Alternative and Mainstream Media- Toronto and the Commonwealth Games

When I investigated both alternative and mainstream news platforms I soon realized that they are quite different. According to Chron.com, mainstream media usually is easy to find, and they tend to reach large audiences. “Mainstream media outlets are found on television, radio, online and in newspapers and other publications”. Popular mainstream outlets in Canada include CTV, CBC, CP24, etc. Whereas, alternative media considers the truth and underlying stories that mainstream media might overlook. Alternative media sources tend to be far smaller, due to low budgets and profits (Newton). Like mainstream media, alternative sources are found on the internet, newspapers, and in other publications. Chron.com expresses how alternative media favors the internet because the radio and television is costly and creating a web page is far more inexpensive. This means that alternative sources usually reach a smaller portion of the population since they are not as well broadcasted.

When researching a controversial topic in the media, I came across a recent and local dilemma concerning the Commonwealth Games. There is lot of buzz going around on whether the City of Toronto will be bidding for the chance to be the host of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. The city of Durban, South Africa has very recently pulled out as being the host for 2022 games due to financial instability. Major cities such as Edmonton, Liverpool and London have shown a great deal of interest as being the host city. There is no doubt that Toronto would be a great location to host since the city has recently hosted the Pan Am Games.

I first came across this issue on the Citynews website. While reading through the article it became apparent that this mainstream media source was just scrutinizing the stiff timeline of completing the housing facilities for the athletes. Richardson from Citynews states, “while a number of venues built for the Pan Am Games could be re-used for the Commonwealth Games, the city would need to scramble to build another athlete’s village. The complexes built for the 2015 Games have been already converted into condos and student housing.” The article was very brief and only around 500 words. I appreciated how there was a video clip summarizing the article, since I am a visual learner and utilize pictures and graphs. This Citynews article has both blended statistics and expert opinion making it a very knowledge based piece.

While they are concerned about housing the athletes, shouldn’t they be concerned about housing and feeding the growing homeless population in Toronto?

When I stumbled upon the blog Rabble.ca, they had a different approach to the issues of being the next host city. While this article was a little lengthier, 600 words, and had many pop up ads, but I found it was more powerful. Since this website is an alternative media it recognized the root of how another sporting event like this may affect Toronto’s people. “There are many social harms that result when cities and countries host such mega-billion-dollar projects. These range from human rights abuses, forced evictions and loss of rooming house stock, laws criminalizing homelessness and privatizing public space, forced displacement of sex trade workers, and financial corruption” (Crowe). This article shows readers the inside scope of how Toronto’s city council might potentially be making bad decisions with the tax payers’ money. Using this money for entertainment that will most likely not benefit the city in the long run. The city of Toronto has far more issues that need to be resolved, such as the 180,000 citizens that are currently on the social housing waitlist (Crowe). While individuals are struggling to survive in Toronto, “the Pan Am games cost $2.37 billion, apparently coming in under budget but still rich enough to give fat bonuses totaling $5 million for its executives” (Crowe). The question that remains on my mind is: if the Commonwealth Games are held in Toronto will it bring the community together or farther apart?

This assignment has allowed me to question whether I prefer mainstream over alternative or the other way around. I have concluded that I enjoyed reading both forms of media equally. Alternative media outlets have allowed me to recognize events that are happening in the news from a different perspective and in addition are more personal. It allowed me to uncover issues that mainstream media ignored. While mainstream easily gave me the information in a brief article. I think it is important to use and understand both forms of media, to get both sides of the story. Both alternative and mainstream media have their own drawbacks and benefits, allowing them to help individuals understand the news happenings within Canada.