By Lloyd Mackey

NUZ Canada is the new kid on the block. And it bears checking out.

I was clued in to its existence a couple of weeks ago, before this group's website, NuzCanada.ca, was operational.

"Watch for it," I was told by a seasoned Christian politico. As it happens, this person is known for his steady hand and nuanced encouragement of Christian involvement in The Hill's complex and sometimes convoluted way of getting things done.

I have been surveying the site for over a week now, since it became accessible. Nuz Canada is, to use the technical term, a news aggregator.

I leave it to OttawaWatch readers to check for themselves. But first, a few comments.

The people at Nuz Canada are keeping a low profile, for now. The initiative has come from some younger, mostly Christian media-savvy people, backed and encouraged by a few more senior, sane and sensible types who are cautioning them not to get too narcissistic.

Those more senior types have suggested that the product should be judged by its own intrinsic value, rather than on the personalities and reputations of the activists behind it. The argument goes that, in due time, and to the benefit of all, the project will be out in the open.

The site itself suggests that Nuz Canada is "to provide a one stop news shop for Canadians who desire an efficient and effective means of accessing a variety of news perspectives."

My contact advised me that there is a secondary motive -- to provide a means for news stories deemed to be understanding of and/or constructively critical of social and fiscal conservative perspectives, to get fair exposure.

The alternative, this person suggests, is the burying of such stories behind the walls of ridicule or bombast sometimes -- but not by any means always -- built by adversaries of the politically-right-leaning.

There is another motive, judging by the topics under which the stories are filed. That is to see that faith-based stories which might meet either with a yawn or a blast from certain mainstream journalists, are given a previously unavailable platform.

Then there is the nature of this new animal, the aggregator. Unlike QMI Agency, the embryonic setup under which Sun Media is expected to redress the political media coverage balance with a more conservative approach, this is pretty much a low budget affair, utilizing aggregation technology to tackle its task. It is this aspect that will be the topic of the rest of today's piece.

In its paper form, aggregation has been around for years. Several times a week, in my Press Gallery mail box, I receive a copy of Quorum. It is prepared by the Parliamentary Library staff to provide people around The Hill with a wide selection of stories of presumed interest to the bureaucracy and the political classes.

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A few years ago, I became aware of a specifically evangelical Christian aggregator which was making use of then-new technology to 'grab' stories from websites -- rather than clipping them out of newspapers and magazines, as does Quorum. Known as Christianity.ca, it has provided an excellent selection of stories and, in the process, likely enhanced the recognition of a number of online Christian -- and mainstream -- news and analysis services.

Christianity.ca is owned by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. The EFC identifies itself as serving Canada's several million evangelical Christians and, among other things, providing a "platform" for dozens of evangelical ministries, churches and denominations.

The idea of using technology to 'grab' news items that are already presumably in the public domain raised some questions, at the time the EFC started its aggregator. Those questions related to whether the news services from which it was lifting, or the authors of the stories, should be compensated by the site.

The EFC has properly maintained that its service is not a 'grab', but a series of links to the sites from which its stories are drawn. In that way, the aggregator actually drives people to the other sites, increasing their traffic and potential for advertising revenue.

That is probably true, if the sites are actually able to figure out a way to attract new advertising revenue -- a task that is, at times, frustratingly complex.

* * *

I raise this subject as something on which participants in the new media might want to reflect.

When I was editor of what is now BC Christian News, close to three decades ago, I was often visited by people who were most anxious to work for us, as ad sales people, reporters or administrative support staffers. And they were willing to toil for free. They liked the ministry and wanted to help. And they were out of work, and wanted to build their resumes.

Invariably, after a few months of yeoman service, these people would tell me they needed money to raise their kids, pay their mortgages, or even prepare for retirement. If I could not pay them, they would have to move on into the less-spiritually-satisfying but more financially rewarding world of the mainstream media.

The questions raised by my own past experience are fodder for thought in 2010. The news aggregators, the websites from which they grab and the writers labouring for those sites, will need to retain some sort of dialog, if the aggregators are to continue a valuable service.

In the short term, it is good that people can contribute their skills to an altruistic ministry or service. In the longer term, it is necessary to address the questions raised by the biblical concept that "a labourer is worthy of his/her hire."

* * * Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

June 19/2010