Can a ‘Civil’ Social Media Site Produce Good Journalism?

Columbia Journalism Review · Lauren Watson · last updated April 22, 2025 – 1:03 AM

At first glance—with its sky-blue trim, scrolling feed, and quirky community group pages—Spaces, a new Canadian social media platform, feels like a throwback to the early days of Facebook. But Jeff Elgie, who opened the site to the public last fall, says he isn’t looking to simply re-create the popular social network: he’s trying to revive social media as a home for local journalism.

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