Tag Archives: social media

Forests, Indigenous Nations

Indigenous Peoples are more protective of forests and biodiversity, study finds

A new UBC led study of 111 peer-reviewed papers found that forests and biodiversity are better, or at least equally, protected if they are managed by Indigenous peoples. Between 2005 and 2012, vegetation loss in native areas of the Brazilian Amazon was 17 times lower. In Australia, 60% of the nation’s 1,574 threatened species were found on Indigenous lands. In the United States, Indigenous lands harbour more mature trees and higher tree volume. Close to two-thirds of the articles noted that Indigenous peoples were themselves threatened, and some offered suggestions to either provide resources or strengthen their tenure over the land. While little of the material dealt with British Columbia, lead author William Nikolakis has worked with First Nations in the Interior and was prepared to comment.   

Continue reading Indigenous Peoples are more protective of forests and biodiversity, study finds →
Communications

How social media is killing democracy

By Tracey Saxby, Originally published on My Sea To Sky

We’re living in an age of information—and disinformation.

Social media was supposed to bring people together, but instead it’s being weaponized to divide us. Algorithms are designed to amplify outrage, and it’s hard to tell truth from conspiracy.

With a federal election looming, the stakes have never been higher. Canada’s democracy is under attack. Disinformation divides our communities, erodes public trust, and makes it harder for voters to make informed choices.

Continue reading How social media is killing democracy →
Arts, Business, Communications

CCEDA’s Business Mentorship Program: Supporting Cortes Island Small Business

In January, the Cortes Community Economic Development Association, or CCEDA, hired a Business Mentorship Coordinator. In the four months since then Tamlyn Collingwood has worked with a number of Cortes Island’s small businesses, developed procedures to help them and is about to unveil a series of new market opportunities in conjunction with Hollyhock.   

“I was contracted to support small businesses in any areas needed. There’s so many different aspects to business and,  for many folks, they might be good at a few things and they might have a few challenges in some of those areas,” she explained.

Continue reading CCEDA’s Business Mentorship Program: Supporting Cortes Island Small Business →
Uncategorized

The Quadra Project: Social Media (P 2 of 4)

According to Jonathan Haidt, the fracturing rather than the integrating character of social media’s dynamic began to change in 2009 with the introduction of “Like” and “Sharing”, two similar options that transformed the exchange of person-to-person information into the mass distribution of opinions, rumours and judgments, without providing any substantial corroborating information. This process was abetted by the social media algorithms that favoured emotional rather than rational responses. Facts were boring. Extremism and lies generated more “sharing”, registered more “likes”, and earned more advertising revenue for the social media platforms.

Continue reading The Quadra Project: Social Media (P 2 of 4) →
Uncategorized

The Quadra Project – Social Media

“We invent things, and thereafter they invent us.” This is a fundamental principle in the media theory articulated by Marshall McLuhan, but it is rarely considered because we are usually so enamoured by the ingenuity of our inventions that we fail to consider the ways in which they invent us.

A brilliant essay by Jonathan Haidt, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid”, in the May 2022 edition of The Atlantic Monthly magazine deserves careful reading and thought. Its insights do much to explain the factious irrationality that has been generated by social media, an adjunct of the internet that was supposed to facilitate and deepen communication, but instead has created angry disputes with irresolvable differences. What went wrong?

Continue reading The Quadra Project – Social Media →