Putting the bias back in the news
Kelly Lynch // November 16, 2012
What do you get when you put two loud Maritimers with BIG opinions together?
You get a whole lot of bias.
Mount students Joshua Robin Young and Sean Joudry have created a webcast called the Bluenose Bias, and the show holds true to its namesake. The Bias (as Robin affectionately calls it) is a tri-weekly show aired on YouTube that explores local, provincial, and global news. Bluenose Bias is a refreshing take on what’s happening in the news media today: hosts Sean and Robin don’t so much cover news as tear it to shreds. All in good humour, of course, but not much gets past these guys – and they’re not afraid to let you know what they think.
I was able to sit down with Robin and Sean to get the the skinny on the Bias, which Symmetry will be airing a select episode of every Friday. If you like what you see, you can further explore the Bluenose Bias YouTube channel, where you will find Robin and Sean’s entire news-shredding repertoire.
To view this week’s Symmetry feature of Bluenose Bias, look no further – below is the Bluenose Bias’ debut Symmetry appearance followed by an exclusive interview with Sean and Robin. Watch ‘Obama back in the Whitehouse: What does this mean for Canada?’ and let us know what you think.
Q: Who is the Bluenose Bias?
Robin: Well, Sean and I are the hosts, producers, promoters, creators – we do pretty much everything, although now we have a few others helping out.
Sean: We’ve gotten a proper editor and… kindof a producer.
Robin: We started a Facebook group called the Bluenose Bias team. One [member] is Sam Coleman who is our sometimes film/cameraman. Our film expert. And then we have Jason Gardner who does editing…he also drives us around and lets us use his camera [laughs]. And we also have Josh Fraser, who is our “ideas guy.”
Sean: He also helps produce.
Robin: Part of the reason we wanted to have him on the show last week is because he has a lot of interesting ideas.
Q: What is the Bluenose Bias?
Robin: Bluenose Bias is kindof funny. It’s really changed as we’ve gone along. It’s been evolving.
Sean: The idea is to add in a voice from people who aren’t the mainstream media.
Robin: We focus on Nova Scotia, sometimes Canada, sometimes globally and we provide an opinion. It’s not really focused on, you know, having all of the FACTS.
Sean: It’s interpreting the news. BUT…despite the fact it’s called the Bluenose Bias – it’s not a lot of partisan bullcrap. We’re rational individuals who want to talk about this stuff intelligently.
Robin: We take the stories out of the context of the news where it’s just the facts. It’s more of a laid-back discussion.
Sean: The general concept for Bluenose Bias came to me a good five or so months back. I thought Robin and I had a lot of really great conversations, and they kindof reminded me of a podcast called Diggnation. And it was just these two guys sitting on a couch and drinking beer and giving their opinions on news stories. As Robin said, there’s not a lot of blatant interpretation of news stories here in Atlantic Canada. We wanted to provide that. You have Steve Murphy and that GUY from CBC who read you the news, but they don’t put it into context. That’s partly what we try to do.
Q: When did you start the Bluenose Bias?
Sean: We started it off…we didn’t officially name it the Bluenose Bias until the 4th week of doing it. Our first episode came out August 31st and we just called it NS Weekly. We didn’t have the creativity to actually think up a proper name for it. Three or four weeks later we were like – DUDE, we really need a name for this show. So we sat around and had some drinks and came up with the idea for Bluenose Bias.
Robin: Sean and I were talking about it probably all summer. And we were like, man, we should really do this. But, to be honest, I kinda thought…NAH he’s joking. Because he was like WE SHOULD HAVE OUR OWN EASTLINK SHOW [laughs]. What a funny idea, me and Sean on Eastlink TV and no one would watch it. The idea was there for a while, and…
Sean: …I was like “Screw it, I’m coming over!” And that was how it happened, and we’ve done it like that ever since, really.
Q: Where is Bluenose Bias filmed?
Sean: We move around. When winter comes along it’s going to be a lot more difficult to stand outside and film for two hours. It’s a lot of time to set up, for Robin and I to coordinate our thoughts [laughs]. We have a lot of plans for the future for higher production quality. New media in general, and I won’t go into this too deeply [laughs], is really going to see a boom over the next ten years as the influence of the mainstream media goes down and independent new media rises significantly.
Robin: IT WILL RULE THE WORLD.
Sean: We shall have control. GOODBYE STEVE.
Q: Why did you start the Bluenose Bias?
Robin: [laughs] Cause it’s fun! And Sean and I both like to talk.
Sean: I just really like watching myself.
Robin: I think it was just kind of a fun project to do. Like Sean said, we already HAD these kind of discussions. We had a lot of back and forth about political issues. As we’ve gone along, I think the why has changed for me. There have been a lot of other things that have made it worthwhile. As a PR student [for me] it’s great, because I improve my skill set. You know you do public speaking, promoting through social media, production – lots of different stuff. It’s been really valuable that way.
And, you know, we touched on this before as well, but there’s not really…there’s kindof a vacuum of this kind of thing in Atlantic Canada. During the municipal election, the best place to get news about it was from Twitter. Other places just didn’t have comprehensive coverage. I think there’s a lack of hyper-local coverage.
Q: You’re creating a dialogue around news media that really lives on social media. What kind of value do you think this adds to the show?
Sean: You see CNN and you see these traditional news networks that are trying to utilize social media in varying degrees and some have done it successfully – some haven’t. When you see Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room reading out @superflychick14 tweets about the election – it seems forced. With us [on social media] it’s a little more natural to take this kind of thing and create a dialogue.
Robin: I think the thing is, traditional video media is made for TV. Or how the Chronicle Herald is going from paper and trying to figure how to make money online. They’re taking the same stories they’ve done and are putting them into an online format and trying to engage people. I think TV media or more traditional media are trying to engage audiences on social media, but they’re [the original material] are not made specifically for social media. I don’t think news online [that was originally on TV] works as well.
Our show is made for YouTube. We’ve been changing it to adapt to our audience. We can mold our show to social media because that’s what it’s specifically made for. It’s not a transplant. We originate on the Internet. And I’m not saying… it’s not like we knew how to go online and make the perfect show. We started off with 15 minute shows and now we split it up [in 5-7 minute shorts]. But at least we’re able to change and try to be successful. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback from people, we have more contributors and it’s helping us grow and change the show.
Q: Do you have any ‘final thoughts’ for your audience?
Robin: I think another aspect of social media that is very interesting, and that I think I would like the show to evolve more toward, is the ability to directly engage the audience. A lot of YouTube shows will ask for suggestions on what people want to see. As in, what do they want us to cover next?
I’d really like it if people who watched the show would say “Hey we’d really like you to cover this.” I’d really like that. I think that would give some more legitimacy as well because it would be content relevant to our audience. That’s kind of my call to action. Comment on Facebook and Youtube. Tell us what you want us to talk about. We’re still growing and we want your feedback. The more feedback the better.
