The Conversation Canada is filling a niche in the Canadian media landscape by providing research-based analyses and explanatory journalism. Traditional news organizations are facing unprecedented challenges because of changes to their business model. Nowhere is this more problematic than at the community level. Local news sources, especially in non-metropolitan areas, are diminishing and disappearing. When local news disappears, does social media take up the slack? Jaigris Hodson of Royal Roads University writes about research she and April Lindgren of Ryerson University conducted around the 2015 federal election to try to answer that question. “News announcing local events, such as debates or rallies, was widely circulated on Twitter,” writes Prof. Hodson. “However, news about actual election related issues or policies was difficult to find or entirely absent.”

We’ve seen the headlines and heard the cries from industry, politicians and policy makers: Canada employers can’t find enough workers with the right skills. But the so-called skills gap may be overblown, says Jeff Boggs of Brock University. “Certainly, Canada’s labour market data doesn’t support such a claim. There is no over-heated national labour market caused by an under-supply of qualified workers.”

And finally, Geraint Osborne of the University of Alberta raises an interesting point about responsible parenting – less than a year from now, marijuana will be legal in Canada. How should parents talk to their kids about this massive impending change to our society? “This is a question that I — as a cannabis researcher and father of 17-year-old twin boys — take very seriously, and for good reason,” he says. Luckily, Prof. Osborne has some great advice on how to have those discussions with your kids.

All the best,