Since the Doukhobor arrival in Canada in 1899, the relationship between Doukhobors and the media, here referring primarily to the Canadian media, has run roughly parallel to that of other ethnic minorities and the media.

Because the media tend to sensationalize in search a good story or a story that will sell papers and programs [the ratings game], and since some behavior of the Doukhobors was unusual, it appears the Doukhobor stories reached some sort of pinnacle in distortion of truth, fairness and accuracy. The fact that the popular press generally presents an establishment view plays a part; as well as the fact that the Doukhobors were anything but establishment.

There was also a built in feeling of superiority among the players controlling the press, since most of them were white, Anglo-Saxon Protestants, and generally the view presented was that of this majority outlook coupled with vested interests, whether the interests were economic, patriotic or cultural.

This paper will give some examples of this throughout the history as well as some examples of fair and unbiased reporting.

One generalization has it that many distorted reports occurred over the years because essentially, the Doukhobors possessed an oral culture and did not place a high, intrinsic value on the written word. Presumably, because of this, they were remiss in recording their own story - thus being written about rather than writing about themselves. The facts do not really bear this out.

Early writings by such literary note worthies as Sulerjitski, Lev Tolstoy, Bonch Bruevich, Orest Novitsky, Almyer Maude, Biryukov, Khomyakov, James Mavor, Kropotkin, and others such as George Woodcock of later years, spoke very highly of Doukhobor ideals and life style.

So did the Encyclopedia Britannica, published in Cambridge in 1910, and this article is still used by some Doukhobors [and others] as a definitive, short and concise report on the history and aspirations of the Doukhobors.

Following this lead, most Encyclopedias since that time, with some exceptions, continued to present a balanced and more or less accurate picture of the group.

Examples are: The Illustrated History of Canada, The Encyclopedia Americana, The Canadian Encyclopedia, Encyclopedia Canadiana, The World Book Encyclopedia and the New Encyclopedia Britannica.

I mention these books not so much as members of the media, although I consider them as such just as I consider any organ capable of forming public opinion as media, but because these are reference books which are available to researchers, news reporters, reviewers, and other people in responsible positions who present ideas and concepts to the public. Given that some accurate sources exist since 1900 [publication in English of Christian Martyrdom in Russia by Vladimir Tchertkov] there seems to be little excuse for inaccuracies and imbalance beyond the motive of sensationalism and the selling of newspapers and viewing of programs.

Returning to the theme of 'Doukhobors being written about rather than writing about themselves', there have been some early Doukhobor writings. The majority of these were so-called 'exposés' which easily rivaled the more sensationalistic aspect of the Canadian press. From this viewpoint, the literate Doukhobors did not extol the virtues of Doukhoborism, but in these specific cases, presented an unsavoury view of the inner workings of the community.

Other Doukhobors such as Sam Stupnikoff in Saskatchewan are well meaning, self-published authors of Doukhobor history, but are woefully ignorant of the Doukhobor history and publish fanciful notions and myths rather than historical facts.

This entire document is available for download in .pdf format here.