We have been aware that there might be a work stoppage by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation today for about a week. The Federation had given notice that, unless an agreement was in place by midnight last night, that there would be action taken today.
Locally, the Public School board indicated that it was going to make a decision on opening/closing by 9pm last night. When I went to bed last night, sometime after 9pm, there was no indication. It applied to us because the school district had indicated that it would close elementary schools as some of the education workers there are members of OSSTF. That would have put us in the position of care givers today.
When I woke this morning, I did what I thought would have been a good move and checked with the local newspaper. There was nothing. I went online to the local television station. Again, nothing. It was only when I went to Blackburn News that I got the story.
When my wife came down to check her morning news reads, she went through the same process in her news feed and then asked me “Are the schools open”? We then shared some thoughts back and forth.
That was from the traditional news form of things. Of course, the information was easily available from District 9 on Facebook and the school district website.
Later this morning, the news did trickle to the traditional news sources. But it’s certainly no longer the top story, falling behind the Prime Minister’s and others. I sit and wonder though …
- is news not considered a 24/7 thing?
- was it a foregone conclusion and therefore not worthy enough to cover?
- is it just not a news story?
- did they not want to make a mistake and get the wrath of the community if they got it wrong?
I’m sure that there’s a great deal of media literacy that can be wrestled out from this.
How were things reported on and how timely were things in your neck of the woods?
doug -- off the record 
Please share your thoughts here. I’d enjoy reading them.