A reporter's typical kit consists of a high-quality voice recorder, professional camera and of course the ever-reliable press pass | Mik Horvath/MBC
Yesterday (Jan. 22) Algonquin College announced a recommendation was sent to their Board of Governors to review 30 programs.
If the board agrees with the recommendation those programs will not be accepting new students for Fall semester 2026.
My Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) President, Jon Pole, said the news was disheartening because properly trained journalists are in high-demand.
Algonquin’s journalism program is on the block partly because of budget shortfalls, but many post-secondary institutions across the province have been shutting the doors on their journalism programs.
According to Statistics Canada, Algonquin College has been experiencing a steady decline in journalism students.
Other schools in the province are following the same trends.
In the 2015/16 academic year, Carleton University’s revered journalism program had no problem maintaining a cohort of over 500 students.
The following year saw a decline to less than 470 students, and 2023/2024 saw only 315 journalism students.
Durham College has experienced declines too, 2015/2016 and before had well over 100 students enrolled in journalism.
The latest year in the dataset, 2023/2024, had less than 50 Durham journalism students.
Pole said journalism programs need to tailor to the youth to capture their attention.
However, journalism has also been inspected under a new lens by the public.
Content algorithms are a big contributor to what is displayed on a reader’s screen which affects how people interpret the news.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has also been pushed significantly within digital services.
AI has had many who work on digital platforms ask themselves “Will this replace me?”, but Pole said AI has no place in proper reporting and trusted journalists are who need to be writing headlines.
He said a world without newsmakers taking accountability is a scary one.
MBC has seen large success in its local radio coverage which accounts for a considerable amount of information circulation in smaller communities, such as those littered throughout the Ottawa Valley.
(Written by Mik Horvath)