as 4724 and 4814 Roblin, which each contain a single-family home. The development would maintain the church and add a six-storey residential building with a height of 69.5 feet (21.2 metres), with units geared toward the 55-plus age group.

Some community members are trying to stop the project, however, because they argue it’s a poor fit for the neighbourhood.

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Influencers have more reach on 5 major platforms than news media, politicians: report

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Preview
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Influencers have more reach on 5 major platforms than news media, politicians: report

Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press 5 minute read Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

OTTAWA - More than two-thirds of younger Canadians engage with political content from influencers — and influencers have significantly more reach on five major social media platforms than news media outlets or politicians, a new study indicates.

A significant portion of the political content Canadians see on the major platforms "comes directly from influencers," says the report from the McGill University and University of Toronto-led Media Ecosystem Observatory.

The report focused on posts from individuals and institutions on X, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Bluesky. It did not look at or compare reach on websites, other online platforms or traditional platforms.

The researchers say they identified 1,097 influencers and collected 4.1 million of their posts from January 2024 to July 2025 on five social media platforms. Over that time period, politicians were responsible for 1.1 million posts while media outlets accounted for 2.8 million.

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Friday, Nov. 14, 2025

A Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million and apologize over a raid on a small-town newspaper

John Hanna And Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

A Kansas county agrees to pay $3 million and apologize over a raid on a small-town newspaper

John Hanna And Heather Hollingsworth, The Associated Press 6 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A rural Kansas county has agreed to pay a little more than $3 million and apologize over a law enforcement raid on a small-town weekly newspaper in August 2023 that sparked an outcry over press freedom.

Marion County sheriff's officers were involved in the raid on the Marion County Record and helped draft search warrants used by Marion city police to enter the newspaper's offices, the publisher's home and the home of a local city council member.

“They intentionally wanted to harass us for reporting the news, and you’re not supposed to do that in a democracy,” the editor and publisher, Eric Meyer, said Tuesday. He added he hoped the payment was large enough to discourage similar actions against other news organizations in the future.

The raid prompted five federal lawsuits against the county, the city of Marion and local officials. Meyer's 98-year-old mother Joan, the paper's co-owner, died of a heart attack the next day, something he blames on the stress of the raid.

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Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025

Top BBC bosses resign after criticism of the broadcaster’s editing of a Trump speech

The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Top BBC bosses resign after criticism of the broadcaster’s editing of a Trump speech

The Associated Press 5 minute read Monday, Nov. 10, 2025

LONDON (AP) — The head of the BBC and the British broadcaster's top news executive both resigned Sunday after criticism of the way the organization edited a speech by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The BBC said Director-General Tim Davie and news CEO Deborah Turness had both decided to leave the corporation.

Britain’s publicly funded national broadcaster has been criticized for editing a speech Trump made on Jan. 6, 2021, before protesters attacked the Capitol in Washington.

Critics said the way the speech was edited for a BBC documentary last year was misleading and cut out a section where Trump said he wanted supporters to demonstrate peacefully.

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Monday, Nov. 10, 2025

Amid bail-reform debate, some argue court orders must suit low literacy levels

Toni De Guzman 8 minute read Preview

Amid bail-reform debate, some argue court orders must suit low literacy levels

Toni De Guzman 8 minute read Friday, Nov. 7, 2025

Several red flags jump off the page when literacy expert Margaret Banasiak examines a Manitoba provincial court bail form.

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Friday, Nov. 7, 2025

Coming of age in the era of ‘fake news’

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Preview

Coming of age in the era of ‘fake news’

Maggie Macintosh 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

‘Let’s get media lit(erate)!” The punny slogan was my attempt to get students excited about fact-checking, current events and finding alternative sources to Wikipedia — a crowd-sourced platform anyone can edit.

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Friday, Oct. 31, 2025
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Winnipeg students develop critical aptitude essential for navigating media landscape

Melissa Martin 14 minute read Preview
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Winnipeg students develop critical aptitude essential for navigating media landscape

Melissa Martin 14 minute read Friday, Oct. 31, 2025

One day in the fall of 2024, two of Lily Godinez Goodman’s Grade 5 students came to her with a question: Why didn’t their Earl Grey School have a newspaper, they wondered — and if they started one, would she serve as editor-in-chief?

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Friday, Oct. 31, 2025