Media Matters, a report on Simon Fraser University in the news, is compiled and distributed by SFU Public Affairs & Media Relations. This daily edition lists the main items of known media coverage from 10 a.m. Pacific Monday April 18 to 9 a.m. Pacific Tuesday April 19.

SCREEN FREE WEEK

• SFU Education prof Elizabeth Marshall was on the BC Almanac show on CBC Radio talking about Screen Free Week (on now through April 24) in which we are urged to go without TV, computers and smart phones (at least at home) for seven days.
  Host Mark Forsythe noted that young people spend eight hours a day attached to one or other electronic device.
  Marshall: “I think it can be extraordinarily difficult for people to unplug. . . . We need only ride the SkyTrain to see how often and how much we are attached to our devices. I think one of the things to remember is that it’s not only children or youth who are affected by this but adults too. So I think it’s more of a larger social issue than just it being about youth.”
  Marshall and Sensoy earlier wrote a guest column in The Vancouver Sun:
  “We support Screen Free Week, but not for the reasons you might think; for instance, that kids play too much Grand Theft Auto and not enough hockey, that the imaginations of youth are being eroded by pop culture obsessions like Twilight, or that screen time takes away from family time.
  “These are, indeed, all good reasons to turn off our screens.   . . . But Screen Free Week is also an opportunity to consider our relationship with media and the marketing activities that underlie them. Turning off our screens is just the first step to understanding how implicated technology is in every aspect of our lives and might allow us fresh eyes to separate the garbage from the good.”
  Full column: http://at.sfu.ca/NkgGQg
  
  

BC POLITICS

• Public policy prof Doug McArthur was on CBC News, saying BC Premier Christy Clark and new NDP leader Adrian Dix may produce “a lot of fairly honest, open debate.”
  “(McArthur) says while each leader has their own ideological bent, they also share some significant similarities. Both are about change, and ultimately both are pragmatists, he says.
  "‘So, we are going to see not a radical division left and right, but we are going to see a bit of a division around visions of the future and relationships with some people and groups,’ said McArthur.
  “McArthur says he knows from his past government experience that Dix is a fiscal conservative who understands his social agenda will carry a cost, a cost he sees being recovered by reversing corporate tax cuts.
  “But as for being an extreme left-winger, McArthur says the label doesn't fit for Dix, in his estimation. ‘I think this has been a spin by the Liberals—an exaggeration,’ he said.
  McArthur says what B.C. does have is two activist politicians who aren't afraid to mix it up with lively public debate.  ‘We may see a lot of fairly honest, open debate here between the two of them about the directions they want to go. It's going to be I think a more active political time and they will both be feisty and that maybe good for B.C. politics.’”
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/inQsKh
  McArthur was also on CKWX News1130 Radio, talking about Dix.
  
  

TASER

• CTV pursued further the story of the use by a Prince George Mountie of a Taser on an 11-year-old boy, and quoted Rob Gordon, director of SFU Criminology and a former police officer himself.
  "It is an awful precedent and a good example of an unnecessary use of that weapon. I cannot, in all honesty, think of a situation where it would be necessary to use a Taser on an 11-year-old child in a policing context. And given my history, I do have an understanding of what that policing context might be."
  Full story (includes video): http://at.sfu.ca/PcIWFA
  
  

UNIONS

• The news-and-commentary website of TheTyee.ca quoted political scientist Marjorie Griffin Cohen, as The Tyee looked at the question of whether attempts in the U.S. to reduce the power of public-sector unions will spread to Canada.
  "‘When you attack public sector unions, you are attacking women,’ Griffin Cohen told The Tyee. ‘Can what's happening in the U.S. happen in Canada? Of course it can, and in fact it has happened. Just look at the BC Liberals' assaults on health care workers and teachers’ rights, both since overturned by the courts.’”
  While Canadians should be concerned, she said, unions are still stronger in Canada than in the U.S., and have been able to win recognition that collective bargaining is a Charter-protected right.
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/JjajHP
  
  

PROTESTS

• Gordon Price, director of the SFU City Program, was also quoted on TheTyee.ca, as the City of Vancouver prepared to vote on a proposed bylaw amendment to regulate the use of "structures" for "political expression."
  He said it’s hard for a council to find middle ground. "If you want to frame it as, wouldn't it be nice to allow people to care more about their communities, to be engaged—gosh, that sounds warm and fuzzy. Until you get the neighbourhood association, or aggrieved resident involved who wants the city to simply enforce its bylaws or regulate what is considered an affront to its sensibilities.”
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/LZEjZo
  
  

STUDENTS

• A blog on VancouverObserver.com featured Project GIVE (Generating Innovative Visions of Entrepreneurship)—“a program for female students at SFU to gain a stronger understanding of social enterprising.”
  “Troubled by businesses making a lack of social good in their communities, aspiring leaders Katie Peardon and Stephanie Wong of the YWib (Young Women in Business) SFU had an idea. . . . Taking matters into their own hands, as many leaders do, they devised a plan of action and created a program for female students at SFU to gain a stronger understanding of social enterprising.”
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/rtdCOM
  
  
• The Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows Times featured SFU student Angie Medina of Pitt Meadows, who will compete in this year's Miss World Canada pageant May 16-19.
  “At SFU, Medina is an executive for SFU UNICEF and a member of Club for the Cure, an organization that raises money for cancer research at BC Children's Hospital. On top of those responsibilities, why get involved in a beauty pageant?
  "‘I like being involved, and once I found out that [Miss World] works with Variety, I figured since I already like to help out with charities, why not?’ Medina said. ‘I also want to empower young girls that beauty is more than skin deep ... You can have beauty, brains and a heart.’"
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/NkUyYM
  
  
• A national newspaper in Australia, The Australian, reported: “The pool of international students qualified to enter English-language universities is smaller than thought, higher education consultant Daniel Guhr has warned.” The story included this:
  “Dr. Guhr said the new International Student Analytics and Forecasting Model  . . .  could match sending and receiving countries down to an unprecedented level of detail: the sex, degree level and subject choice of students. A pilot version of the model has been released in collaboration with three Canadian universities, including Simon Fraser University.”
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/bjfSLX
  
  

FISH

• The Welsh news website of WalesOnline.co.uk looked at the decline of skate—“reduced to just 5% of their former numbers throughout the world.” The story concluded:
  “Only 18 months ago, marine biologists warned that without proper protection, several species of skate could become extinct. Marine biologist Nicholas Dulvy from Simon Fraser University in Canada described the skate as the most precarious marine species on Earth.”
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/suMrVe
  
  

SUN-TV

• Donald Gutstein, adjunct prof in SFU Communication, was on the Mike Smyth show on CKNW, protesting the launch in Canada of Sun-TV, a new national network that critics have branded Fox News North.
  Said Gutstein: “Sixty per cent of Fox News’ regular viewers believe that most scientists do not believe that climate change is occurring. . . . Misinformation like that is a landmark of Fox News. We are concerned that kind of approach will be brought to the Sun News network.”
  
  

AUTHOR

• The Slave River Journal covered an hour of readings and discussion with crime novel author William Deverell at Fort Smith NWT, and noted: “The novel he is currently writing is set to be released in October and features the theme of residential schools and their impact on Aboriginal Canadians. The same month he is slated to receive an honorary doctorate degree from Simon Fraser University.”
  Full story: http://at.sfu.ca/HqODBE
  
  

MORE LINKS

• Simon Fraser University news releases can be found online at: http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media_releases/
• The university newsletter, SFU News, is also online, at: http://www.sfu.ca/sfunews/
• You can sign up for RSS delivery of our news releases at: http://www.sfu.ca/pamr/media_releases/rss/index.xml
• About SFU: http://www.sfu.ca/about/index.html
• Facts and Figures about SFU: http://www.sfu.ca/facts/
• Also available online: information and reports from SFU president Andrew Petter: http://www.sfu.ca/pres
• And Petter’s envision>SFU strategic vision process: http://envision.sfu.ca

Twitter? Facebook? YouTube? Flickr?
Follow us via http://www.sfu.ca/about/follow.html#fb