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THE JOURNALIST - 

By Bernard Bujold - 

Ever since I was a teenager, I've always identified myself as a journalist, a truth-seeker.

I like to say in a discussion that I know everything! Not when it comes to science, but when it comes to events, situations, or the character of a person or group.

A good journalist is like a good lawyer. He asks questions to confirm what he knows or thinks he knows. He never asks a question unless he has a prior answer or an indication of the situation. A good journalist is like a good detective. He follows leads and looks for evidence or confessions. Whether told by a journalist, lawyer, or detective, every story begins with a question. It is from this questioning, and from one's own intuitions, that the real truth can be discovered. Good criminals are also information specialists, and the secret of their success, or survival, is to know everything about those around them...

This book is a look at the journalistic profession, which is a passion for me. I'll recount my own journey as a journalist, which began in the 1970s, and then examine the evolution of contemporary journalism, particularly with social media and artificial intelligence, ending with a look at the future of journalism.

The book was written for the Internet in a straightforward style, presenting the essential information. There's a big difference between the literary style and the virtual one, which is written to be read on a computer, tablet, or smartphone.

I've written around ten books, only two of which have been published in paper form. I much prefer the Internet concept, because it's more precise in terms of content and more targeted in terms of distribution. It's also more economical in environmental terms. 

A paper book is basically a kind of work of art to be placed on a coffee table or in a library. An Internet book contains information and, in my opinion, truly serves its informative role. A paper book is like a photograph in an album, while an Internet book is like a photograph in a digital file.

You have to keep up with the times... Enjoy your reading! 

Bernard Bujold and his mascot Ulysse

PRESENTATION

Chapter 1 - THE ART OF JOURNALISM

Chapter 2 - MY FIRST REPORTS

Chapter 3 - THE WORLD OF JOURNALIST 

Chapter 4 - JOURNALIST IN THE BIG CITY

Chapter 5 - THE DEATH OF NEWSPAPERS 

Chapter 6 - POLITICAL JOURNALIST

Chapter 7 - PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER

Chapter 8 - PRESS TYCOONS

Chapter 9 - THE MAGIC OF THE INTERNET

Chapter 10 - OBJECTIVITY OF JOURNALISTS 

Chapter 11 - CREATING FAKE NEWS

Chapter 12 - MASTERS OF THE WORLD

Chapter 13 -ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Chapter 14 - THE DANGER TO BE JOURNALIST

Conclusion - THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM

INTERVIEW - JOURNALIST IN THE YEAR 2053...

                                                                 ___________

CHAPTER 1

THE ART OF JOURNALISM

When I was a teenager in rural Gaspésie, Quebec, news circulated from person to person, by word of mouth. Despite the rather simple and limited method, the whole village could keep up to date and everyone "knew everything" about their neighbors' lives. The church was one of the exclusive sources of information, because of the chatter on the front porch. People in the village loved to gossip and exchange the latest gossip, both before and after the church service. Added to this were the speeches of the parish priest, who would become the village journalist for the duration of a sermon...

Back then, there were no media or newspapers, and the only way to stay informed was through in-person conversations. This method of gathering information through discussion is universal, and in large cities, merchants and cafes have long been community gathering points, comparable to the churches of my childhood. 

In the 1960s, on the Gaspé Peninsula, Le Soleil from Quebec City was the only newspaper, received by only a few wealthy and educated individuals. My aunt, who was the village priest's housekeeper, kept the subscription editions received at the presbytery, which she gave to my parents. We also had access to CHNC radio station and CHAU-TV television station, both of which were small community media outlets with limited resources and programming.

My father had the radio on all the time and never missed the noon and evening news bulletins. He especially listened to the obituaries but he didn't really watch television!

My inspiration for journalism began in my teens, from two places.

Firstly, in church, where I was impressed by the sermons of the parish priest, who in addition to his religious presentation, always gave some sort of bulletin of the latest news of the week, whether it had already happened or was still to come in the village.

On a personal level, I was inspired by my grade 7 teacher, an Ursuline sister, who thought I had a beautiful voice in class, and constantly asked me to read texts in front of the other students. This gave me confidence in my ability to express myself verbally. At the same time, I was listening to a local radio host, CHNC from New Carlisle, who was the star of the region. He hosted the morning show. I thought I could be a radio host too. In my mind, the radio audience was like a class of students, but it would be much easier to control since there would be only one student, the microphone I'd be addressing...

The Priest, to whom my aunt was housekeeper, rather thought that with my verbal eloquence, I should seriously consider becoming a parish priest... 

In the end, my dream didn't come true, either for New Carlisle radio or for the priesthood. A few years later, in 1974, I moved to Sept-Îles on the North Shore of Quebec. It was said to be the place to find a well-paid job, especially if you could find an opening at the Iron Ores mining company. I didn't find a job in the iron mines, but I did discover radio. Indeed, after a day of job hunting among Sept-Îles employers, I stopped with my traveling companion at a restaurant for a beer and a review of our respective searches. It was then that I noticed, seated at a table near us, the presence of a host from Sept-Îles local radio station, CKCN (Jean-Philippe Peretti). When you're young, you often have an audacity that you lose as you get older. I had that audacity and approached the host to ask him if he needed a new announcer for his station. He was sympathetic and invited me to go and meet the manager, whose contact details he gave me. This meeting marked the beginning of my first job in my career as a journalist. I was to become a radio newsreader on weekends...

Regional journalism was in its heyday in the 70s, with new radio stations springing up all over Quebec, as well as numerous weekly newspapers. It was an exciting time, and we believed that all our dreams were possible! I was one of those enthusiasts, dreaming of various animation projects in radio, television, newspapers, and more…

Journalism is a profession that goes back many centuries. It could even be argued that the first news report was a bottle thrown into the sea by Viking castaways on a desert island, trying to signal their presence and send a message calling for help. Journalism has evolved with the history of writing, broadcasting, and the Internet. The first print journalists were scribes who wrote on papyrus or parchment to report events and highlights as early as 1200 BC. The first modern printed newspaper did not appear until later, in Germany in 1605. Subsequently, the printed press spread throughout Europe and the United States, enabling information to be disseminated more rapidly.

Journalism has undergone many changes over the centuries. In particular, in the late 1800s, the press experienced the emergence of mass media, characterized by the publication of newspapers for the general public. Mass media are means of disseminating information, advertising and culture, capable of reaching and influencing a wide audience. This period saw the emergence of such great names in journalism as William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer.

The early 1900s saw the invention of radio (1895) and television (1926), which enabled information to be disseminated more quickly and in a more targeted way. During the 1960s, many journalists of this era began to become important public figures and were seen as spokespeople for society.

With the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, journalism underwent another significant transformation as online media emerged, enabling the dissemination of information in real-time, interactively, and to a global audience. Social networks also enabled the general public to become journalists, giving them the opportunity to share information and opinions online. The origins of online journalism can be traced back to Google, which became the first platform to compile and display condensed information in a digital format that could be accessed by anyone with a computer and an internet connection. 

It was in 1995 that the 2 founders of Google, Larry Page (then 22 years old) and Sergey Brin (21 years old ), both Computer Science students at Stanford University in the USA, met.  A year later, fresh from their degrees, they decided together to create a search engine to index academic research. 

Google was officially founded on September 4, 1998, by Page and Brin, and they began working on the Google search engine in Susan Wojcicki's (now YouTube CEO) garage in Menlo Park, California. The name "Google" is derived from the mathematical term "googol", which represents the number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name was chosen to represent Google's mission, which was to organize the enormous amount of information available on the web. At first, Google was mainly used by researchers and academics, but it quickly gained in popularity thanks to its simplicity and the quality of its search results. 

In 2000, Google launched its AdWords program, which enabled companies to place ads on search results pages. This enabled Google to generate significant revenues. In 2004, Google launched its IPO, which was a huge success. Since then, Google has acquired many other companies, including YouTube, DoubleClick, and Android. Google is one of the world's most powerful and influential companies, with a market capitalization of several billion dollars and products such as Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Drive, and many others. Today, most media and journalism rely on Google and its network. However, the news ecosystem continues to evolve with information and communication technologies, and journalists must adapt to a constantly changing world, where the boundaries between traditional media and social media are increasingly blurred. Artificial intelligence, which will increasingly play a central role in the world of information, must also be taken into account.

In this respect, we need to keep a close eye on Microsoft, which had lost its title of leader dominating the world of computers. Now it's back with its new Bing search engine, which poses a very serious threat to both Google and Apple with its Safari engine. Regarded as a giant that had fallen asleep on its laurels, Microsoft has surprised everyone with its use of artificial intelligence, notably through its investments in OpenAI, which now benefits it directly, both technologically and financially. For Microsoft, it's clear that the capabilities of OpenAI and ChatGPT, which benefit its new search engine, have given it a new lease of life to conquer market share and take it directly away from Google in terms of its search engine, and from Apple in terms of its various devices, which will become less attractive compared to those offered by Microsoft. Microsoft's success with OpenAI is due to both chance and strategic vision. Microsoft invested in OpenAI for several years without knowing whether it would be a success or a failure. That's the nature of innovation! This approach is valid in all business sectors, even outside the media. Microsoft didn't know what was coming, but they positioned their company to be ready for the future. Whether it's a car company, an insurance company, a bank or a newspaper, you need to invest in the future so that you can take advantage of opportunities when they arise. Investing may fail, but not investing is just as dangerous and risky

Many media haven't invested in their future, and they've paid the price by losing their audience or even disappearing. We are in 2023, at a new turning point in the history of humanity, with the changes that various industries are currently undergoing, and this is particularly true for social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and others. 

The future of journalism is uncertain, and the media that are the current leaders are by no means assured of their domination in the future. And today, the future is no longer 30 years away, but often just a few months…

Church at Saint-Siméon de Bonaventure - Gaspésie - 1976

Percé Beach - Gaspésie - Québec

Larry Page and Sergia Brin, Google - 1995

Safari search engine by Apple - 2003

Microsoft and its new Bing search engine - 2023

CHAPTER 2

MY FIRST REPORTS 

My career as a journalist began in 1976 with my first reports being featured on CHAU-TV, a television station situated in Carleton-sur-Mer, Quebec.

It was a doctor, Charles Houde, who founded the first television station in Gaspésie, CHAU-TV, on October 17, 1959, and remained its owner until 1967. He passed away in 1979. Dr. Houde was the majority shareholder with around 75% of the shares, and 10% were held by a certain Léo Hachey, a businessman from Bathurst, New Brunswick. The remainder was held by just over a dozen other shareholders, including the parish priest of Carleton-sur-Mer. 

This percentage of clergy ownership would be significant in the 1970s when a newly appointed general manager decided to eliminate from programming the weekly religious program hosted by retired bishop Charles-Eugène Roy, who had long been involved with Saint Joseph's Mount Oratory. Mgr Roy quickly contacted the new director, pointing out that his decision could not be implemented, as he was a shareholder in the station. He had provided the land for Dr. Houde to build the station in exchange for a minority shareholding, but above all with a clause stipulating that he would be entitled to a weekly 30-minute Sunday program for life. 

The good bishop continued to host his show...

Dr. Houde had offered the same kind of compensation for the construction of CHNC to the parish priest of New Carlisle, Abbé Lionel Boisseau, who also hosted the daily radio program  «Méditation religieuse » until his death.

CHAU-TV broadcast its first program on October 17, 1959, becoming the eighth private-interest station affiliated with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Initially, programming was 85% French and 15% English. The television project aimed to cover two major regions, the southern Gaspé and northern New Brunswick. CHAU-TV was available on channel 5. From the outset, the station was affiliated with Radio-Canada. However, programs were broadcast a week late, as reels arrived by train.

In 1966, CHAU-TV passed into the hands of Claude Pratte and Paul Desmarais, and in the 1970s, viewers were able to witness the arrival of color and enjoy programs from TVA and Radio-Canada, as CHAU broadcast a selection from both channels. In 1999, CHAU-TV moved its facilities down the mountain to the village of Carleton-sur-Mer. As far as my time at CHAU-TV was concerned, the location on the mountain was the highlight. A TV station on a mountain at an altitude of 1920 feet (555 meters) is not a frequent occurrence. 

I was a journalist at CHAU-TV between 1976 and 1977, and those two years remain fond memories of my life. We didn't have any technology to do the job of a journalist, but we had a lot of fun! The news bulletin was pre-recorded in the afternoon, around 3 p.m., for broadcast at 6 p.m. in the early evening. Reports were illustrated by black-and-white slides... To adjust my chair at the news desk, we stacked two on top of each other, and to announce the weather, I often simply looked outside and improvised the next day's temperature...

The adventure could have continued, but I had ambitions and the universal question arose: "To stay in Gaspésie or leave for the big city of Quebec?" At the time, we were two young colleagues of the same age, with the same ambitions of being TV hosts. He was in charge of advertising and I was in charge of news. There was a position available for both of us. He chose to stay and I decided to leave. I often wonder what my life would have been like had I stayed.  Over the years, my colleague became the general manager of the small local TV station and is still there today. As for me, contrary to the romantic legend of Ulysses in the Odyssey poem, after my voyages of exploration, the waves forgot to take me back to my native land, and this sometimes makes me nostalgic. 

I've always had fond memories of that time, which also marked my debut in journalism. The most vivid memory remains that of discovering that television made hosts lose their anonymity, especially in a rural region like the Gaspé. Personally, I didn't appreciate this situation, as I've always been someone who likes anonymity. 

I remember driving home one evening and looking through the neighbors' windows to see their TV broadcasting my afternoon newscast.  

It's a powerful feeling to join people in their living rooms, but it's also a loss of identity. You become a character, the one that television has created, and your real personality seems erased. Our reality becomes fiction. I hated it when I was in my local grocery store and people recognized me, establishing a link between me and the local TV station. I didn't like being the star of the community...

Being a journalist in a rural area requires a warm personality because our sources of information are our village neighbors. In the city, you don't know the person you're asking a question to, but in a region like the Gaspé, everyone knows everyone else.

The concept of CHAU-TV was to be present in the community and to give a voice to the various groups in the region in order to promote advertising sales. The result was programs and interviews that were more like self-promotion, sometimes almost like infomercials.

News bulletins were made up of Canadian Press texts received on a telex machine, plus local information from community interviews or press releases from local organizations.  Regional media cannot adopt an aggressive or selective approach like urban media, because survival would be impossible, both economically and in terms of community life. The result was community content that was sympathetic, but never critical. A debate has no place in community media, or at least it didn't in the 1970s-1980s at Carleton-sur-Mer's CHAU-TV!

Bernard Bujold - CHAU-TV - 1976

Bernard Bujold on a TV screen in black and white - 1976

Mont-Saint-Joseph Oratory on the mountain at Carleton-sur-Mer -1976

Carleton-sur-Mer, Gaspé Peninsula, 1976

CHAPTER 3

THE WORLD OF JOURNALISTS

I vividly remember watching a Radio-Canada newscast in 1977 and seeing a reporter by the name of Jacques L'archevêque reporting live from the Quebec National Assembly. It was then that I realized that I could report live from the Quebec Parliament and that my Carleton station could be the broadcaster. Regional journalism is not global journalism. For me, Quebec City was a way of conquering the world.

After discussions with the director of CHAU-TV, I left for Quebec City with an agreement to represent CHAU-TV at Tribune de la Presse of the National Assembly. At the time, I was the youngest journalist assigned to the National Assembly. I was barely twenty and had just arrived from rural Gaspésie. 

There were many major media outlets in Quebec City, and as it was the day after the election of a nationalist government, I was not only with the best journalists in the province, but also with those from the rest of Canada who came to monitor public enemy number one: the Parti Québécois. Officially, I was accredited to represent Carleton station CHAU-TV, but I was also a correspondent for radio stations CKRS Jonquière, CHLC Hauterive, and CJMC Sainte-Anne-des-Monts. Parliamentary journalism is a special kind of journalism. It's difficult to have exclusivity of information because the Tribune des Journalistes is like a hub where information is published simultaneously for all journalists.

Journalists have been attending parliamentary debates since the birth of parliamentarians in Quebec in 1792, but it wasn't until 1871 that their association was officially recognized by parliamentary authorities. At that time, however, journalists covering parliamentary activities at the National Assembly had no dedicated space in which to work.

It was in 1958 that parliamentary journalists banded together and began demanding a specific space reserved for them within the National Assembly. Their request was motivated by the need for a place where they could work efficiently, exchange information and be in direct contact with politicians.

The creation of the Parliamentary Press Gallery was a response to these demands. It was established as a dedicated space for parliamentary journalists, offering office space, working facilities, and a meeting place within the National Assembly. The Quebec National Assembly Press Gallery also occupies a space among the MNAs, reserved for journalists covering the activities of the Quebec National Assembly. 

The Press Gallery is located in the main chamber of the National Assembly, above the MNAs' benches. This room was formerly known as the Salon Bleu, a familiar name due to the color of the walls. Previously, it was colloquially known as the Salon Vert for the same reason. The change from green to blue was made to improve image capture for the televised debates, inaugurated on October 3, 1978.   

On March 22, 1984, the MNAs decided that the Salon des débats would henceforth be officially known as the Salle de l'Assemblée Nationale. The decision was also taken to mark the centenary of the first sitting held in the temporary premises of the Parliament Building (March 27, 1884).  Parliamentarians have been sitting in the current National Assembly building since April 8, 1886. In 1936, Maurice Duplessis used the expression "Salon de la race" to designate this room. 

The Press Gallery was originally made up of journalists only, whereas today's Gallery in 2023 brings together columnists, directors, technicians, and researchers. Its members benefit from numerous support services offered by the National Assembly to all media. Long made up exclusively of print journalists, the Tribune welcomed its first radio and television correspondents in 1959, a few months after the death of Maurice Duplessis, who was wary of electronic media. On the other hand, it wasn't until 1962 that Tribune, a male stronghold since its origins, opened its ranks to a woman journalist, while Le Devoir obtained a temporary pass for Evelyn Dumas. Since 1978, parliamentary debates have been broadcast on cable television. The relationship between MPs and the voters who see them on the small screen was transformed. 

It was at this point in 1977 that I arrived at the National Assembly. I was told that if I had arrived 10 or 15 years earlier, in the 1960s, I might have had access to brown envelopes from MNAs at press conferences. Legend or reality, I never received any brown envelopes...

But one thing is certain: on Quebec City's Parliament Hill, I rubbed shoulders with the best journalists in Quebec and Canada. 

In 2023, the Press Gallery counted some sixty members and was an important venue for journalists covering the activities of the Quebec National Assembly. In 1977-78, the Press Gallery had a total of 70 members due to the attention generated by René Lévesque's Parti Québécois. Today, in 2023, the Tribune is equipped with modern technologies that enable journalists to quickly disseminate the information they gather. In 1977, however, technology was just beginning to emerge in the work of Tribune journalists. We had a well-equipped support desk with all the modern tools available at the time, but that didn't mean the media were capable of using them. I still remember my failure to collaborate with a rural press group in Rimouski, the Bellavance. The director had agreed to publish my columns, but he didn't know how to get them from Quebec City to Rimouski. His problem was that he didn't have a fax machine, and he had to have the texts in hand on-site a week before publication. Imagine in 2023, the operation would be disconcertingly easy, but in 1977 I had to resign myself to not collaborating with Rimouski's weeklies.

The main point of interest in a parliamentary assembly is the Question Period on the Assembly floor which becomes the source of information that will be published by the various media. In short, Question Period can be compared to a family reunion, but on a larger scale. Discussions are sometimes repetitive and unfounded, but they are always theatrical, as all participants want to promote their opinion as the best. Since debates are public, they automatically become official sources of information for parliamentary journalists.

One of the dominant figures at the National Assembly during my stay in 1977 was René Lévesque (1922-1987).

Even as Premier, Lévesque retained the gestures and manner of speaking of his native Gaspésie. He smoked a lot, had little hair (like my father), and was small in stature, but extremely polite. Lévesque could speak a cultivated language, but it was above all the natural, warm side of his speeches or simple discussions between friends that was appealing. This is probably where René Lévesque's charisma came from, and why he was so adept at moving in a crowd. People noticed and liked him. It's fair to say that René Lévesque was a master of the art of communication. He was neither haughty nor shy, but just the right amount of authoritative yet candid. It could even be argued that his air of good-naturedness was very influential when someone listened to him and became convinced. 

René Lévesque was a journalist at heart, right up to the day he died! He grew up in New Carlisle, Baie-des-Chaleurs, and was educated in the Jesuit tradition in Gaspé, then at Collège Saint-Charles-Garnier in Quebec City. He abandoned his law studies at Université Laval in 1943 to work as a radio announcer and copywriter. Bilingual, he was recruited in 1944 as a liaison officer and then a war correspondent for the U.S. Army. Dispatched to London, he took part in military campaigns in France, Germany, and Austria, and in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp with the troops of American General Patton.

After the war, he settled in Montreal and worked as a journalist for Radio-Canada International (RCI), before becoming Radio-Canada's star presenter, hosting the program Point de Mire. After his involvement in the Radio-Canada directors' strike, which began in 1958, Point de Mire went off the air in the summer of 1959. A star journalist, Lévesque left Radio-Canada to become, in 1960, a deputy for the Quebec Liberal Party and a minister in the Lesage government. He was one of the main architects of the Quebec Liberal Party's Quiet Revolution as a minister, spearheading the completion of the nationalization of electricity. He has always been an ardent defender of Quebec's political sovereignty. Later, in the 1970s, at the helm of the Parti Québécois, a pro-independence party of which he was the founder, Lévesque became premier of the province from 1976 to 1985.

When talking to Lévesque, it was always his journalistic side that came to the fore. He was curious and constantly asked questions. And when he spoke, he knew how to present information so that his audience would understand. I can say that I learned a great deal about the art of journalism from watching René Lévesque who, even as a politician, still acted like a journalist. 

At press conferences, all the journalists respected him, and none of them would dare confront him or be arrogant toward him. Lévesque's role model was CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite.  His journalistic inspiration was 90% American. He read a lot of Newsweek and Time, and this influenced the structure of his writing. Lévesque also read the French European press. In the corridors of the Assemblée Nationale, it was said that in the evenings, when the building was closed for the night, Lévesque would often gather 4 or 5 journalists in his office, with whom he loved to play cards and have a drink. I never took part in these card games, because Lévesque would never have dared to introduce me, a young Gaspesian, to the vices of alcohol and gambling...

It was impossible not to love Lévesque. Unfortunately, a few years after I left, from 1980 onwards, the relationship between an aging René Lévesque and the media, which had become more chilled about Quebec independence, changed. Lévesque hated journalists, whom he described as lazy. When he resigned after 25 years at the National Assembly on Thursday, June 20, 1985, Lévesque announced his departure in a press release and waited until after the 11 p.m. late-night news to publish it, thus taunting journalists...

Lévesque had been ill, hospitalized against his will, and was exhausted. He resigned because his back was against the wall. He was a shadow of his former self. He was bitter and drank a lot. But in 1976, everyone adored René Lévesque and there was a deep bond between the Parti Québécois and journalists. Journalists' admiration for Lévesque disappeared after the 1980 referendum. This referendum, held on May 20, 1980, was the first referendum on Quebec sovereignty. The referendum was organized on the initiative of René Lévesque's government. It was one of the most important events in contemporary Quebec history. In the 1980 referendum, the Québec government sought a mandate to negotiate a sovereignty-association agreement with the federal government. In the event of a "Yes" victory, the outcome of the negotiations would have been put to a second referendum. The proposal was defeated, however, with a 59.56% "No" vote. A new referendum on Quebec sovereignty was held in 1995, also defeated.

René Lévesque died suddenly of a heart attack on November 1, 1987, at his home on Nun's Island near Montreal. I had just started out as a consultant, and I worked on a foundation project to buy his childhood home in New Carlisle, Gaspé, and turn it into a museum.  I gathered together a group of his friends and acquaintances to sit on the board. I initially proposed to his friend Pierre Péladeau for the presidency, but he finally suggested I concentrate my efforts on people closer to the political world. I then thought of the man who had photographed him in 1978, and whom I often crossed paths at the Château Laurier in Ottawa, Yousuf Karsh. I admired Karsh and said to myself: let's kill two birds with one stone, let's pay tribute to René Lévesque and showcase Karsh.

Yousuf Karsh welcomed me to his studio, but immediately told me he wasn't interested in foundations...

He was a photographer!

                                                                  __________________

Journalists' admiration for René Lévesque in 1976 was in stark contrast to their feelings towards one of their own, a journalist-turned-politician, Claude Ryan (1924-2004), former publisher of Le Devoir from 1964 to 1978.

I observed Ryan at press conferences, and there was nothing appealing about him. One day, while holding his first press conference after his election to the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party in 1978, he greeted the journalists. He was in a bad mood, as several journalists had criticized his political vision for the Liberal party of which he was the new leader. Addressing the media representatives seated in front of him, he pointed out that he was no stranger to journalism, having headed Le Devoir, and knew a good journalist when he saw one. He added that, unfortunately, he had to admit that, at the time of the press conference, he had before him a complete cross-section of the worst and most incompetent journalists he had ever seen...

Let's just say it didn't do anything to win over the Press Gallery media, who never liked him from day one.

Ryan led the Liberal Party in the 1981 provincial election, but his party finished just 3% behind the PQ in the popular vote, with René Lévesque winning twice as many seats. This defeat was largely attributed to Ryan's campaign style, which was criticized for being disrespectful and old-fashioned for the television age. In particular, he refused to write sound bites for the evening news. After his defeat, Ryan was replaced by Robert Bourassa, who would make a victorious return to the political scene. After Bourassa's Liberals regained power in the 1985 election, Ryan became a key member of the Bourassa government, serving as Minister of Education. He also served as Minister of Municipal Affairs, Public Security, and Minister responsible for the Charter of the French Language. After Bourassa's retirement, he was a member of the cabinet headed by Daniel Johnson.

Claude Ryan was one of the most powerful and deeply respected journalists in Quebec and Canada, and it was thought that he would make a good party leader. They were wrong. Claude Ryan's entry into politics was not only a political failure but also a loss for his former newspaper. Indeed, following his departure from the management of Le Devoir, the paper began to become less efficient, ran into serious financial difficulties, and took decades to recover.

Claude Ryan had said, when he left Le Devoir, that it was the hand of God that had advised him to abandon journalism for politics. In all likelihood, God had made an error of judgment, or perhaps it was the devil who had spoken to Claude Ryan while he was praying at the foot of his bed. The journalist-turned-politician retired from politics in September 1994 and died in Montreal in February 2004.

Personally, I consider my time as a journalist with the Press Gallery of the Quebec National Assembly to have been my real start in the world of journalism. I was young and proud to rub shoulders with the best journalists of the day.

For me, it was the real discovery of the world of information!

Bernard Bujold, The National Assembly of Quebec - 1977

Bernard Bujold's office and the Press Gallery corridor - 1977

Bernard Bujold in front of the Quebec National Assembly - 1978

The press gallery's roster of Journalists- 1978

René Lévesque - Photo by Yousuf Karsh, 1978

Claude Ryan - Photo by Yousuf Karsh, 1977

Yousuf Karsh - Photo by George O'Neill - 1980's

Quebec National Assembly - 2023

CHAPTER 4

JOURNALIST IN THE BIG CITY

During my time at Ursuline Sister's class in Gaspésie, I was given the responsibility of managing our class newspaper. The Ursuline Sister had recognized my strong writing and speaking abilities, which would have made me an ideal candidate for managing our class Facebook page had we been in 2023…

I have always had a passion for community media, whether it be a school or village newsletter. Even when I worked as a parliamentary correspondent in Quebec City, I continued to collaborate with my childhood village newspaper, a monthly parish leaflet produced by volunteers in Saint-Siméon de Bonaventure (Journal municipal Le Goéland).

In modern times, social media has replaced most village publications, as it is easier for volunteers to manage. Unfortunately, the municipal newsletter has been the biggest victim of this shift. While large media outlets are losing advertising budgets from commercial enterprises, small regional media are being replaced by social media as the primary means of local communication.

In terms of approach, regional journalism varies greatly from urban journalism. Personally, I find myself drawn to the anonymity and fast-paced nature of urban journalism, but I hold great admiration for the commitment and sense of community that regional media fosters.I could have had a great career in the region if I'd stayed with CHAU-TV, but I chose the big city.

Being a journalist in a city like Quebec City is more urban than in the village of Carleton-sur-Mer, but even though I was surrounded by the best journalists of the day when I was stationed at the National Assembly Press Gallery, I kept dreaming of one day finding myself in the big city of Montreal.

In 1979, Bona Arsenault, a former MNA in Quebec City and federal minister in Ottawa, and also a native of the Gaspé Peninsula, suggested that I pursue my journalism career at Radio-Canada. In his opinion, I had all the potential to one day join the French network in Montreal, but first I had to learn the ropes in the regions. According to Arsenault, the ideal region was Moncton, New Brunswick, where he had personal contact with the Acadian management of Radio-Canada's regional station.

Bona Arsenault was a great advocate of the Acadian cause and was highly regarded for his research into Acadian genealogical archives.

I've accepted the offer to join Radio-Canada Moncton as a television and radio sports host. 

I'd make the interesting acquaintance of Jean Perron, the first coach in the National Hockey League to apply a scientific physical training method in the gym for his players, a method that set him apart, which differed from the instinctive method still used by other coaches at the time. Perron was stationed at the Université de Moncton as coach of the Aigles Bleus in 1979. Six years later, he led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup in 1985.

My big risk in Moncton was to switch from political journalism to sports journalism. I was worried, but I told myself that journalism is the art of discovery and that the subject wasn't essential. Also, my early experiences with fitness columns made me familiar with and passionate about sports. What's more, I was convinced that my time in Moncton was the ultimate key to the big city. My real goal was to gain experience for a year or two, then open the door to a major urban media outlet like Radio-Canada Montréal. In the back of my mind, I even dreamed that one day I might replace a star host like Bernard Derome…

Rural and urban life in Quebec and Canada are two very different lifestyles, influenced by many factors, such as geography, culture, population, and economy. We can also conclude that the isolation of rural villages creates a kind of closeness between people that doesn't exist in cities, where people live as a group but often don't know their neighbors. Rural journalism is directly influenced by the differences between rural and urban life. Urban life is characterized by high population density, while rural life is characterized by a more dispersed population. Urban life takes place in hard environments, such as skyscrapers, while rural life takes place in wide-open spaces. In urban life, modes of transport such as public transport, cabs, and cars are widely used, whereas in rural life, modes of transport are more individual. 

Urban life also often offers more job opportunities and higher wages than rural life, which is often characterized by a weaker economy and a scarcer workforce. Finally, urban life is frequently characterized by a more cosmopolitan and diverse culture, while rural life is more traditional and conservative.

All these differences determine the style of journalism to which people have access, depending on where they live, be it a city or a region. These differences are not absolute, and there are regions that fall somewhere between urban and rural life, but it is undeniable that rural journalism differs greatly from urban journalism.

A journalist working in a rural area is bound to have an interest in and passion for his or her local community, while a journalist in an urban area may have a broader, more universal curiosity. Urban journalists can cover subjects that are more open to the world, such as international politics, culture, and the arts on a global level. Regional journalists, on the other hand, have to focus on more local events and issues and are limited in their work by more restricted geographical areas. Regional journalism must also serve as a promotional tool for local and community events. Connecting with the community has always been a goal of regional media, but in 2023 it's increasingly difficult to do so, as community groups often prefer to go directly through sites like Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to advance their various projects.

Regional media are much less polarized and more neutral than those in big cities, where polarization is an economic necessity. Indeed, to be profitable in a big city, a media outlet must have targeted audiences, and with advanced technology, it's possible to accurately assess the identity and tastes of listeners or users. To ensure the widest and most loyal audience possible, each urban media targets a specific segment of the population according to ideology. The result is media that are as polarized as the population itself.

Urban media journalists are also becoming more and more entertainment artists, rather than mirrors of society and life as regional media are. Urban journalists are fast becoming stars, and the more adored they are, the larger their audience and the more essential they become to their respective media. 

American journalists such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are a case in point. Big media stars become an integral part of the media, and Tucker Carlson is a case in point. When his media company, FOX NEWS, terminated his contract in May 2023, the audience in his time slot immediately fell to a few hundred thousand, whereas with Carlson the audience reached over 3.2 million listeners every evening.

Americans in particular have developed the concept of celebrity, but with social media, stardom has become accessible to everyone, including people in the regions. You can go viral in an instant, whether you live in the city or the village, as long as the subject matter is universal.  However, unlike mainstream media stars, Internet stars often have a shorter, more unpredictable lifespan. In the mainstream media, celebrities are supported by a system and a large group of collaborators, whereas on social media, it's a bit everyone for himself.

Because of the large audience size of urban media, they can create a viable economic base, despite the competition from social media. It's the regional media that are most affected by the rise of social media. In a way, social media have replaced the local dimension of regional media.

In 2023, because of the Internet and social media, and for reasons of economic profitability, journalism is becoming increasingly urban, and there are fewer and fewer journalists and local media with a community vocation capable of ensuring financial viability.

We can conclude that the church steps have been replaced by a Facebook page...

Bernard Bujold - Radio-Canada Moncton advertising poster - 1979

Bernard Derome - Radio-Canada, - Retirement message December 18, 2008

Radio-Canada - Montréal - 1978

Sean Hannity - Fox News - 2023

Tucker Carlson - Fox News - 2023

New York City - 2023

City of Montreal - 2023

CHAPTER 5

THE DEATH OF NEWSPAPERS

My time at Radio-Canada Moncton was initially intended as a springboard for my entry into Montreal and its urban territory. Although I'd dreamed of joining Radio-Canada Montréal, I quickly realized that it wasn't the intention of the local management to train journalist-hosts and then send them to the head office in the big city. Instead, they wanted to build a strong regional station with Acadian figures. 

This regional vision was not unique to Moncton and was applied wherever Radio-Canada had satellite stations. In the past, regional stations served as schools for Radio-Canada Montréal, but this was no longer the case in 1979.

I fulfilled my one-year contract in Moncton, and by the end of it, I was reluctant to sign a second one as a sports host. I was bored with the political journalism I'd experienced in Quebec City. I decided to take some time to think about my future and began publishing articles in New Brunswick's daily newspapers, in French and English, on subjects far removed from sport, to bring me closer to politics. 

In 1980, New Brunswick had a population of around 700,000, with three English-language dailies and one French-language daily, L'Évangéline, founded at the turn of the century in Moncton. 

The management of L'Évangéline offered me a full-time position as a journalist responsible for municipal affairs in Moncton. I would have preferred a position in Fredericton as a correspondent for the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly, but the position wasn't available. Initially, I was hesitant about pursuing a career in print media as I had a strong affinity towards electronic media. In my perception, it was like magic to bring news into people's homes through electronic media. I underestimated the power of print media until I recalled my previous colleagues at the National Assembly who were able to shape the readers' views on Quebec and Canadian politics through their work in print. Therefore, I decided to give it a shot and was pleasantly surprised to find that the written press was a delightful discovery that I instantly fell in love with.

In 1982, L'Évangéline was the only French-language daily published in Eastern Canada, outside Quebec, in a predominantly English-speaking environment, and had been since 1887. It started out as a weekly and became a daily in 1949. I can say that it was with L'Évangéline that I really acquired a love and infatuation for the printed press. I had never before understood how a written article could generate so many reactions and have so much influence. Television is a medium with considerable power and influence. Just think of the effect CNN and FOX have on the public when they turn their cameras on a live event. Transmitted in this way, the information is raw, unprocessed, and unanalyzed. But once you've seen a report on the TV news, if you remember the headlines, you've forgotten the content the next day. In the print media, the written report remains in the archives. A newspaper article can be kept and referred to at any time after publication. It won't disappear like a television or radio report.

Another big difference between television and newspapers is the scale of the technical machinery. In television, you need a whole team to produce a report, from the journalist to the cameraman and the editor, and you also need to have planned availability for recording, or live broadcast, with the subject of the report. In a newspaper, the journalist is responsible for writing the text, and the writing needs no support. In the days of L’Evangeline, all you needed was a typewriter, and today in 2023, all you need is a laptop...

This ease of producing a written text makes print journalism more enjoyable and, in a way, more accessible. Of course, in both cases, it remains that an entire team surrounds the final publication of a story, whether written or televised, but the production is totally different. Radio can be included in the newspaper because of the ease with which a story can be produced. However, this ease of conception and publication is in no way comparable to the modern concept of virtual media, which requires only a computer and an Internet line. In 2023, a single individual can produce an entire long-form report with text and images and publish it online in all media, whether print, radio, TV, or virtual, and distribute it worldwide.

L'Évangéline was launched on November 23, 1887, in Digby, Nova Scotia, by Valentin Landry, teacher, school inspector, and journalist. L'Évangéline's role was to promote the Acadian language and culture, defend the rights of the Acadian community, and serve as a forum for the community's opinions and concerns. Over the years, the paper had covered a wide variety of topics, including politics, culture, education, religion, sports, and local news.

L'Évangéline has played a very important role in the history of the Acadian community. It was one of the main media outlets that supported the fight for Acadian linguistic and cultural rights, particularly during the adoption of New Brunswick's Official Languages Act in 1969. In the past, L'Évangéline, Le Droit of Ottawa, and Le Devoir of Montreal had a shared ideology of advocating for the rights of French-Canadian Catholics. However, by 1982, this was no longer the case.

By 1982, L'Évangéline had its own presses and building. Unfortunately, the management had difficulty making the operation profitable unless it was subsidized every year by both Acadian governments and institutions, as well as foreign governments such as France. L'Évangéline's advertising revenues had fallen sharply with the closure of many local businesses, victims of the recession. Already in financial difficulty, the Acadian Daily was brought to an end by a labor dispute. Negotiations between the employees' union and the bosses went nowhere, and after two weeks, the doors were closed. The closure, which was supposed to be temporary, was definitive. It was a heartbreaking end and a loss for the French-speaking community in this part of the country.

On September 27, 1982, the French-language newspaper L'Évangéline closed its doors without notice. Around a hundred people were put out of work. For almost 100 years, this newspaper had been the main source of information for Acadians. When the paper closed its doors after 95 years of publication, its sudden and surprising demise made headlines in New Brunswick's English-language dailies, as it was, in a way, the failure of the Acadian people to keep their daily newspaper alive. 

Despite technical assistance from France and a growing subscriber base that had reached 21,000 by 1982, Imprimerie acadienne ltée, publisher of L'Évangéline, had a deficit of $800,000 and a debt of $600,000 as of August 31, 1982. With the death of L'Évangéline, New Brunswick's only French-language daily newspaper also disappeared. Acadians no longer had a daily forum in their language and had to rely on English-language print media. It would be two years before the northeastern part of the province would have a daily newspaper again, with L'Acadie Nouvelle, and two more years for the rest of the province, with the short-lived Le Matin.

Le Matin opened in Moncton thanks to sponsors and subsidies from various levels of government, but it couldn't make it. Initially relaunched as Le Matin and headed by Acadian Charles D'Amours, the daily failed to gain financial momentum, and it was eventually a small northern daily, L'Acadie nouvelle, based in Caraquet, that established itself, without much funding from governments or Acadian institutions.  L'Acadie nouvelle is still published today in 2023 in print and online.                     

When I was with L'Évangéline, I regularly used my time off to visit various media outlets on the U.S. East Coast, including New York, Boston, and the surrounding area. I visited the facilities of a dozen newspapers, including The New York Times, and chatted with the editor of the legendary Harvard Business Review. I found it interesting to compare the other newspapers with the Evangeline.

It's likely that if Evangeline hadn't closed its doors, I'd still be working there. I loved l'Évangéline and I loved the Acadian community of which I am a part. Unfortunately, events decided otherwise. After the paper closed, I held the position of Communications Director for the Fédération des Caisses populaires acadiennes (one of l'Évangéline's shareholders) from 1982 to 1984; and a stint with Brian Mulroney in Ottawa, from 1984 to 1988. I returned to the newspaper world as a consultant from 1988 to 1991 and I carried out a number of market analyses in the newspaper publishing sector. 

The key to newspaper success is to produce a publication that appeals to readers. Some publishers publish newspapers to please themselves as publishers, while others publish based on what readers want to read. My philosophy as a consultant was to reach the target audience and provide them with a product they wanted.

Pierre Péladeau always said that he didn't produce a newspaper to please himself but to please his readers. I've always shared this philosophy, and when I've analyzed newspaper projects, I've always put the reader-before-publisher principle first.

One of my first projects was to analyze the situation of the Ottawa newspaper Le Droit situation in Ottawa and propose a business strategy to its owners that would give it a solid foothold in the national capital market. 

In early 1988, Le Droit was facing major financial problems and had just come through a strike. It was experiencing the same problems as L'Évangéline: being a newspaper initially created to defend the French fact in its region, rather than to make a profit. However, new restructuring options had to be found and, above all, the operation had to be made financially profitable, as the linguistic nationalism of yesteryear no longer supported the institutions. The owner of Le Droit in 1988 was Conrad Black, and he ran his many newspapers profitably. Black had bought Le Droit and Le Soleil from Jacques Francœur in 1987. Peter G. White, Black's right-hand man, and partner, had met with employees and told them of the new corporate strategy, which was to streamline as much as possible. The reaction was not good, as the seven unions went on strike in February 1988 for six months.

After the strike was settled, I drew up a restructuring plan and presented it to Le Droit's management. They liked my suggestions but preferred a longer timetable than the one I had proposed. There was even talk of selling the paper. I, therefore, prepared a second plan, in collaboration with another consultant, in which I analyzed the advantages for a buyer of Le Droit.

In the end, Le Droit's management made a number of structural changes to the company, retaining only the newspaper's core business. First, they sold the commercial printing plant, which was profitable but didn't fit in well with the company's mission; then they moved the Novalis subsidiary, which publishes Prions en Église, to Montreal; changed the paper's format to tabloid; and moved the office to a new location by selling the building, as Le Devoir later did. Le Droit had its own newspaper presses, but they weren't profitable. The solution was to outsource printing. It was a more economical and less financially burdensome solution.

I then carried out an analysis of the situation at Le Devoir, the third newspaper in the French-language trio (L'Évangéline, Le Droit, and Le Devoir). Here too, I recommended that Le Devoir be more active in the community, and suggested to director Benoit Lauzière that Pierre Péladeau and Quebecor play a specific role in the revival.

I suggested using their advertising sales efforts to be more present in the community.  I contacted Péladeau to ask him what he thought, and he was open to the whole idea. I also proposed a fund-raising campaign involving the city's other major dailies. Unfortunately, nothing came of it, except that the Le Devoir building at 211 rue Saint-Sacrement in Old Montreal was subsequently sold to Quebecor on November 16, 1992...

After that, I worked on various projects for corporate communications, but I returned to the Le Droit territory with a project to create a new daily newspaper. I approached Pierre Péladeau, on behalf of a group of private shareholders from the Outaouais region, with a project that would have involved him personally in starting up a third daily for Quebecor after Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, namely Le Journal de Hull.

I spearheaded this project in 1989 with Louis M. Bergeron, one of the first Journal de Montréal sports journalists to travel with the Canadiens and Expos. Bergeron had left Le Journal de Montréal shortly after Jacques Beauchamp's arrival. He knew the Outaouais region well, and had relaunched Le Droit's three weeklies under the ownership of well-known newspaper personality Jacques Francoeur. Francoeur had also directed the weekly Dimanche Matin. Bergeron and I had drawn up a very precise business plan to get Péladeau on board, along with other investors from the region.

Pierre Péladeau agreed to receive our document and acknowledged its receipt to me verbally by telephone. He told me he would look at it very carefully and that our project was obviously well-prepared. A few days later, he phoned me to ask for clarification on certain figures. But after a few weeks, he wrote back in the negative, contrary to our expectations and hopes. We were convinced that he would come on board with the local group and that the new paper would thus have formed a trio with its two other dailies in Montreal and Quebec City: same format, same sales dynamics, same graphic presentation. We also wanted to set up the daily in Hull, on the Quebec side, with Gatineau as its main territory and a larger pool of Francophones, the same kind of market as in Quebec City. 

Le Droit would have liked to imitate our business plan, but Ontario unions legally prevented the relocation of a company incorporated in their province.

Mr. Péladeau was the right man for the job, in our opinion, but he wasn't completely convinced that there was a market financially to generate enough advertising revenue. At the time, Le Journal de Montréal was already distributing some 5,000 copies in the Outaouais region. What's more, French-speaking Ontarians read more 

English-language press. Péladeau had already suffered serious setbacks in the English-speaking market, in the U.S. in Philadelphia, and more recently in Montreal with The Daily News. He was uncomfortable with the idea of entering a new territory dominated by English-speaking readers. 

Although he didn't finance the project for the new Outaouais daily, Pierre Péladeau had observed my way of working, and he took note. In fact, he would later tell me in 1991 that he had offered me a position as assistant to the president following the efforts I had put into my 1989 project. 

After the daily newspaper project in the Outaouais region, I took part in an economic mission to Paris, again in the field of paper publications, for the French economic delegation in Ottawa. My job was to identify the economic players in Paris in the newspaper sector and to evaluate the possibilities of the "minitel" for newspapers. I was to try to establish closer ties with Quebec companies. During the 1980s and 1990s, I was convinced that paper newspapers were an untouchable, efficient institution.

Clearly, I was wrong!                                      

By 2023, paper newspapers have been transformed for the most part into virtual media on the Internet. The end of traditional paper newspapers in favor of online versions has been mainly caused by the evolution of digital technologies and media consumption patterns. Online newspapers can offer several advantages over paper versions, including the immediate availability of information, the ability to provide real-time updates, the flexibility to publish multimedia content (such as videos or images), and the ability to easily share content via social networks.

However, the transition to online newspapers has not been easy for newspaper companies. Newspapers had to adapt to a new digital economy and find ways to monetize their online content. 

Advertising revenues, once a major source of income for print newspapers, were drastically reduced as advertisers turned to online platforms such as Google and Facebook.

Ultimately, the end of traditional paper newspapers is the result of the rapid evolution of technology and consumer media behavior. 

However, this does not mean the end of print media or journalists. Journalists continue to play a crucial role in the search for accurate and reliable information, and online newspapers have opened up new opportunities for journalism and the dissemination of information.

The essential role of the Internet in traditional media can be seen, for example, in the case of Wikileaks.  Indeed, without the Internet, the information conveyed by Wikileaks would have had to be in paper format, as in the Watergate era, and distribution and access would have been almost impossible, given the sheer volume of documents in the various files unveiled by Wikileaks.

WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization founded in 2006 by Julian Assange and other transparency activists, with the aim of publishing confidential documents and sensitive information that were often state secrets. WikiLeaks' first major media coup came in 2010 when they published a video showing US soldiers killing Iraqi civilians from a helicopter in 2007, which became known as the "Collateral Murder video". This publication caused great controversy and was widely reported in the media around the world. WikiLeaks subsequently published thousands of documents and classified information on the Internet, including US diplomatic cables, files on the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and documents on the surveillance activities of the US National Security Agency (NSA).  Print newspapers, including The Guardians, would then publish in print a summary of the information revealed on the internet. 

In 2012, Julian Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where he lived for seven years to avoid extradition to Sweden on charges of sexual assault.   

Although I fondly remember the sensation of smelling paper and ink on my fingers while reading lengthy reports, I try not to dwell on those days gone by. Out of all the paper newspapers that I love to read, my favorite was The Wall Street Journal. Sadly, due to the COVID pandemic, the physical version is no longer available in Canada as of 2021. 

Thankfully, I can still access the online version and receive the American paper version in PDF format through a daily email. This way, I can continue indulging in my love for The Wall Street Journal.

Evangeline Statue, Grand-Pré - Nova Scotia

Evangéine Daily Building, Moncton - New Brunswick, 1979

Bernard Bujold in front of the Evangélise building, 1982

The last edition of L'Évangéline, on September 27,  1982

L'Acadie Nouvelle - Caraquet - New Brunswick

French-language newspapers in Montreal - 2017

THE NEW YORK TIMES Building - New York - 1982

Bernard Bujold - HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW reading room - Boston - 1982

Head office Le Droit - Ottawa-Ontario, 1989

Head office Le Journal de Montréal - 4545 Frontenac Street, Montreal, 1991

Bernard Bujold - Paris - France, 1990

Print editions THE WALL STREET JOURNAL - 2020

Newspaper printing, 1996

Julian Assange and Wikileaks, 2014

The Ulysse mascot and Bernard Bujold's reading room

Bernard Bujold - Quebecor Garden - Montréal - Québec

CHAPTER 6

POLITICAL JOURNALIST

I first met Brian Mulroney, along with his wife Mila Mulroney, in the summer of 1983, when he had just won the leadership convention of the Conservative Party of Canada.  He would eventually stand for election in Nova Scotia's Central Nova riding, winning the seat held by Elmer MacKay, Peter McKay's father. 

Brian and I developed a good personal connection, based on his dynamism and innovative ideas that I admired. I often shared press clippings and articles from various New Brunswick publications that featured his political party. Brian and Mila were definitely a duo in 1984, and I would argue, as many other journalists have, that Brian alone could not have won the election. Mila played a leading role with voters thanks to her sympathetic personality and her image as a leading woman, supporting an innovative candidate who promised change.

I was present in Baie-Comeau on the evening of September 4, 1984, when Brian Mulroney won a historic electoral victory. He elected 211 MPs out of a possible 282.  The new Prime Minister Brian Mulroney had the largest majority ever in the Canadian House of Commons. I was delighted and pleased to see the Conservatives sweep the election campaign, as I had been actively involved as a volunteer organizer in New Brunswick's Acadian Peninsula. 

I had given up journalism following the closure of L'Evangéline, and the Fédération des caisses populaires acadiennes had taken me back into their organization as a public relations executive. I liked the concept of caisses populaires and admired the dynamism of Acadians. However, my big-city ambitions remained with me, and I was still a journalist at heart. I foresaw that, with Brian Mulroney elected Prime Minister, I could return to the world of journalists, or at least rub shoulders with them as a press attaché.

The 1984 election had been a memorable one across Canada, and in New Brunswick, the Conservatives had won nine out of ten ridings in the province. It was euphoria in Baie-Comeau. I remember that Mr. Mulroney's immediate entourage had predicted a victory, but not on this scale. Brian Mulroney had been the favored candidate ahead of John Turner, and he had run his campaign on the premise that he wanted to make the federal government machine more efficient.

My participation in the New Brunswick election campaign had attracted attention, and I was soon invited to join a ministerial cabinet as an assistant. The energy Mulroney was able to convey made me want to work for his team, and Ottawa brought me closer to the rhythm of urban life.

It's important to understand that a political party can't win an election without a marketing structure. In 1984, for example, Mulroney's team succeeded in bringing together the best political salesmen available in Canada, with right-wing economic thinking. I was part of that group.

Also, in terms of marketing, 1984 was a time when television still played an important role. In my opinion, Brian Mulroney won his election in the CBC debate when he confronted his opponent John Turner and criticized him for accepting the political appointments made by Pierre Elliott Trudeau before he stepped down as Prime Minister. Mulroney asked Turner live on air to apologize to the country for making "those horrible appointments". Turner was surprised by Mulroney's comment and replied that he had no choice but to maintain Trudeau's appointments. Mulroney's famous reply: "You had a choice, sir. You could have said, 'I'm not going to do it. He accused Turner of not having objected, and repeated two or three times in English: "You had an option. John Turner replied each time, "I did not have a choice!

This moment in the debate completely shifted the momentum of the election campaign in Mulroney's favor. This was often the case in election campaigns before the Internet, and one bad comment on TV could completely destroy a candidate.

The Internet has completely changed the way an election campaign is run, and today in 2023, the advertising machine operates in real-time, and it's possible to assess minute by minute where to broadcast a message and determine precisely the content of each of these messages, which are adjusted precisely according to the target audience. This was definitely not the case in 1984...                                   

As soon as he arrived in Ottawa, Mulroney realized that salespeople couldn't run the country. It's worth noting that Brian Mulroney was able to adapt and quickly change his management strategy.  While he had promised to change management in Ottawa and apply the concepts he had learned in private industry at Iron Ore, he also understood that the federal government is a machine controlled by the senior civil service. The Americans call this senior civil service the "Deep State".

He, therefore, surrounded himself with two groups, the political staff who had won him the election and a second group of senior civil servants. He entrusted the management of the ministries, and of his Prime Minister's Office, to the two powers, the political (the salesmen) and the senior civil service. This was probably what enabled him to succeed in many of his projects, but he was never able to turn the Canadian government into a private enterprise, as he had promised and as he would have liked.

His 1984 path resembles Donald Trump's in 2016, except that Donald clung to his idea of privatizing the state against the grain of the American senior civil service.

This stubbornness won him the admiration and support of half of the Americans, but the other half backed by the high government machine caused his 2020 defeat.

We'll have to see what happens next in 2024. Note that the political structure of the United States is different from that of Canada and Quebec, and it is possible for America to become a country whose management rules are closer to private enterprise and to dislodge the "Deep State"...

I joined the Prime Minister's Office as Communications Assistant in early 1985. My duties consisted mainly of liaising between journalists in the press gallery and the Prime Minister's Office. I also accompanied Mulroney on his famous press briefings as he left his office in the House of Commons building. In Ottawa, I met up with several of my former colleagues from la Tribune parlementaire de Québec, now based at the Press Gallery in Ottawa.

From my early days in 1976 at CHAU-TV, and later at the National Assembly, I had discovered the power of the press. In Ottawa, I expected to discover the power of politics.

At first, I thought the power of politics was equivalent to the power of business. But, in the years following the 1984 victory, I quickly came to realize that there are as many differences between the power of politics and the power of business, particularly with Quebecor, as there are between day and night.

When you're in politics, anyone can approach you and reproach you about your work and projects. As a public figure, it's your duty as a politician to respond transparently, because you're at the service of the nation. In a certain sense, the politician's life becomes almost the property of the state. He must continually manage exchanges with the community and try to achieve a group consensus. Personal decisions are rarely possible. It's quite the opposite in business, where the owner of a company is, so to speak, master after God!

Brian Mulroney came to Ottawa with a solid background in private management, acquired with the Iron Ore mining company. He came to power with the goal of privatizing Crown corporations. 

However, he quickly realized that this kind of decision takes much longer than in the private sector, and involves countless people in the chain of public administration. 

In a private company like Quebecor, if Pierre Péladeau tells his vice presidents that we're changing course from now on, there's no one to contradict or oppose him, except the shareholders. This was my argument back in 1991 when I was preparing communications strategies for Mr. Péladeau. 

I often repeated to Quebecor executives who wanted to criticize corporate decisions that:  «.. the doorknobs at Quebecor belong to Pierre Péladeau…». The capital and assets of a private company belong to its owners and shareholders, while the capital and assets of the State belong to its citizens. 

This is a major difference that must never be forgotten, and it directly concerns the world of journalism.

In political press relations, journalists are immediately opposed and try to contradict everything they are told. In business, journalists don't confront the president of a company in the same way and, a priori, they accept the latter's explanations. The president of a private company is not accountable, unlike a public figure. In my opinion, the real power lies in the private sector. Political power is illusory, and in politics, power is held by the journalists who watch the politicians.

Even taking into account this fundamental difference between the public and private sectors, I consider that Pierre Péladeau and Brian Mulroney were very similar in their ideology and management style. Both men believed in the private sector and in action. Mr. Péladeau, I later discovered, could react extremely quickly to any situation. So could Brian Mulroney. Both men worked passionately for their respective causes, one for Quebecor and the other for Canada.

As a lawyer, Brian Mulroney had negotiated the first collective agreement at the Journal de Montréal in the late 1960s, in a style he still retained in 1984. His approach enabled him to settle several collective agreements. Mulroney did not accept defeat. As with Péladeau, he had to win. 

Mulroney always did his research before starting a project. He wanted to know everything about the project he was negotiating. Information is the cornerstone of any business strategy, whether you're a lawyer or a financial entrepreneur. That's probably why Péladeau appreciated my talent for knowing everything. I often told people around me that Pierre Péladeau saw me as his private journalist...

Brian Mulroney was from the era of paper newspapers, and he read a dozen of them every day. He needed to know what journalists were publishing, and he trusted paper newspapers, which gave him a kind of security of mind. In fact, he's already said he doesn't know how he would do politics today in 2023 with social media. According to Mulroney, "Everything is too fast and impossible to control, just like it used to be in the 1980s.

At the Parliament in Ottawa, contacts with the media are managed, as in Quebec City, by a journalists' association called Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery. The exact date on which the Gallery became an association is not known, as the Centre Block fire of 1916 destroyed most of the archives of the time. When the Parliament Buildings were rebuilt, the Gallery moved to the Centre Block in the Centre Block in 1920. Nicknamed the "Hot Room", these offices included a lounge and workroom for journalists and Gallery staff.

Thanks to pressure from the Speaker of the House of Commons and certain MPs, radio and TV journalists were granted membership in the Gallery in 1959. With their arrival, the Gallery's ranks swelled rapidly, from a few dozen members to several hundred.

The government of Lester B. Pearson's government offered to lease space in the former Norlite Insurance building at 150 Wellington Street for use as the National Press Building. Located on the first floor of the building, the National Press Theatre was inaugurated during the renovation of the Hot Room on the Hill. Later, the Charles Lynch Room, in the basement of the Centre Block, was set up for interviews and press conferences. In 2023, the Ottawa Press Gallery has a total of 314 members, journalists, and press support staff.

 

When I worked in Brian Mulroney's cabinet, we managed press relations by two means: direct contact and the telephone. Our source of information was almost exclusively the paper newspapers, from which we received a press review every morning. We then had to react to the various articles. The pace of management was relatively easy compared with what it has become in 2023 with the internet and social media.

Back in 1984, the news authority was the print media. Political staff were given a dozen hours to react to the media. Our reaction had to be published before the evening news on TV and before the deadline for the next day's paper editions. So the paper media were the most important to feed. Television was important, but as a disseminator of the message (spin). Official positions gained in importance when they were available on paper, and thus kept on file by politicians and citizens alike.

Today, in 2023, social media have become the archives. We make screen saves and it becomes like a paper file, but in electronic form. Imagine the complexity of managing press relations in 2023. Reaction times are minutes, not to say instantaneous. Add to this artificial intelligence, which provides the ability to create its own realities that may be false, and you have a dangerous virtual world, but one that is the new reality. In 1984, fake news didn't really exist. If they did, they were political rumors that journalists eventually proved to be false.

In 2023, the concept of social media means that a lie can become a reality if it goes viral. It is then impossible to completely correct a false story. This explains the polarization of society. Social media polarize opinions and leave no room for debate. Reality is either black or white, and there are no gray areas or room for discussion.

One particular aspect of Ottawa in 1984 was the gathering of a large group of elected politicians and political staff from across Canada. I was surprised in 1984 to find that, while all 211 elected officials formed a solid group supporting Mulroney, each province had its own clans.  For example, political staff from Quebec gathered together at parties; Ontario staff in another group; the Maritime provinces together; and the same thing for the Western provinces and British Columbia. 

It looked like five or six campuses of different universities, each with its own "alma mater". Each group had its own identity, and each identified itself as having a personality distinct from the others.

After I left Ottawa in 1991, I long had a dream in my sleep that I was a freelance columnist for Galerie de la Presse and that I had my own office among the journalists, on the Hill in the Centre Block. I frequented this office daily, and it was like my second home. I felt like the master of the world as a parliamentary journalist in Ottawa. I had this recurring dream for many years. Probably because the real power in Ottawa lies with journalists, and as a member of the political staff, I could only admire this power that was inaccessible to me between 1984 and 1991.

                                                 

Brian and Mila Mulroney - Baie-Comeau- Québec, 4 september - 1984

John Turner and Brian Mulroney -CBC - 1984

Brian and Mila Mulroney - Baie-Comeau- Québec, September 4, 1984

Bernard Bujold - Ottawa - September 1984

Speech by Brian Mulroney - Baie-Comeau - Quebec, 1985

Brian Mulroney - Montréal - Québec, 2008

Canadian Parliament, Ottawa - Ontario, 1985

CHAPTER 7 

PRESS PHOTOGRAPHER

Journalism and photography are closely linked, and the profession of a press photographer is essential to the world of information. 

The history of press photography dates back to 1839, with the invention of photography. The first press photographers were often reporters whom occasionally and exceptionally used gigantic wooden, tripod-mounted cameras to document some of the events they were covering.

However, the real boom in the profession of press photographer came in the 1900s with the development of photography and the invention of more portable cameras. Press photographers began to work for newspapers and magazines, documenting current events through images. Photographs were usually published alongside news articles to illustrate events taking place around the world.

Over the years, the profession of press photographer became increasingly specialized. Photographers began to focus on specific areas, such as sports, politics, war, and fashion. Press photographers have to be prepared to work in difficult conditions and take risks to capture images that tell a story, whether reporting on current events, portraits of public figures, sports images, fashion shots, or artistic images for feature stories or war reporting such as in Ukraine or acts of violence.

Modern press photographers often use sophisticated equipment, such as drones, action cameras, smartphones, stabilizers, and image-editing software. They also need to have a thorough knowledge of information dissemination technologies, as the images they capture are continually broadcast instantaneously on social networks and news websites via satellite internet.

The work of a modern press photographer also requires people skills, as photographers must frequently interact with crowds, fellow journalists on location, editors of their media outlet, and other news industry professionals. In addition, modern press photographers face challenges such as competition from internet image banks and the financial pressures of their media, travel restrictions by the governments of the countries concerned, and security issues, particularly when covering dangerous events or conflict zones.

Personally, I've always believed that you can tell a story better if you have the right images to convey the reality of your story. I've photographed thousands of people and events, and I loved the job of a press photographer.  I estimate my photographic collection at over 100,000 images taken since I was a teenager, on film, slides, or digital. My mother Anita Cyr, an amateur photographer, was my inspiration. Every year, she photographed the family in front of the house with a KODAK Brownie 620 camera. Among the great photographers of the world who have been my teachers, my favorite remains Yousuf Karsh. I met him a few times at the Château Laurier, where he had his studio, and when I was living in Ottawa (1984). 

The French photographer Cartier Bresson was also a great influence.

In terms of photographic equipment, I started out with a simple Instamatic Kodak X-15. Despite its simplicity, this camera worked miracles, and some of my best photos were taken with it. Later, I discovered 35 mm film and used a Minolta X-700 for a long time, before switching to Nikon cameras like the F5. I then moved on to lighter tools whose main purpose was to take full advantage of digital and social media on the Internet. Compact cameras like the Canon G Powershot.

But in 2023, the devices I consider most effective are Apple iPhones. Of course, there are also the famous Photoshop and Affinity programs, and I've never had any qualms about modifying my photos, as long as the changes were intended to make understanding the story easier, more accurate, and more enjoyable. I love photography, and for me, this form of expression is a way of reaching out and discovering people's souls, all over the world!

My first camera was a simple Instamatic that gave excellent results without the need for lens adjustments. When I started at CHAU-TV, TV reports were illustrated with slides that the cameraman developed in the studio.  I had to make the transition to 35mm and bought myself a Mamiya camera at the village jewelry store. I was very sad to give up my Instamatic...

I've never really taken press photos for print newspapers. My photos were for television in 1977 and for the Internet from 2005 until today. In 2005, I did a lot of reportage photography, but for publication on the Internet in my LeStudio1.com project, a kind of virtual television in terms of images. At first, I had to take the photos on film and print paper editions, which I transformed into digital with a "scanner".

For the Internet magazine LeStudio1. com, I photographed many world-class sporting events, including the International de Bromont equestrian competition, the Canadian Tennis Open, and the F1 Canadian Grand Prix, as well as hundreds of celebrities such as Isabelle Adjani, Céline Dion, René Angélil, Gérard Depardieu, Julie Depardieu, Sophia Loren, Rafael Nadal, André Agassi, Maria Sharapova, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Serena Williams, Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper, René Lévesque, and many others.

Today in 2023, all my photos are taken with an iPhone, but I greatly miss the cameras of yesteryear. Personally, I use an Apple iPhone, but other brands of smartphones are also very good, notably Samsung and Google Pixel. 

I like to say that if you want to take "photos", you need a conventional camera, but if you want to take "pictures" and create images, you're better off using a smartphone. It's important to understand that making images isn't about having fun or relaxing, it's serious work, and only the end result counts. A conventional camera is like a manual sports car, while a smartphone is like an electric car. A smartphone is actually a powerful computer that you can hold in one hand.

If I have one bad memory of my career as a press photographer, it's how heavy the cameras were in the days of film and the early days of digital. The equipment was so heavy that by the time I got to the event, I was often physically exhausted...

If there's one secret to success in press photography, it's knowing how to position yourself before the event. The location makes all the difference between the success or failure of a media image. In this respect, the smartphone is more discreet than a conventional camera, and because of this discretion, it's often easier to take exclusive photos than if you'd used a visible camera, which would have frightened off the target subjects or disrupted the targeted event.

You can view some of my photographs by downloading the book « L’ART DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE », which I published in French and English in June 2021.

Press photographer - 1948

Press Photographers - 2008

Donald Trump and press photographers - Washington - 2018

Kellyanne Conway in Donald Trump's office - Washington - 2017

Cameras and iPhone used by Bernard Bujold - 1974 to 2023

Bernard Bujold - photographer - 2005

Bernard Bujold - photographer - July 2018

Bernard Bujold - photographer - 2023

CHAPTER 8

MEDIA TYCOONS

I had the privilege of sharing the daily professional life of Pierre Péladeau (1922-1998), founder of Le Journal de Montréal and the QUEBECOR empire, during the last seven years of his life. I am the author of the biography "Pierre Péladeau cet inconnu" and I was assistant to the founding president of Quebecor Inc. from 1991 to 1998. I had heard of Pierre Péladeau as early as 1977 from Normand Girard, the Journal de Montréal's correspondent at the Quebec National Assembly when I was CHAU-TV's correspondent.  In 1991, the Quebecor empire was growing rapidly. At the time, sales exceeded $2 billion.

With Pierre Péladeau, I experienced many unique, exciting, and sometimes historic events. My main responsibility was to ensure that the press magnate's public image lived up to his character. I think I got to know Péladeau through many aspects of his personality that weren't always visible at first glance. I was first and foremost an executive assistant, but I gradually became a friend and confidant of Quebecor's founding president.

Pierre Péladeau founded Le Journal de Montréal on June 15, 1964, during the strike at La Presse de Montréal. It wasn't until the creation of Le Journal de Québec in 1967 that people outside Montreal became aware of Pierre Péladeau's newspaper style. Quebecor's newspapers have always remained an urban affair, mainly centralized in Montreal and Quebec City.

When Pierre Péladeau founded the daily in Montreal in the early 1960s, he was replicating his weekly Le Journal de Rosemont, with more pages and more space for artists. However, the main objective was to occupy the free press time of his printing plant. A daily newspaper is the equivalent of five weeklies in a single week. 

Péladeau also saw his Journal de Montréal project as an opportunity to bring a new advertising player to the Quebec metropolis, and he gambled on it. But Le Journal de Montréal started out with the main ambition of making a profit from the printing equipment already in place for its weekly.

Pierre Péladeau always saw a newspaper as a simple product that had to be easy to read. He published a newspaper as if he'd been sitting on the corner of a table, talking to people in their kitchen. For him, a newspaper had to take the reader into account.

Péladeau didn't want to make a newspaper to please himself or one that looked good to the elite. He wanted a newspaper that would appeal to the popular reader. The high circulation figures he managed to achieve bear witness to the accuracy of his judgment.

I won't recount all my adventures with Pierre Péladeau in this book, as everything has already been written in « PIERRE PÉLADEAU CET INCONNU », available as a PDF download.  

Let's just say that my fondest memories with Pierre Péladeau are of helicopter rides over Montreal and all over Quebec. After Péladeau's death, I had to come back down to earth and walk around with more modest means!

A media tycoon can be defined as a person who owns and exercises considerable control over one or more media outlets, such as newspapers, magazines, TV channels, or news websites. They are usually entrepreneurs or investors who have acquired significant influence in the media field.

Media moguls are often recognized for their economic power and their ability to shape public opinion. Their influence may derive from direct media ownership, or from their financial stake in media companies. They are usually involved in editorial and strategic decision-making, as well as in the overall management of their companies. These individuals can exert considerable influence over media content, coverage of events, and views expressed. Their commercial and political interests can also influence editorial decisions, raising questions about the independence and objectivity of the information disseminated by their media. It's worth noting that not all media owners are necessarily media moguls, and that the notion of a media mogul can vary depending on the context and the extent of a person's influence on the media.

I've known several other media owners, but I'd like to single out four in addition to Pierre Péladeau: Robert Maxwell, Conrad Black, and Paul Desmarais. I particularly enjoyed getting to know press barons who inspired my journalism style, even if I wasn't close to them, as was the case with Péladeau. I would add Rupert Murdoch's name among the tycoons who have been my mentors. Unfortunately, I never met Murdoch in person.   

                                                   

                                                                      ___________

-Robert Maxwell (1923-1991) is a media owner whom I met a few times when I was with Quebecor. In particular, it was I who announced his sudden death (by suicide or assassination) to Pierre Péladeau on November 5, 1991.

Péladeau was convinced that he had been killed by agents of the Mossad (Israel)…

Maxwell used newspapers to finance his other business activities. He was like a gambler in the casino trying to balance his winnings and his losses. Maxwell was basically an actor and he always hid the reality of his activities.

Quebecor was lucky because his sudden death meant that we were able to buy out Maxwell's stake in the projects in which he had partnered with Quebecor, including Maxwell Graphics, at a discount from the trustee in bankruptcy. If Maxwell had continued in business, it is probable that Quebecor would have lost its investments, because Maxwell's purchase invoices for the paper were unpaid and despite pressure from Quebecor's accountants, the response offered by Maxwell was that the check was in transit in the post office… (The check is in the mail…).

Robert Maxwell was a gigantic character in physical terms with his 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and a weight beyond 300 pounds (159k). When we greeted him, we were surprised by his size and particular charisma. Maxwell was a being who could be mean and contemptuous to those close to him, but charming to others. In the end, he was an actor who wanted to control his scene…

He was the father of Guylaine Maxwell, the girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein.

The book to read on Robert Maxwell is FALL by John Preston.

                                             

                          

-Conrad Black (1944-) started in the media by buying a small local newspaper in Sherbrooke which was bankrupt. He had entrusted Peter G. White with the sales and he took care of the writing. Conrad Black, David Radler, and Peter White had paid $20,000 for the Sherbrooke Record in 1969. Despite the fact that the small daily was based in Sherbrooke, and with a modest readership, Black wrote and sent paper copies of his international analyzes of world politics to politicians in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

Of course, no one in Sherbrooke read the editorials, but Black did not write for them. He wrote to create an international forum and for his own notoriety. Financial profit did not matter to him and it was the prestige and authority he obtained on the international scene that he wanted to obtain. He made a newspaper for fun and even if his newspaper was only a soap opera from a small town in the Eastern Townships, he used it as an international calling card. It's a strategy that many other journalists have used, including Anderson Cooper in his early days, and myself on a few occasions. Even if Pierre Péladeau hated Conrad Black, I adored him and I continue to admire him even today even though he is no longer a press baron. I met him a few times and we often exchanged emails at a time when he had just started as a columnist for The National Post, after his return to Canada.

I've always liked the style of Black, who was once a world-class press mogul, as powerful as Rupert Murdoch.

If there is a difference between Black and Péladeau, it is the goal of the possession of media. For Péladeau, the goal was to make a profit, while for Black, it was prestige.

Many books have been written by and about Conrad Black.

My favorite book is CONRAD BLACK by Conrad Black.

He gave me a signed copy...

-Paul Desmarais (1927 -2013) was a Canadian businessman of Franco-Quebec origin born in Sudbury, Ontario. Desmarais was the founder of the Power Corporation of Canada group, a company active mainly in the financial sectors, but also in the media and communications. In 1951, Desmarais dropped out of law school to take over Sudbury Bus Lines, an unprofitable family business he bought for a dollar and turned into a stable business. This is the beginning of his illustrious career in the business world. It is said that during the bus days, he borrowed $10,000 from all the other contractors in his town, one contractor at a time. He borrowed the amount he repaid to the previous lender…

Desmarais was recognized at the end of his life as a powerful and influential businessman in Canada and around the world. He was known for his strategic vision, business acumen, and ability to build networks. He had great influence in the business community and had close relationships with politicians and world leaders. Paul Desmarais considered Brian Mulroney as a son. Desmarais was a media owner because it helped him better understand what was happening in Canadian, Quebec, and even global politics, but he was a financier at heart.

I met Paul Desmarais a few times and I even photographed him on four or five occasions. I loved Paul Desmarais very much and when he died I attended his funeral at Notre-Dame Cathedral in Montreal. I was surprised, after the ceremony, to come across none other than Conrad Black on the forecourt of the church…

To read on Paul Desmarais, one good book is « RISING TO POWER » by Dave Greber.  

-Rupert Murdoch (1931-) owns media through his company News Corp. He owns hundreds of local, national, and international publications around the world, including the UK and Australia. In the United States, he owns, among others, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post. He is also a book editor with Harper Collins.

He is also the owner of FOX NEWS.

I've always loved Murdoch's rebellious style.

Pierre Péladeau told me one day that he considered himself to be like Rupert Murdoch when it comes to media management. For Péladeau, as for Murdoch, media is a business and it must be profitable.

I still remember the day Murdoch acquired the Wall Street Journal. It was August 1, 2007, and he had paid the sum of US$5 billion.

Murdoch hasn't always been successful in his endeavors, however. He had bought MySpace which was a failure under his leadership. News Corporation paid him US$580 million in July 2005, and he will sell the company at a discount for US$30 million on June 29, 2011…

There are several books to read on Rupert Murdoch including my favorite « MURDOCH » by William Shawcross

Pierre Péladeau  Quebecor - 1991

Bernard Bujold - Quebecor - 1991

Pierre Péladeau - Quebecor - 1996

Pierre Péladeau, Bernard Bujold et Lucien Bouchard - July 1996

Quebecor head office - 1996

Pierre Péladeau and Bernard Bujold - Quebecor - 1996

Robert Bourassa, Robert Maxwell and Charles Albert Poissant - 1991

Robert Maxwell - 1991

Conrad Black - 2014

Paul Desmarais - Funeral ceremony - December 3, 2013 

Rupert Murdoch -  2018

Rupert Murdoch's newspapers - News Corporation

ROBERT MAXWELL -  2021

CONRAD BLACK - 1994

PAUL DESMARAIS-  1987

RUPERT MURDOCH - 1993

PIERRE PÉLADEAU -  2004

Bernard Bujold and Quebecor helicopter - 1995

CHAPTER 9

THE MAGIC OF THE INTERNET

My passion for the Internet and the computer began in the early 2000s. The concept of being able to reach people remotely with a computer was the inspiration for creating the information site LeStudio1.com in March 2005.

My project was to send out a weekly newsletter to subscribers via personal email. This is the strategy used today by all the media and the merchants in 2023, but in 2005 none of this existed and the media companies knew very little about the possibilities of the Internet which, moreover, was not technologically developed.

To start my project in 2005, I needed a database to build the target audience. I created it on the free concept of Facebook and Google. Internet users were very unfamiliar with the virtual world, and it was difficult to convince them to pay for a subscription to an emerging product. So I built up an initial base from the e-mails I received. At the time, people had got into the habit, either through a lack of technological knowledge or voluntarily, of sending their e-mails to their entire contact list and displaying each recipient in the public wording. I built up an initial database of a few hundred addresses using this system. Later, by offering free subscriptions and soliciting new users, I reached over 70,000 e-mails to whom I sent my newsletter every week. 

Ben Weider, Isabelle Adjani, and Virgin's Richard Branson are three people connected with the development of LeStudio1.com magazine. 

On the one hand, after Pierre Péladeau's death in December 1998, I befriended Ben Weider (1923-2008). I discovered Weider as a teenager through his fitness magazines, which began my passion for the gym.  Ben Weider and his brother Joe were responsible for Arnold Schwarzenegger's immigration to the United States. The two brothers had built up an empire, notably in sports magazines. I've always been impressed by this huge success in the publishing world, and it inspired me the creation of my Internet magazine concept. Ben and I often discussed business strategies, and I collaborated with him on a number of projects.

I also had the opportunity to photograph actress Isabelle Adjani at the Montreal World Film Festival in August 2004. Isabelle Adjani appreciated my photos and published a dozen of them on her website. The idea of being able to communicate virtually on the Internet inspired me to create a virtual media site.

Finally, I greatly admired Richard Branson, who had come to Montreal to promote his wireless phone company Virgin Mobile. I had already started my project, but I was looking for a major investor and developed a more detailed business plan to make a formal presentation to him. My presentation was not accepted and I had to resign myself to continuing the LeStudio1.com magazine project without a major investor.

Richard Branson would eventually launch his own version of an Internet magazine, but available exclusively on the Apple iPad, PROJECT, which was influenced by the model of THE DAILY Internet magazine that Rupert Murdoch was preparing to launch. THE DAILY was launched on January 19, 2011, but will cease operations on December 3, 2012, due to a lack of paying subscribers. As for Branson's magazine, it will precede Murdoch with its spectacular launch in New York on November 30, 2010, but it will cease its activities after a single issue…

The idea of my project was that once launched, I could partner with a large press group either in Canada or France. The first bulletin had been sent on March 14, 2005, and the adventure will continue until January 4, 2010. The use of electronic mail was essential to familiarize the public with the magazine, but with the evolution of the Internet between 2005 and 2010, email has become a less effective method than at the beginning of the project. Unfortunately, my search for financial partnership did not bore fruit, either in Quebec, France, or in the United States). Several small local media groups instead offered to use my subscription list (70,000 e-mail addresses) for an advertising role, but no financial participation as a shareholder was offered for the long-term development of the Internet vehicle that was the LeStudio1.com project. I refused to rent my list of subscribers and I absolutely wanted one or more permanent partners.

The first issue of LeStudio1.com magazine (in French) was sent on March 14, 2005, to around 300 people. The latest issue, January 4, 2010, was sent to over 70,000 email addresses worldwide, particularly in Quebec and France.The magazine continued thereafter beyond 2010 but around a hosting platform. LeStudio1.com has thus transformed its presence from active mode to passive mode on sites such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and WordPress, and Google Blogs.

Note that in 2023, the use of email has once again become an essential tool for the media and merchants. Even Google and Facebook communicate with personalized email messages…

The LeStudio1.com project was an adventure. Some adventures like that of Facebook turn into an empire while for others it is a more modest result…

                                                     

After 2010, all major media began to establish themselves on the internet. At first, the concepts were quite simple and consisted of websites updated several times a day. Today, in 2023, the major media are developing more efficient communication tools and partnering with groups like Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and others to target their audience and profitably exploit their content. It is, however, a war to end between the big traditional media and sites like Google and Facebook. The debate hinges on the sharing of advertising revenue. Governments are beginning to want to impose rules that would force Google and Facebook to pay local media for the use of information produced by journalists, but the two big firms respond by threatening to no longer carry traditional media. We will have to see what happens next, but it is a war that will be difficult to win for the traditional media because technology is changing too quickly. Even Google and Facebook are threatened with survival by artificial intelligence, so imagine a small media facing the new economy...

In 2005, all the media sites were free, but around 2010, we began to establish tariffs to consult the sites and paid access walls (firewall). The Internet was not profitable in terms of advertising for local media and the major media wanted to rely on paid access to their content. In fact, this was an extension of their subscription for the paper edition that already existed.

The major financial media were the first to establish paywalls. Thus The Wall Street Journal introduced a paid subscription model for its website in 1997. The New York Times, a mainstream media outlet, only introduced its paid subscription model for its website in 2011 and From that date, access to certain New York Times articles and content online required a paid subscription, whereas previously the website was free.

What is the future of paywalls?

Until recently, subscription rates were substantial and could reach around thirty dollars per month. But since 2020, we have been seeing promotional offers of around ten dollars a year. Internet giants like Google, Facebook, and others have accustomed general public users to free access. It, therefore, becomes difficult, if not impossible, to request a paid subscription when it is possible to have access to the product elsewhere without having to pay.

This is the dilemma of the Internet: free or paid?

Paying for a subscription to a media rather than consulting information on Google or Facebook for free has certain advantages, but technology is gradually diminishing this difference. Media outlets that offer subscriptions usually have teams of professional journalists who do thorough research, check facts, and provide quality, reliable information. By paying for a subscription, you get access to more extensive exclusive content written by experts in their field. But more and more, despite paid subscriptions, the major media are not making their operations profitable and have to reduce the number of journalists and technicians in the quality of service and production staff.

Media with paywalls used to offer unique content that was not available for free elsewhere. This could include major reports, specific analyses, original investigations, and exclusive interviews. The subscription provided access to these exclusive contents which could provide a more complete and in-depth perspective on current topics. Unfortunately, economic constraints have greatly diminished this kind of reporting.

The big free online Internet companies, such as Google or Facebook, finance their services through advertising on a large scale with content from all their users. No conventional media can compete in this market.

In 2023, the Internet has become a way of life for all of humanity, the operation of which is increasingly based on this universal communication tool. However, the Internet has only become accessible to the general public since the 1990s. Until this period, access to the Internet was mainly limited to academic institutions, governments, and certain large research companies. However, around 1990, with the advent of the web and the development of user-friendly browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, the internet began to popularize and become more open to non-technical users, i.e. the general public.

In 1991, the "World Wide Web" was introduced by Tim Berners-Lee, who created the first browsers and the markup language HTML (Hypertext Markup Language). The Web has made navigation more user-friendly and paved the way for the publication and consultation of web pages containing text, images, and hypertext links. In the years that followed, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) began to offer Internet access services for individuals and small businesses. These providers offered connections to the Internet through dial-up telephone lines, allowing users to establish a connection by dialing a telephone number.

Around 1995, the Internet experienced rapid expansion and growing popularity with the general public, as companies like America Online (AOL) played a significant role in democratizing Internet access, offering user-friendly access services and all-inclusive packages at very competitive prices. The evolution of communication technologies, the increase in bandwidth, and the drop in costs have also contributed to making the Internet even more accessible and affordable for the general public.

The Internet is a global communication system interconnecting millions of computers and electronic devices around the world. It enables information sharing and communication between users, regardless of their geographic location.

The Internet is based on a set of communication protocols, such as the Internet Protocol (IP), which allows the transmission of data from one point to another. It also uses standards and technologies such as the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail (e-mail), file transfer (FTP), online chat (chat), voice over IP (VoIP), and many others.

The Internet offers a multitude of services and applications that facilitate access to information, e-commerce, entertainment, online collaboration, social networks, and many other activities. Thanks to its decentralized architecture, the Internet enables rapid and global communication, allowing users to share ideas, collaborate, learn, and interact in a variety of ways.

It should be noted that the Internet is different from the Web. The Internet refers to the underlying infrastructure that connects computers and networks, while the Web is one of the many services available on the Internet, allowing access to web pages and online resources via browsers like Google, Safari, or Bing.

The web should not be confused either with the Dark Web, which is not available on mainstream search engines. The Dark Web, also called the "Dark Web", is an important part of the internet that is intentionally hidden. It consists of websites and content that are not indexed by search engines and that require the use of specific software and protocols to access them, such as the Tor browser (The Onion Router) which allows access to the Dark Web anonymously.

Journalists and major media strongly favor the use of the Dark Web to exchange confidential files. For example, Wikileaks used the Tor search engine to communicate with the media. Unlike the conventional web, which is widely accessible to the public and primarily used for consumer purposes, the dark web is often associated with illegal, illicit, or unregulated activities. However, it is important to note that the Dark Web is not exclusively dedicated to criminal activities and it is an essential tool for journalists.

In summary, the Internet has become in 2023, a global network that allows connectivity and communication between users, providing access to a wide range of online services, information, and resources.

The Internet has transformed humanity and the way we communicate on planet Earth.

Bernard Bujold - Editor LeStudio1 - 2005

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ben Weider - California, USA - 2008

Ben Weider and Bernard Bujold - Montreal - 2006

Isabelle Adjani - Montreal - 2004

 

Richard Branson - Montreal - 2005

     

                         First issue LeStudio1 - March 14, 2005

Consumer web search address

GMAIL logo by Google

Logo of the TOR search engine for the Dark Web.

CHAPTER 10 

OBJECTIVITY OF JOURNALISTS

Journalists have never been objective and they never will be! Journalistic objectivity is an ideal to strive for, but it is difficult to fully achieve it due to various factors, such as personal preferences and beliefs, interests of media owners, time and resource constraints, as well as political and economic pressures.

We can say that in terms of objectivity, only machine and artificial intelligence are able to achieve it. Some journalists may be more objective than others due to their training, experience, and professional ethics. However, even the most objective journalists can unwittingly let their own biases or prejudices into their reporting, and they can also be influenced by the demands and expectations of their employers or audiences.

Journalists should strive to be as objective as possible while remaining aware of their own limitations and the complexity of the context in which they operate. Readers, on the other hand, have a responsibility to be discerning and critical in evaluating the information presented to them.

Journalists' lack of objectivity is not in itself responsible for 'fake news', but because of the speed with which information travels in 2023, biased reporting is often labeled as 'fake news' which is not always the case.

"Fake news" is genuinely false or misleading information that is deliberately disseminated to mislead the public or influence public opinion. Fake news can take many forms, including news articles, videos, manipulated photos, social media posts, scam emails, and more. The authors of "fake news" can have different objectives, such as driving traffic to their websites, promoting an ideology or a political party, discrediting a person or an organization, or simply causing confusion and chaos. In general, journalists are not the source of fake news but become its vehicle.

"Fake news" is a worrying phenomenon, even more than the lack of objectivity, because fake news conveys falsehoods. But in both cases, lack of objectivity and fake news, the information disseminated has a direct impact on democracy, society, and individuals and can lead to increased polarization of public opinion and distrust. towards the media.

Another element preventing the objectivity of journalists is the entertainment aspect that modern media must offer to the public. The media must be entertaining otherwise there will be no takers and the financial model will fail. The objective of the media has therefore become that of providing content that makes it possible to entertain and enliven the spectators, listeners, or readers.

In 2023, the media must serve several functions in addition to informing, in particular offering moments of relaxation and pleasure. To achieve the purpose of entertainment, the media creates communities and brings people together around a common interest, such as a movie or a TV series, and thus creates a community of admirers. The media tries to inform and educate the public about important and serious subjects, such as history, science, culture, or politics, presenting them in an attractive and accessible form. But the entertainment goal of the media to entertain people and provide them with a source of enjoyment often takes precedence over pure information. It has therefore become essential for several media to favor sensationalist subjects or entertaining news to attract a greater number of viewers or readers while trying to inform the public in a precise and impartial manner about important events taking place in the world. A challenge that is sometimes difficult, even impossible. In short, while the media must increasingly adopt the trend towards entertainment to attract a greater number of viewers or readers, their main mission of providing accurate and objective information is transformed. 

Do not believe that journalists were more objective in the past. In fact, all major media started out as political propaganda or promotional media. Most newspapers were initially created as a tool for a political party. Early newspapers were created to discuss important issues related to politics, economics, religion, and other matters of public interest from the specific viewpoint of the editor. They were often financed by political parties, religious groups, or entrepreneurs who sought to influence public opinion.

It was not until the early 1900s that some newspapers began to distinguish themselves by adopting an independent editorial line, seeking to provide impartial information and exploring more varied subjects. Over time, other newspapers copied the new trend to meet the needs of different audiences and offer varied content, such as sports and cultural information, to reach more consumers and thus be able to sell an advertisement. to a wider target audience.

Pierre Péladeau told me one day that journalistic objectivity does not exist and that for this reason, we should never agree to grant interviews to a journalist who does not like us. An interviewee may try to convince a journalist with factual arguments, if the media representative does not like the character he meets, he will find negative angles that he will place in his report!

One of the characters who highlight the bias of journalists, and demonstrate the accuracy of Pierre Péladeau's statement, is certainly Donald Trump. While it is not correct to say that all journalists are opposed to Donald Trump, it must be noted that many journalists representing the mainstream left-wing mainstream media have expressed their opposition to the former US President for several reasons, including first, because Donald Trump disturbs the established order. He has often taken the lead and attacked left-leaning media, accusing them of spreading "fake news" and being part of a "rigged system".

Some journalists have indeed criticized the way Donald Trump has governed. They pointed to his tendency to communicate impulsive and aggressive messages, to attack his opponents on social media, and to make impulsive decisions without consulting experts or establishment advisers in place. These actions were seen by several media outlets as reckless and raised concerns about the stability of the traditional order of things.

The bias of journalists is all the more dangerous in that critical thinking often gives way to a form of complacency. Sometimes journalists are deceived by the political authorities in power who transmit false information to them, as demonstrated by the report by John Durham which reveals that the FBI was complicit in distributing false information in order to accuse Donald Trump of being in partnership with Russia to influence the 2016 election. Special Counsel Durham's report details in his investigation many of Hillary Clinton's campaign's supposed efforts in 2016 to tie Donald Trump to Russia. Left-leaning journalists supported the accusations against Trump and did not question their authenticity.

But there are many other right-wing journalists who deeply support Donald Trump and who have taken a very supportive, sometimes partisan, editorial line towards him, such as Fox News in the United States. Arguably, there are as many journalists in favor of Trump as against him. There are even entire networks created to support right-wing philosophy, including TRUTH SOCIAL, a concept comparable to TWITTER.

This polarization of journalists and their opinions reflects the polarization of society as a whole.

In 2023, if there is a negative and sad side to journalism, it is that users, readers, or listeners, are no longer looking for a challenge to their opinion, but for confirmation. In other words, the subscribers of a medium choose it according to the political leaning of the medium. An admirer of Donald Trump will not listen to CNN and an opponent of Trump will never listen to FOX NEWS. Each group looking for a media that is of the same political opinion.

The role of journalists should be to cover events objectively and to inform the public impartially, without seeking to take sides or promote any particular political agenda. However, the media has always crossed the partisan line and it will be impossible to eliminate this trend, especially with the multitude of media and the inescapable concept of entertainment to attract an audience.

We will have to see what happens next, but the recent legal charges against Donald Trump in early June 2023, including those of illegal manipulation of secret documents, will most certainly increase the polarization of the population of the United States and directly that of the media. When the division between two groups of citizens is too deep, it becomes impossible to discuss and negotiate a rapprochement. This is what is happening in the United States and the present day in 2023 is reminiscent of the many American civil wars. Recall the First War of Independence in 1783, when the States became an independent republic from England, and later in 1812, the Second War of Economic Independence against England, or the Civil War against England. slavery in 1865, won by the North, causing slavery to be abolished in the United States.

We can see in 2023 in the polarization of the United States a preamble to civil war. Hopefully, that doesn't happen, but all the clues point to a rebellion.

                                                               ________________

People often ask me why I'm a fan of Donald Trump. For me, the appeal is his character. I learned about Donald Trump in 1982 in a biography about his father Fred Trump. At the time, I was drawn to the entrepreneurial spirit and Donald's father was a successful New York real estate entrepreneur. Later, in 1985, I had the opportunity to meet Donald Trump in person at a private reception in Ottawa. Trump's look is similar to that of a Brian Mulroney and this kind of character was part of my entourage in the 1980s. I loved Donald Trump's autobiography: « THE ART OF THE DEAL  »published in 1987.

In my mind, Donald Trump was in 2016 a kind of Robin Hood hero who wanted to put an end to what is called in English “Deep State” and bring the government back to democracy. Trump's program also bore a resemblance to Brian Mulroney's political program in 1984.                                           

Finally, let us mention that the tendency of journalists not to be recognized as neutral and objective is not unique to the United States of Donald Trump. Several recent polls in Canada show that the population has lost confidence in the objectivity of the media and that much will have to be done to restore public confidence in the media.

In May 2023, a research report produced by Canadian professors, Marc-François Bernier, of the University of Ottawa, and Marie-Eve Carignan, of the University of Sherbrooke, reports on the lack of confidence of citizens in the Quebec media, their credibility, and that of their journalists.

A total of 76% of respondents consider the information they trust the most to come from mainstream media, but only 50.5% believe things happened as told on TV, radio, and newspapers, and only 11% to 15% of respondents, depending on the outlet, believe things “really” happened as the media say. The other 49.5% think that the news does not match reality. These results are even weaker for the Internet. While three-quarters of the population get their news from mainstream media, almost 45% believe that journalists help create and spread fake news. This means that only 54% of people believe that journalists tell the truth.

The division of the population is even more present than ever concerning the independence of journalists from political parties and power, even in Quebec. A third does not believe it, a third does not know it and only a third believes it. Only a third of respondents believe that journalists serve the public interest, another third believe that journalists serve their company's interest or their own interest first, and the other third believe that they serve all three interests. On an individual basis, more than 70% of respondents believe that journalists are often influenced by their political preferences in the way they report the news.

It must be recognized that our current society in 2023 is polarized and that there is no longer this spirit of community as before. In my opinion, the polarization will further solidify and increase with artificial intelligence and the many other means of public communication available at the level of social media and mainstream media.

René Lévesque once said in the 1976-80s that television was a vanity trap! Lévesque considered that the journalists had lost their objectivity and that they put their notoriety before information. However, in 1976, the relationship between Lévesque and the media was a closeness. But Lévesque was afraid of this proximity. He would have preferred objectivity and distance from the media and journalists facing him. In 1976, the media favored the sovereignist tendency of the Parti Québécois and admired Lévesque.

Another politician I knew well, Brian Mulroney, loved journalists! For Mulroney, the journalists were friends, but for the journalists, Brian was more of a politician who held the position of Prime Minister of Canada and who was an essential source of information for their media. Brian Mulroney believed it was possible to establish a personal relationship with journalists, but he was often wrong about many journalists who were ambitious, as some are and as human nature is. Several journalists liked Mulroney and considered him a friend, but many others did not really…

Donald Trump probably understands the situation best. Asked what he'd like to change about his behavior with journalists, he confessed that he'd like to be less aggressive, but added that he has no choice because he considers journalists to be biased and dishonest! In fact, journalists aren't being dishonest with him, but rather they simply don't like him because he's too ideologically right-wing for journalists who are fundamentally left-wing and oriented towards a form of egalitarian socialism. 

Donald Trump could ignore the media, but he admits he needs them to get his message across. He has chosen the formula of confrontation, and as a popular singer once said, it doesn't matter whether you speak well or badly of me, as long as you speak of me...                                              

Personally, I've always considered myself an opinion journalist and in that sense, one could conclude that I'm partisan in my reporting. It's fair to say that if I'd still been an active journalist in a major media outlet in November 2016, my reporting about Donald Trump would have been favorable... 

My philosophy of journalism has always been to ask questions straightforwardly and let the guest answer, whether I like him or not. I've never been a confrontational journalist and I've always been a strategic journalist who liked to get his guests to reveal the truth themselves, but voluntarily! 

Is a journalist who confronts his subjects a better journalist? I don't think so.

I prefer persuasion to quarrels!

And as Pierre Péladeau told me back in 1996, I've always had a talent for uncovering everything beyond the mask or stage curtain and bringing the people I meet to reveal themselves.

Donald Trump and his TRUTH SOCIAL network - February 2022

President Donald J. Trump - 2017

Bernard Bujold and Donald Trump - photo artificial intelligence - 2023

Bernard Bujold - Mar-A-Lago - photo artificial intelligence - 2023

René Lévesque - 1987

Brian Mulroney - 1985

CHAPTER 11

CREATING FAKE NEWS

False news, also known as fake news, is information that is deliberately fabricated and propagated with the aim of deceiving or manipulating readers or viewers. Fake news is often created to generate attention or to influence public opinion in favor of a particular group or ideology.

Fake news can take many forms, including news articles, videos, images, memes, and social media posts. They may also include misleading information, truncated quotes, falsified data, or exaggerated claims. Fake news is a growing source of concern around the world, as it can have serious consequences for society, including the spread of disinformation, political polarization, loss of trust in the media, and weakening of democracy. It is therefore important to check sources of information carefully and to be skeptical of any information that seems dubious or suspicious.

False information is not, however, a creation of artificial intelligence, but this tool facilitates its distribution.

Fake news is as old as mankind. Just read the story at the time of Julius Caesar and his domination of Rome or the stories of pirates and the Treasure Islands

An example from our modern era, less than 20 years ago (December 2003), is that of Saddam Hussein and the false rumors of nuclear weapons invented by the US government of Georges Bush to bring down the Iraqi government and profit from oil. Americans have always used fake news extensively in their wars against other countries. Saddam Hussein was sentenced to hang in January 2006.

Perhaps the most recent fake news is that of the attempted assassination of Vladimir Putin with drones from Ukraine above the Kremlin (May 2023). It is possible that this  attack was real, but it also makes sense to believe in a Russian strategy to be able to defend against future attacks on the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. But a third possibility is also equally plausible that a country like the United States tried to attack the Kremlin and assassinate Vladimir Putin. The Americans are heavily involved in the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Artificial intelligence will not invent the strategy of fake news, but it will make it impossible to prove their falsity.

Indeed, it has become possible to recreate characters and their behavior on video in such a resemblance to reality that it is impossible to tell the difference between real and fake. In other words, you can create a fake Vladimir Putin and make him say whatever the author wants him to say. The listeners will see only a reality that will however be false. This technology is called “Deep Fake”. It is even possible, with specialized cameras, to create images of people who are physically deceased and have them participate in a Zoom interview as if they were still alive. In photography, the Photoshop program has long been used to manipulate photos, but today it has become possible to do so in video. And it becomes impossible to tell the difference between the video of a real person and a virtual avatar. 

Since the beginning of time, military leaders have often created fake news to trick their adversaries into making bad battle decisions. Police officers frequently use fake news to lure criminals. But they must be careful that their false information does not become a crime trap (entrapment techniques).

In 2023, fake news is becoming the most used political tool and continuously it is dishonest politicians who offer false information to feed the reports of journalists.

It is very rare for journalists to invent fake news. The risk would be too great and could destroy their career. It's easier to just report the fake news that corrupt politicians give them...

I recently played a game with the janitor at my apartment building. I told the concierge that the manager of the building, who had just gone on vacation for a week, had won several million in the lottery. My goal was to see how far the fake news would spread. Within a week, all the residents were saying that their building manager was a millionaire. You should have seen the manager's reaction to his return from vacation when everyone congratulated him on his status as a millionaire and some hoped for a gift or to borrow money from him...

Society has become a world in which fiction exceeds reality. It's like in the story of the Wizard of Oz, where the monster is just an actor behind the curtain. We will now have to wonder about the true existence of the rainbow at the end of the golden brick path. And therein lies all the sadness of artificial intelligence in the spread of fake news, because it also marks the end of the human dream and the happiness to come.

Mascot Ulysses and the imaginary island - 2023 - Artificial intelligence photo

Gallic leader and Julius Caesar - Ancient Rome - 60 BC. J.-C.

Saddam Hussain - Reaction to his hanging sentence - December 2006

Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelinsky -2023

The Kremlin in Moscow—2023

The Wizard of Oz - 1939

CHAPTER 12

MASTERS OF THE WORLD

Social media have taken a central place in organized life in 2023, whether for networking or communication between members of the same family, village, or sector of activity. I have personally experienced the birth and death of several social networks.

The first social site whose birth I experienced as a user is Facebook, which started at the same time as I launched my information site LeStudio1.com in 2005. Facebook was founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, then a student at Harvard University. At first, the website was for Harvard students only, but it quickly expanded to other universities and colleges in the United States.

In 2005, Facebook was opened to all users with a valid email address. From there, the website grew by leaps and bounds. In 2012, Facebook went public and became a listed company. It then acquired other businesses, including Instagram and WhatsApp. Over the years, Facebook has experienced many challenges, particularly when it comes to protecting user privacy and spreading misinformation on the platform. This has led to government investigations and increased regulations in many countries. Despite this, Facebook remains one of the most popular and widely used websites in the world, with more than 2.8 billion monthly active users in 2021. I am a fan of Facebook because its concept is similar to that of my LeStudio1 project.

                                                                       _______________

I am also a Twitter regular user, but I especially admire its new owner Elon Musk who was born on the same date as me on June 28th…

Twitter was created in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams.  Twitter was originally called "Twttr" when it was first launched in 2006. The name was inspired by the idea of short bursts of information or "tweets" shared on the platform. Eventually, the founders decided to add vowels to the name, and it became "Twitter." The micro-blogging platform was designed to allow users to share short messages of up to 140 characters, called "tweets", with their followers.

Initially, Twitter was intended to be used by friends to share updates on their daily lives, but it quickly evolved into a real-time communication tool for the media, politicians, celebrities, businesses, and users around the world. In 2007, Twitter experienced significant growth after its first major exposure at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas. Since then, Twitter has become an important communication tool for live events, political campaigns, social movements, and online discussions. Over the years, Twitter has introduced new features, such as the ability to include images, videos, and polls in tweets. In 2017, Twitter also doubled the character limit for tweets from 140 to 280 characters.

Like Facebook, Twitter too has faced challenges such as misinformation and online abuse. In response, the company has taken steps to limit the spread of misinformation and abusive behavior on the platform. In 2021, Twitter had over 192 million daily active users worldwide.

On April 14, 2022, Elon Musk offered to buy the social media company for US$44 billion, having previously acquired 9.1% of the company's shares for $2.64 billion on April 4, becoming its principal shareholder. Twitter had then invited Musk to join their board of directors, which Musk accepted before changing his mind. In response to Musk's proposal, Twitter announced a poison pill strategy the next day to allow shareholders to purchase additional shares in the event of a takeover. On April 25, 2022, Twitter's board accepted Musk's $44 billion buyout offer. After renouncing the takeover and while the case was moving towards a legal outcome, Elon Musk finally accepted the takeover of the company in October 2022. He is accompanied in this takeover by various shareholders, for a total participation of this $7.134 billion group.

A week after being acquired by Elon Musk, Twitter set out to lay off half of its workforce, or 4,000 employees. The Californian company had nearly 7,500 employees before the layoffs at the end of October 2022. The social network Twitter is currently in a difficult position and its technology may not hold up. Ron DeSantis' failure to launch the political campaign for the leadership of the United States Republican Party on Twitter is an example of the kind of events that can quickly destroy the credibility of a company and even more so that of a social media outlet. Everyone watching the DeSantis launch laughed at the technical issues that arose during the live launch as malfunctioning microphones for the first 30 minutes of the event made what was supposed to be a bang-a-shame spectacular…

I love the character and bold style of Elon Musk. However, the future of Twitter is uncertain and only time will tell what will become of it.

                                                                      _______________

I also experienced birth and death as a user of the MySpace network, which I liked. MySpace was launched in 2003 by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe. At the time, around 2005, MySpace was considered Facebook's main competitor and was very popular with teenagers and young adults. MySpace grew rapidly and became one of the most visited websites in the United States in 2006. It was also used by artists and bands to promote their music and interact with their fans. Within a few years, however, MySpace began to lose ground to competition from Facebook and new social networks such as Twitter and Instagram. Additionally, management issues and controversial decisions contributed to MySpace's downfall.

In 2008, MySpace was acquired by News Corp (Rupert Murdoch) for approximately US$580 million, but the website continued to lose users. In 2011, News Corp sold MySpace to Specific Media, an online ad network, at a loss of about $35 million. Since then, MySpace has been relaunched several times as an entertainment website focused on music and popular culture. However, despite these efforts, MySpace never managed to regain its former popularity and was eventually relegated to a minor role in the social media landscape.

                                                                        ________________

Another network that could have dominated the 3D animation industry, but was before its time, was Second Life. Second Life is a 3D virtual world created by Linden Lab, a company based in San Francisco. The virtual world was launched in 2003 and became one of the first large-scale 3D virtual worlds. In Second Life, users can create custom avatars and interact with other users around the world. They can also create virtual objects, buildings, and land, and sell those creations to other users for Linden Dollars, Second Life's virtual currency. Second Life has become popular with a wide range of users, including artists, educators, entrepreneurs, and gamers. Users have created virtual venues for live events, conferences, concerts, role-playing games, online shops, and social experiences. 

However, with the advent of new online games and virtual worlds, Second Life's popularity began to decline. Additionally, the virtual world has been plagued with security, hacking, and fraud issues. Linden Lab attempted to revive Second Life with new features, including a virtual reality version called Sansar, but this attempt failed to regain Second Life's past popularity. Despite this, Second Life remains online and is still used by a loyal community of users.

The SecondLife concept was actually the precursor to Mark Zuckerberg's Metaverse project. Besides, I wrote in social media that Zuckerberg should have acquired Second Life rather than wanting to start Metaverse from scratch. Facebook announced in 2021 that it was focused on creating a Metaverse, a new 3D virtual world that would allow users to immerse themselves in social, work, and entertainment experiences.

The idea of the Metaverse had been popularized by science fiction works such as Neal Stephenson's "Snow Crash" and has been mooted in the past by companies such as Second Life and Oculus VR, a subsidiary of Facebook.

Facebook has invested billions in virtual and augmented reality, including the acquisition of Oculus VR in 2014. The company also launched Horizon Workrooms, a virtual reality product for enterprise collaboration. However, building a full-scale Metaverse was an overly ambitious project that would have required years of development and work on Facebook's part. There were far too many outstanding questions regarding the regulations, security, intellectual property, and accessibility of the Metaverse.

In 2023, Zuckerberg, therefore, announced that he was putting Metaverse on the shelves to focus on Artificial Intelligence. Less than two years after its launch, we can say that Metaverse is in the graveyard of technological projects. Indeed, Facebook has even stopped showing the Metaverse to advertisers, despite spending over $100 billion on research and development as part of its "Metaverse first" mission.

It should also be noted that Facebook's Metaverse project had raised concerns about the concentration of power and data in the hands of a single company, as well as more general concerns over privacy and surveillance.

                                                                          ________________

 

Another company that plans to conquer the 3D virtual world is Apple. We will have to see what happens next, but on June 5, 2023, Apple announced its VISION PRO mask-visor, a complementary product to its entire ecosystem system. Apple would have started working on this device, in 2008. The helmet will be equipped with several sensors and cameras to track the movements of the head and hands, as well as a powerful processor to provide high-resolution graphics. The demonstration won over journalists during the announcement, but the visor will not be available before the beginning of 2024. In addition, it will be marketed at a price exceeding US$3,500 each…

Apple has several projects in the areas of virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D modeling. The virtual reality headset called "Apple VR" is one such project, which will provide an immersive virtual reality experience for users. One of the content collaborators with Apple for the visor will be Disney whose product catalog of entertainment compatible with 3D is considerable.

Apple is also working on augmented reality technology, which will allow users to overlay virtual elements onto the real world through their mobile device screen. This technology could be used for games, online shopping, work tools, or training applications. Apple Maps also offers detailed 3D models of cities and buildings, allowing users to navigate through realistic 3D environments. Finally, Apple has also developed a 3D modeling application called "Reality Composer", which allows users to create 3D models for use in augmented reality or virtual reality applications. Overall, Apple is investing more and more in 3D technology and continues to develop new ways to use virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D modeling to deliver more immersive and engaging experiences for users.

The 3D virtual reality has the potential to play an important role in social media by providing a more immersive and engaging experience for users. The question that remains unanswered is who will emerge as the leader among the many companies engaged in development.

Here are some examples of roles that 3D virtual reality could play in social media:

Socializing online: 3D virtual reality could provide a more immersive social experience than traditional video chats or calls, allowing users to connect with each other in interactive virtual environments.

Online shopping: 3D virtual reality could provide a more realistic online shopping experience, allowing users to view products in 3D and see them from all angles before purchasing them.

Advertising: 3D virtual reality could provide new creative possibilities for online advertisements, allowing brands to create more interactive and engaging advertisements that grab users' attention.

Education: 3D virtual reality could provide a more dynamic learning experience allowing users to immerse themselves in 3D educational environments and interact with content.

Virtual travel: 3D virtual reality could provide a more realistic virtual travel experience, allowing users to visit remote places without leaving home.

In short, 3D virtual reality could add a new dimension to social media, offering new ways for users to connect, consume content, and discover online experiences.

                                                                           ________________

To complete my look at social media, let's highlight one of the favorites for photographers: Instagram, a photo and video-sharing application launched in October 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. Originally, the app was only available on iOS, but it was extended to Android in 2012. Initially, Instagram was a photo-sharing app that allowed users to take photos, apply filters and share them with their friends. After some time, the app added features such as the ability to share videos, fleeting stories, and direct messages.

In 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram for around $1 billion. Since 2021, Instagram has become one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Instagram also launched new features such as augmented reality filters, online shopping, live events, and the Reels feature, which allows users to create and share short videos. In 2021, Instagram also announced the launch of "Instagram Kids", a version of the app aimed at children under the age of 13.

It can be concluded that social media has become the masters of the world, but there is no such thing as an invincible superhero and their lifespan depends on the favor of users.

Who will be the survivors in the next decade?

It may well be that a new actor emerges, thus joining the current group and eliminating the masters of the world from 2023! This is what Facebook did by eliminating MySpace and Google which replaced the Netscape browser!

They say that history is a spinning wheel...

                                         

Mark Zuckerberg creator of Facebook and Metaverse - 2023

Elon Musk of Twitter and Bernard Bujold - 2022 - photo artificial intelligence

Logos Facebook, Twitter and Instagram- 2023

Three social media failures: Second Life, MySpace and Metaverse 

Netscape Browser installation CD- 1994-2008

Apple 3D Visor announced in June 2023 for availability in early 2024

CHAPTER 13

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

It was in Canada that scientist Geoffrey Hinton became the pioneer of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In 2012, Hinton and two of his graduate students at the University of Toronto created technology that has become the intellectual foundation for the artificial intelligence systems that top tech companies believe are key to their future. Professor Hinton joined Google in 2010, one of the big companies along with Microsoft that is aggressively researching to create products based on generative artificial intelligence, including the technology that powers popular chatbots such as ChatGPT.

Scientist Geoffrey Hinton is a 75-year-old expatriate British scholar whose career has been guided by his personal beliefs about the development and use of Artificial Intelligence. In 1972, while a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh, Hinton focused his research on an idea called a "neural network". A neural network is a mathematical system that learns skills by analyzing data. At the time, few researchers believed in the idea, but Hinton had made it his life's work.

In the 1980s, Mr. Hinton was a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, but he left the American university for Canada because he did not like funding his project with Pentagon money. At the time, most AI research in the United States was funded by the Department of Defense and Hinton was always deeply opposed to the use of AI on the battlefield, which he calls"robot-soldiers" like in Star Wars. In 2012, Hinton and two of his students in Toronto, Ilya Sutskever and Alex Krishevsky, created a neural network that could analyze thousands of photos and learn to identify common objects, such as flowers, dogs, and cars.

In March 2013, Google spent $44 million to acquire the company created by Dr. Hinton and his two students. Their system has led to the creation of increasingly powerful technologies, including new chatbots such as ChatGPT and Google Bard.

Around the same time, other companies started building neural networks that learned from huge amounts of digital text, and that's where the danger arose.

According to Hinton, as companies compete to have the best artificial intelligence system, these then become more and more dangerous because evolution is so fast.

Until the 2020s, Google displayed some restrictions regarding its projects in the field, but since Microsoft enriched its Bing search engine with a chatbot, which calls Google's search engine into question, the latter is eager to deploy the same type of technology with its Bard system. Tech giants are engaged in a competition that may be unstoppable, Hinton said.

His immediate concern is related to journalism as he fears that the internet will be flooded with erroneous photos, videos, and texts and that the citizen will no longer be able to know what is true or false. Dr. Hinton also fears that artificial intelligence technologies will eventually disrupt the job market. Today, chatbots like ChatGPT tend to complement human workers, but they could replace personal assistants, translators, and others who deal with routine tasks and eliminate tedious tasks.

In the long term, Dr. Hinton also fears that future versions of the technology could pose a threat to humanity, as they often learn unexpected behaviors from the large amounts of data they analyze. This becomes a problem, he says, when individuals and companies allow AI systems to not only generate their own computer code but also to execute that code on their own. He fears that one day truly autonomous weapons, military robots, will become a reality.

Dr. Hinton left his job at Google in April 2023, where he had worked for more than ten years, where he had become one of the most respected voices in this field. He said he resigned in order to be able to speak freely about the risks of artificial intelligence and he says he regrets having developed artificial intelligence convinced that this technology will constitute a danger if the human can no longer control the machine.

Generative AI can already be a tool for disinformation, and soon it could pose a job risk. But beyond jobs and information, the researcher Hinton goes so far as to consider that technology could be a risk for humanity and a tool for criminals or political leaders of the world.

"It is impossible to prevent humans from using it for evil and criminal purposes. said Dr. Hinton.

Artificial intelligence is a field of computer science that aims to develop computer systems and programs capable of performing tasks that normally require human intelligence. The goal of artificial intelligence is to create machines that can learn, reason, solve problems and make decisions autonomously, relying on sophisticated algorithms, mathematical models, and machine learning techniques. Artificial intelligence encompasses a wide range of technologies, such as neural networks, expert systems, computer vision, voice recognition, and robotics, and is used in many fields, including health, finance, games, advertising, automotive and the manufacturing industry.

Artificial intelligence offers many possibilities, particularly in the field of journalism:

Automation of repetitive tasks: Journalists can use artificial intelligence to automate repetitive tasks such as data collection, fact-checking, transcription, and translation of documents, allowing them to focus on more creative tasks.

Data analysis: Artificial intelligence can help journalists analyze large amounts of data to find trends, patterns, and relevant stories. For example, journalists can use artificial intelligence to track social media mentions of their stories and to analyze polling data.

Personalization of content: Artificial intelligence can help personalize content for different audiences. For example, news sites can use artificial intelligence to recommend articles based on each user's interests and reading habits.

Content creation: Artificial intelligence can be used to generate content such as article summaries, titles or image captions. However, it should be noted that the capabilities of artificial intelligence to produce high-quality content are still limited.

Automation of content distribution: Journalists can use artificial intelligence to automate the distribution of their content on different platforms based on the consumption habits of each audience.

It is important to note that the use of AI in journalism obviously raises ethical questions regarding the veracity and transparency of content produced by AI.

Personally, I am enthusiastic about this technology for journalism. Basically, artificial intelligence is a kind of giant search engine that replaces an engine like Safari or Google.

In photography, I have been using the Photoshop program for several years (1999), which program is entirely pure artificial intelligence. The Photoshop program allows me to create images according to my imagination, but of course, I control the choice of images and transformations, while Photoshop does things for me that I would otherwise have to do manually.

Moreover, already in the 1950s, the renowned photographer and my mentor, Yousuf Karsh employed an assistant to color the negatives with pencil and eliminate the defects which made the photo less advantageous to the photographed subject. Photoshop is a mechanization of Karsh's concept. In journalism, artificial intelligence makes it possible to perform mechanical tasks at the editorial level, just like Photoshop at the level of the transformation of photographs.

The idea that these machines could become smarter than humans, a few people believed in, but most people thought it was science fiction.

Will the race between Google, Microsoft, and others like Elon Musk turn into a global race that won't stop without some sort of global regulation in which regulation might prove impossible? Unlike nuclear weapons, there is no way to know if companies or countries are secretly working on this artificial intelligence technology.

The final question everyone is asking:

Can artificial intelligence dominate humans?

The answer is, in theory, no, artificial intelligence cannot dominate humans, because artificial intelligence does not have a will of its own or self-awareness, and it is only a set of programs and algorithms designed by humans to perform specific tasks.

However, because artificial intelligence can be very good in particular areas, such as speech recognition or computer vision, it can sometimes rival human intelligence, such as creativity and the ability to solve complex problems. in an abstract way.  Of course, artificial intelligence is limited by the data provided to it and by the instructions given to it by humans, but the evolution of the machine over the past 

five years has been so rapid that this evolution worries researchers. What if the machine becomes able to program itself without human intervention?

Ultimately, AI was originally designed to help humans, not replace them. But will the end result be the opposite and that the machine will dominate the human? This is the fear of the father of Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Geoffrey Hinton.

Will humans have to abandon their planet Earth to exile themselves in space on another planet or in a spaceship like the characters of Star Trek?

Will the machine become the master of humans?

These are existential questions that many researchers are already asking themselves, including some journalists…

                                          

Bernard Bujold and his mascot Ulysse - projection of artificial intelligence

Geoffrey Hinton pioneer of Artificial Intelligence (AI).- 2023

Artificial intelligence robot - 2023

The Ulysses Mascot according to Artificial Intelligence - 2023

Man in Space according to the technology of 2023

Bernard Bujold according to Artificial Intelligence - 2023

CHAPTER 14

THE DANGER TO BE A JOURNALIST

Journalism can be dangerous in many contexts. Journalists are often exposed to risks such as violence, intimidation, detention, torture, and even death, particularly in conflict zones, authoritarian regimes, or when investigating sensitive issues such as corruption, organized crime, human rights, or politics.

It is estimated that more than 1,400 journalists have been killed worldwide since 1992. Women journalists are also more vulnerable to sexual and gender-based violence online and offline.

It is important to emphasize that freedom of the press is a fundamental right and that journalists play an essential role in defending democracy, combating misinformation, and promoting transparency and accountability. It is therefore crucial to protect journalists and guarantee their safety in the exercise of their profession.

Personally, I have always practiced a peaceful and safe form of journalism, but I have had a few moments that could have ended badly.

One of those moments was in January 2021, when I wanted to cover in photos the occupation of The Bay store in downtown Montreal.

I wanted to keep an archive on my various social media of photos of the tents set up by the homeless in front of the store. The Bay on Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal is a prestigious store in the city center, but the closure of all merchants because of the coronavirus had led to a kind of invasion by homeless people.

I didn't want to be noticed and it was discreetly with my iPhone in silent mode that I approached the tents and photographed without revealing my action by holding the camera on my pants. I had taken about ten photos when one of the homeless people came out of his tent and started shouting at me asking me why I was taking photos of his tent. He approached me and he threatened me with his fist while continuing to shout.

I had the choice between confronting him, or leaving the place quickly!

I chose to flee, but it wasn't easy because he was following me, continuing to be aggressive, shouting and gesticulating violently toward me. The more I accelerated my escape, the more he too accelerated his pursuit. Finally, I started to run towards René Lévesque Boulevard in the direction of the statue of Saint Brother André.The homeless man stopped running towards me and I was able to leave the area, but I was really scared. What would I have done if several homeless people had joined the one who threatened me? I like not to think about this possibility, especially since we were in full confinement and COVID was at its peak. The police were not nearby and since all the businesses were closed, I would have had no place to take refuge.

I consider this event to be the most dangerous moment of my career as a photographer and journalist who wanted to report on the occupation of an urban city center by homeless people. 

Journalism is a dangerous job and many are threatened, kidnapped, or killed each year. The toll of journalists killed or kidnapped around the world is very high. According to figures from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), in 2021, 50 journalists were killed in the exercise of their profession and 262 were imprisoned. In addition, many other journalists have been victims of intimidation, harassment, and death threats. These figures are alarming and bear witness to the difficulty of doing journalism in many countries where freedom of the press is restricted and where journalists are considered a threat by governments, armed groups, and criminals. Reporters Without Borders is campaigning to defend press freedom worldwide and to protect journalists from violence and persecution.

It is important to emphasize that freedom of the press is a fundamental right and that the protection of journalists is essential to guarantee free and independent information in our democratic societies, but cannot guarantee it in foreign and undemocratic countries.

The most recent violent event against a journalist is the detention of Evan Gershkovich, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal, whom the Russian government accuses of espionage.Evan Gershkovich is an American journalist who works for the Wall Street Journal. He mainly covers topics related to Eastern Europe, especially Russia and Ukraine. He has written numerous articles on the politics, economy, and society of these countries. Prior to joining The Wall Street Journal, Evan Gershkovich worked for other publications, such as Foreign Policy and The Moscow Times. He holds a master's degree in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley and a bachelor's degree in history and Russian from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Evan Gershkovich is recognized as an experienced and respected journalist covering Eastern Europe. His articles have appeared in numerous international publications and have been widely quoted by other media.

One afternoon when he was going for coffee in Moscow with a friend, police quickly got out of a car, picked him up and officially charged him with espionage, and imprisoned him pending a possible trial.…

There is also a danger of violence for users of social media, as some individuals attempt to influence and manipulate other users. But it is easier to control this internet violence, either by blocking the aggressive people or simply by eliminating them from its list of its subscribers.

Personally, I consider my social media sites as my personal space, as my living room. People who visit my sites are like guests. So I can control who is admitted or not. I encountered some abuse on my Facebook account, but I quickly rectified the situation and I can say that my various social media sites are perfectly safe, pleasant, and harmonious.

Bernard Bujold in front of La Baie store - Montreal - January 2021

Homeless camp - La Baie on Sainte-Catherine Street - January 2021

Saint Brother André - Boulevard René Lévesque - Montreal January 2021

Montreal - January 2021

CONCLUSION

THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM

My passion for journalism continues to drive me and it will probably continue until my death.

To be a journalist is to be curious about the reality of life.

When I was active in the profession, particularly with Quebecor, I dreamed of one day launching my own magazine, a kind of TIME according to my personal editorial vision. The free Internet as well as the power of the personal computer allowed me to realize my dream with social media and virtual publishing. The Internet and virtual technology programs have also allowed me to create my best friend, the faithful Ulysses, the mascot for my virtual publications.This collection of my thoughts on journalism is another example of the possibilities offered by modern technology.

I lived in exciting times and I continue to experience and appreciate the evolution of our humanity in communications.

Having known the common line telephones where we could discreetly listen to the conversations of our neighbors, I often wonder if I am dreaming or if I am living a real reality with all these modern tools that continue to be invented day after day. Today, in 2023, with internet technology, anyone who has access to social media can be considered a journalist. It's the same phenomenon as in photography, and anyone with a smartphone is a photographer.

The world of communications has never been so accessible and democratic.

The history of journalism is directly linked to that of humanity. We can thus establish a parallel with the work « Sapiens: a brief history of Humanity » by Yuval Noah Harari. This historical book explores the evolution of mankind. The book is divided into four parts: the cognitive revolution, the agricultural revolution, the unification of humanity, and the scientific revolution. In Part 1, Harari explains how humans evolved into the dominant species on Earth and how they developed language, culture, and the ability to think abstractly and communicate. It also explores the extinction of other human species.

The second part of the book focuses on the agricultural revolution, which saw the development of agriculture and the domestication of animals, leading to significant changes in human society and culture. Harari discusses how agriculture enabled the formation of larger and more complex societies but also spawned new problems such as social inequality and disease.

In Part Three, Harari explores how humans developed the ability to create imaginary orders, such as religion, money, and the nation-state, which have played an important role in shaping human society and civilization. It also explains how the unification of mankind through trade and imperialism has had both positive and negative consequences. Finally, in Part Four, Harari discusses the Scientific Revolution and how it transformed human society, leading to advances in medicine, technology, and understanding of the universe. It also explores the potential future of humanity, including the possibility of a post-human era with artificial intelligence.

Overall, "Sapiens" is a book that inspires readers to think deeply about the history and future of humanity and indirectly about the future of journalism, because journalism is part of humanity.

The history of humanity is better understood if we admit that what differentiates man from animals is the power of the imagination.

All of humanity is based on imagination and the acceptance of that imagination by humans. Religions, governments, businesses, the economic and financial system, journalism, etc. Everything is a creation of the imagination and nothing is based on the biological reality of life.

Journalism is a concept like all other concepts in our society. It is a tool of society as long as we want to consider it that way and its reality depends only on our acceptance of its role. Entertainment or science of truth? The definition of journalism depends on the user, his beliefs, and his imagination!

Anyway, in conclusion, we can say that the fiction of Dick Tracy or Stars Trek with Jean-Luc Picard has become our daily reality.

What does the future hold for us?

We are at a new turning point in the history of humanity with the almost daily changes that various industries are currently experiencing and this is particularly true for social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and others.

The future of journalism is uncertain and the media that are the current leaders are by no means assured of their dominance in the future. And today the future is no longer in 30 years, but often in a few months…

Moreover, as proof, since the beginning of the preparation of this book in July 2022, I had to modify the writing plan and the subjects several times because of major changes in technology and in the world of journalism.                        

When I was assistant to communications in Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's office in 1985, Michel Gratton (1952-2011), a former journalist for the daily Le Droit, who was Mulroney's French-language press secretary, answered me one day when I revealed to him a secret information that I had just learned:

"I already knew that, because I know everything!"

His reply surprised me, but above all it marked me and I still remember it today. His answer was in itself the ultimate goal for any journalist. Know everything! But above all, we must not have any illusions, because we never know everything, whether we are a journalist or a simple citizens.

The future remains to be seen…

Note - To write this collection on journalism, I used the OpenAI engine by Microsoft's Bing and ChatGPT, which became my personal researchers and proofreading assistants, but I wrote all the texts published and I have always written according to my interpretation. The final text of this book is entirely my text!  

SAPIENS book cover - A brief history of Humankind - 2011

Ulysses, Madonna and the author as Dick Tracy - photo artificial intelligence

ean-Luc Picard, the author and Star Trek crew - photo artificial intelligence

 ______________   

                                            

DREAM OF A JOURNALISTIC INTERVIEW

IN THE YEAR 2053…

With all my research on modern journalism, Facebook's metaverse technologies, Apple's 3D visor, and artificial intelligence, my mind ended up producing strange dreams, as I often do in my sleep...

In one such dream, my trusty Ulysses and I were transported to the year 2053 and interviewed a 3D virtual character that looked suspiciously like Mickey Mouse in the Mirrorverse virtual game developed by Disney in 2022.

In my dream, the virtual Mickey had become a journalist and it was flying over the garden at the back of the Manor!

Here is the story of my futuristic dream…

Disney's legendary Mickey turned journalist in the year 2053 -

VIRTUAL INTERVIEW - June 28, 2053

MICKEY - Hello, faithful Ulysses Mascot and Bernard Bujold!

Your book "THE JOURNALIST" was the book of the year in 2023, but

how do you see journalism today, 30 years later, on June 28, 2053?

ULYSSES AND ME - According to us, there is only one great media today: a supercomputer coming from artificial intelligence which holds all the answers to all our questions, a bit like Google and Bing in the year 2023.

In the year 2053, all citizens of Earth have access to this computer and it is called: 

« PLANET 1 ».

MICKEY - What happened to human journalists?

ULYSSES AND ME - In fact, all the citizens of humanity have become journalists who provide information to the "PLANE 1" computer, which, thanks to its exceptional power, is able to gather it quickly and make it accessible to all.

By the way, my June 2023 book “THE JOURNALIST” is included in this database and thus it has become eternal.

At the time, the publication of the book on the Internet allowed me to reach readers all over the world, and, unlike books in bookstores, books on the Internet are accessible without an expiration date in stores, whereas paper books were returned to the publisher after a few months and after a year, they ended up in the pestle… 

The virtual element gave eternity to all my books, including the one of 2023.

MICKEY - But to come back to the gathering of world information on « PLANET 1 » this concept already existed with Google, Bing, and Chat in the year 2023?

ULYSSES AND ME- Yes, but their system was not in real-time.

Search engines such as Google, Bing, and Chat used sophisticated algorithms to obtain, index, and distribute information online. Search engines used software called "crawlers" or "web crawlers" to crawl the web. These bots followed links from page to page to discover new web pages.

Once crawlers discover a page, they extract its content, including text, images, and links, to create a copy in a database called the index. The index contained structured information about web pages, allowing search engines to find them more quickly during a query.

When a request was submitted to a search engine, it analyzed the index to find the web pages that best matched the user's request. Search engines used complex ranking algorithms that considered several factors such as content relevance, page popularity, and quality of links pointing to the page to determine the order of results. Search engines would then display the results in an organized fashion on a results page. They typically provided snippets of relevant pages, page titles, and URLs to help users choose the results that best suited them.

But it was never in real-time. For example, programming in June 2023 of CHAT OPEN AI as a GPT-3.5 artificial language model stopped in September 2021. This meant that CHAT's knowledge and information were on data available up to the date of indexing in 2021. The system did not have access to real-time information and could not provide details on events that took place after September 2021, then check with each of the online media sites for up-to-date information. 

Today in June 2053, with the « PLANET 1 » supercomputer, the indexing of information is in real-time! We could say that it's the machine that informs the whole of humanity. The machine has become the universal journalist of planet Earth.

MICKEY - But how can we know what is true and what is false among the information transmitted by citizens to the supercomputer if it is in real-time?

ULYSSES AND ME - The « PLANET 1 » supercomputer is so powerful that it can establish right from wrong and eliminate fake news immediately.

MICKEY - The « PLANET 1 » supercomputer has somewhat become the master of the world.

ULYSSES AND ME - « PLANET 1» is impossible for humans to control. It could be dangerous, but the machine is so powerful and programmed for the truth that humanity is safe. The machine has become like the gods of the old. This is machine domination of truth!

MICKEY - But if the machine is the truth and it represents the forces of good, does that mean there are no more wars or crimes?

ULYSSES AND ME - You have understood everything! 

The « PLANET 1 » computer is so powerful, and programmed for truth, that it can eradicate evil upon its creation from our collective knowledge and universal database.

« PLANET 1 » thus prevents wars, conflicts, and crimes.

MICKEY - Ok for this new machine, but how did it eliminate the economic injustices in the World?

ULYSSES AND ME - The new humanity lives in a virtual way much like in the concept of Star Trek: The Next Generation with Jean-Luc Picard in the year 1987. There was no economic system on the spaceships, but each found his account there. By eliminating money, the economy became universally available to everyone. It is the extension of the free service that had been put forward by the internet providers of the 2020s, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

In 2053, universal free admission is guaranteed by « PLANET 1 ».

MICKEY - How long will this machine last?

ULYSSES AND ME - The machine is eternal. It programs itself, regenerates its structures, and produces its own energy.

The « PLANET 1 » machine is ultimately what will bring eternal life to humanity.

MICKEY - But what happens to human mortality?

ULYSSES AND ME - Humans continue to be biologically mortal, but their spiritual existence has become eternal due to the information contained in the « PLANET 1 » database. It's similar to the old social media usage of the 2020s, where a deceased person continued to exist on Facebook or Instagram. In 2053, this concept is even more advanced, allowing virtual communication with the avatar of a deceased person.

On a biological level, the machine allows humans to extend their lives by several years thanks to the pieces of medical information available on « Planet 1 », which improves the prevention of accidents and offers almost eternal possibilities for curing illnesses.

MICKEY - Eternal life is therefore in a machine!

ULYSSES AND ME - The human has always dreamed of eternal life and he looked for it for a long time in the fountain!

You just had to look in the right place to find it.

Of course, biological mortality remains, for the time being at least…

The human being and his body have not become immortal, but it is the memory and the soul that the machine immortalizes virtually for all eternity.

MICKEY- And how to define eternity? This is a complicated question!

ULYSSES AND ME - You are right, what is eternity?

Besides, all of life as a whole is difficult to define!

Where does the reality of life begin and where does the dream begin?

This an existential question that I often ask myself...

I am going to give you an example.

Recently, I dreamed in my sleep that I was at a party with a group of friends at the cottage and, by surprise, one of my former love "flames" was there. She was happy to see me again and she gave a warm kiss.

This woman is, in reality, an actress that I knew in another life, several years ago, and who lives in Europe.

In the dream, we acted like two teenagers who shyly ask themselves: is this the right time to live the love affair that once did not come true?

I then woke up from my sleep, into the reality of an old man in his garden...

But the question remained in my head: where are happiness and life?

In dream or reality? I experienced deep happiness in my dream during the meeting with my former lover.

Every moment that we live in reality disappears with the passage of time, while every dream of our sleep flies away with our awakening.

If there is a conclusion, it is that in the end, both reality and the dream are only an illusion!

MICKEY - Is the « PLANET 1 » machine female or male?

ULYSSES AND ME - The « PLANET 1 » machine reproduces itself. It has no gender.

MICKEY - Have you and Ulysses become eternal?

ULYSSES AND ME - Ulysses is made of bronze, so he has always been somewhat eternal. Me, I have become eternal with the virtual. Do you like my old man's beard?

MICKEY - You do look like a sage! You could advertise the super machine…

ULYSSES AND ME - I like your suggestion. I'll mention it to the machine!

MICKEY - Last question, were you happy to be a journalist?

ULYSSES AND ME - In fact, journalism was my second choice.

I originally dreamed of being a rich businessman!

Fate would have it otherwise, but that was probably in my personality. I am curious and like to ask questions.

Asking too many questions for an entrepreneur leads to failure...

I asked my friend Pierre Péladeau if I would become rich one day, like him? He looked me in the eye and said he didn't think so. I didn't have a taste for risk and I asked too many questions. An entrepreneur should not wonder about the chances of success of his projects, because he will be afraid and he will never take risks. Do not ask questions and go for it!

But Péladeau then said that I was the best journalist he had known and rubbed shoulders with! He added: “You know everything, and if you don't know it, you find out! It is a very rare talent. »

MICKEY - How do you explain this talent to know everything?

ULYSSES AND ME - The art of knowing everything, for a journalist or for anyone, is always in the right question and above all in knowing how to ask this good question.

I'll give you an example: one day, I had to check the loyalty of an individual. The latter told me to be in favor of a group, but a source told me that I was wrong and that he was rather supporting another community group.

I knew the individual well, and I liked him, but I knew that if I confronted him by asking him the question directly, he would deny allegiance. So I took a sideways angle to ask my question.

I approached the individual and warmly congratulated him on his donation to the organization he claimed not to support. I told him that he had all my admiration and that I would never have had the courage to do that. He asked me surprised how I had learned that he had contributed financially to the organization in question, to which I replied that several people knew it and that all admired him.

He then confirmed to me that indeed, he supported the organization in question, that he claimed not to support, and that basically, it was in his beliefs, and that yes, he had contributed financially.

I had my confirmation!

I congratulated him once again and I repeated to him that he had all my admiration.

You never provoke a good source of information by making him uncomfortable in the face of his contradictions or by humiliating him for his lies. So I did not confront the individual and his secret!

MICKEY - We can also conclude that you have become, despite Pierre Péladeau's prediction, a rich man, because today in 2053, money no longer exists and wealth is knowledge. You who are an eternal journalist, we can say that you are very rich for eternity because you know everything...

ULYSSES AND ME - This is an excellent conclusion to our interview!

And to accompany us in this eternal virtual life, Ulysse and I have the eternal company of my virtual lover from the Belle Epoque. This is total happiness for eternity...

But you, Mickey, how did you become a journalist in 2053? You were in 2023 a character in a 3D Disney game, Mirrorverse if I remember correctly...

MICKEY - We could end up with a fairy tale! I, too, have become eternal and I am now an illusion projected precisely by the « PLANET 1» machine. I take on a different role according to each dream that the machine offers!

Thank you for this interview, dear Ulysses, and you, Bernard, the eternal journalist. Now is the time to wake up from your futuristic dream…

                                                          -30-                                                                                    

NOTE- The virtual reporter Mickey in the author's dream appears to be from Mirrorverse, a 3D game co-developed and produced by Disney Enterprises. The game was launched on June 23, 2022. Disney's game is set in a fictional universe adjacent to other Disney worlds and features characters from many of the Disney catalog films and franchises revisited in virtual storylines. Disney Mirrorverse is a role-playing game whose story takes place in a parallel dream universe called "Mirrorverse",

We could make a connection at the level of the Disney concept with the role-playing games found in the virtual world of Second Life, the 3D Metaverse visors from Facebook, and those from Apple for which. Disney is the main partner for the content.

But the inspiration for the author's dream in his sleep remains totally inexplicable, especially since the dream takes place in the year 2053…

Bernard Bujold and mascot Ulysses in year 2053 - photo artificial intelligence

The garden of the Eternal Manor in the year 2053

The eternal lover in the year 2053

The old man, his mascot Ulysses and above them « PLANET 1 » - 2053

The Eternal Machine « PLANET 1 » in the year 2053

  

       To my two children

       David-Bernard and Stephanie;

       to my two granddaughters Ava and Emma;

       and to my eternal and virtual lover of

       the good times!

       June 28, 2023 - 

______________  

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THE JOURNALIST -

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ISBN Number: 978-2-9821799-1-2

The Journalist - 206 pages - 

Published on June 28, 2023