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Heritage Minister @s_guilbeault says social media sites linking to news articles without a licence is “immoral”. My new post looks at a day in the life of the Toronto Star on Facebook, examining 36 original articles. Some of the key findings follow: (1/6) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/10/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-toronto-star-on-facebook/
The Star itself publicly posted 75% of the articles (27 of 36) to Facebook. In doing so, it granted FB a licence to post and share the article. For 11 of the 27, the Star was the only public poster. This is a typical example. (2/6) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/10/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-toronto-star-on-facebook/
The Star often publicly posts articles to multiple FB accounts. 13 of 36 articles or 36% were posted to two or more Facebook accounts. Some were publicly posted to 6 different Toronto Star FB accounts. Here’s an example from an article on the CCLA. (3/6) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/10/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-toronto-star-on-facebook/
Politicians are often the source of the public postings, which is curious given @S_Guilbeault claim the activity is “immoral.” For example, an article on CPC leader @erinotoole was publicly posted 6 times by the Star and by Liberal MP Hedy Fry. (4/6) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/10/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-toronto-star-on-facebook/
The majority of engagement (65.5%) comes from posts the Star posts itself. The 36 articles generated a total of 5668 public engagements, 3712 of those coming from Star posts. Of the 29 posted articles, 16 only had engagement from Star posts. (5/6) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/10/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-toronto-star-on-facebook/
The total number of article shares – both public and private – for all 36 articles was 2,663. That’s an average of 74 shares per article, the majority of which are licensed by the Star to Facebook. Yet @s_guilbeault thinks this is “immoral”? (6/6) https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2020/10/a-day-in-the-life-of-the-toronto-star-on-facebook/
