In a digital age, community newspapers have a vital part to play
- 21 minutes ago
- 3 min read
By Dan Rolph
There’s no doubt that there are those who might think starting a new newspaper in 2026 is a strange choice in this modern digital world.
But when I took to social media to announce that the first issue of the Exeter Examiner was available, I received a reminder of why it’s more important than ever to have locally owned and staffed newspapers — especially in a small community like ours.
I had spent time drafting a Facebook post that both spread the news about our first issue and conveyed how thankful we were and continue to be for the support of this community.
When I finally hit that big blue “Post” button on the page, I watched as the announcement immediately disappeared into the ether, never to be seen again.
I thought it might be some sort of technical glitch, so I tried to create that same post once again.
No luck.
That’s when my internal alarm bells started to go off and I began investigating. After a little digging, I noticed that several other posts had vanished from our Facebook page without any warning or reason.
It was only then that I realized that Facebook was censoring our content because I had included a link to our website (exeterexaminer.com) both in those older posts and the one I was trying to create.
When Canada passed Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act, in 2023, Facebook chose what proved to be a unique approach in response. Unlike Google, which eventually negotiated an agreement that sees them paying $100 million each year to fund the journalism they profit from by sharing news selling and advertisements on it, Facebook instead opted to block all news content on its platform in Canada.
To many observers, that move was made by Facebook in the hopes of avoiding a new precedent being set where social media companies could be forced to pay journalists and media companies for profiting off their content.
Almost three years later, debates continue about whether Facebook or the Canadian government should have handled the Online News Act differently. What hasn’t changed in that time, though, is the negative impact it’s had on everyday citizens looking to stay informed.
Without real journalism being shared on Facebook, the void that was left after its removal has been filled by unverified misinformation that users may not always be aware they’re viewing.
Sometimes it can be easy to spot the most obvious falsehoods that come across a Facebook feed, but even the most informed people can glance at a post or a comment and internalize it without realizing.
And in an age when it’s easier than ever to falsify videos and images with artificial intelligence, misinformation is becoming more difficult to identify with each passing day.
Those brief, unnoticed moments where we view misinformation can accumulate, and in time they can leave us forming opinions not based on facts at all.
That’s why it’s so important to look for news you can trust in the places you can trust.
A community paper like the Exeter Examiner is the perfect place to look.
We are not faceless entities or bots who are trolling the comment section of a post.
We are your neighbours, living in the same towns and villages that you do, wanting to know about the important things happening in our communities.
The internet has changed our world by making information accessible to everyone with ease. But in an age where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to recognize what’s true and what isn’t, having the ability to speak about what you’re reading with the person who wrote it when you run into them at the grocery store or the arena can go a long way in helping you figure out what’s fact and what’s fiction.
That’s the strength of a community newspaper, and it’s a strength that’s needed now more than ever. We are accountable for what we publish, and the weight of that responsibility is not something we take lightly.