UBC journalism school director Alfred Hermida and UBC creative writing instructor Jackie Wong were interviewed for a Georgia Straight article on the role of race in the discussion around Vancouver real estate.
“If the best role of media is to inform and educate people and help cultivate a more critical awareness or a critical perspective on public-interest issues, I think the current coverage—both in Vancouver and internationally—has really inflamed a lot of casual racism,” Wong said.
Hermida said traditional media and social media contributes to a feedback loop.
“If the media keeps on talking about foreign ownership as an issue, that then gets repeated and amplified through social media, which then means that [traditional] media reports on it again because they see lots of people are interested in this issue,” he said.
