The Nature of the Distinct Contributions Made by Government, Media Owners, and Journalists to Canada’s Media Environment

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Introduction

The government, media owners and journalists play a very vital role in ensuring smooth running and existence of a specific environment in the media industry. Each of them plays specific roles that go hand in hand for the proper coordination of the industry.

This paper will look into each stakeholder roles played by each of the three in the creation of the media environment that is found in Canada today.

First and foremost I will start with the introduction of cultural industries and explain the different techniques that the government Canada tends to employ in justifying their policy and instruments of regulation. The cultural media industries comprise music recording, book publishing, and cinema, publishing news paper and occasionally publishing magazines.

The cultural industries also comprise of the new media. New media are inclusive of blog, websites, production of audio visual and exchange. The policies for the cultural industries in Canada started back in early 1950s together with the Massey Commission report. The development of policies started in 1970s.

The cultural policies had four rationales identified as development of culture, service to the public, democratic participation, and market failure.

The specific rationales of the industry were among the reasons that attracted government support. The government invested and offered significant incentives for televising local (Canadian) productions video and film. The regulation of the Canadian content has been an effective policy instrument in sound recording.

Cultural, structural and industrial support measures have instituted a vibrant sector for publishing books. Control of ownership through Income Tax Act together with provisions to split-run editions in publication of magazines has remained effective until today. The main concerns for the cultural industries are ownership and control of the system o distribution.

It is well documented that movie theatres exclusively show U.S. movies in the film industry. U.S. materials dominate in magazine racks, record stores and book stores. Dominance by Canada is only evident with respect to newspapers. This has been possible due to the ownership provisions in Canada which are found in section 19 of the Income Tax Act.

This section became ineffective in 1999, in the aftermath of Bill C-55. Cultural industries have also had a problem when it comes to financing. Therefore, subsidy programs sponsored by the government are needed in almost every field.

Day after another, cultural industries in Canada is increasingly being accepted within and outside Canada. The big debate on whether government funds should assist cultural industries, and on what ground appears to have abated. This may be just for a short while since in the event that the Harper conservatives win a second term in office the debate may be revived again.

The supporting of cultural industries has become more problematic due to participation by Canada in international trade agreements. There has been demand for greater access in Canada’s cultural markets by the U.S. beyond its already dominant position.

The result of this is threatening of the future of cultural industries of Canada. The Cultural Industries Sectoral Advisory Group on International Trade advised Canada to negotiate an international instrument to address the diversity of culture in 1999.

Media ownership in Canada is both publicly and privately owned. These altogether thrive in a mixed economy. Free market economics can not exclusively manage any media industry in Canada. Even the publication of the newspaper, which comes nearest to an exclusively private industry, is subject to the regulations of federal ownership.

These regulations have the main purpose of protecting the newspapers from foreign competition and takeover. Demands of the market place face each media company in Canada. This is inclusive of even CBC which is owned by the public which pays attention to ratings and advertising revenues.

In order to maintain a vibrant market place, we expect media market that is inclusive of both diversity of content and choice of outlets. All these have their roots from the ownership.

Media owners choose the information that they want the audience to get. One of the major concerns regarding the media is that a small number of owners may provide a limited choice in terms of where consumers can get information. This is because mass media production is majorly a business and measures of a successful business differ from those of a successful democracy.

This simple means the interests of the media owners may not rhyme with the interest of the consumers. The best known example from Canada of how large media houses can serve interests of the business while at the same time violate interests of the public is the “Black Tuesday,” of 27^th August, 1980.

This happened when a competitive trade-off was made between two leading chain newspaper owners at that time i.e. Thomson and Southam. Southern closed “Winnipeg” which was its Tribune newspaper. This gave “Winnipeg Free Press” which was under the ownership of Thomson a monopoly in the city.

On the other hand, Thomson closed its “Ottawa Journal” which left the “Ottawa Citizen” which was under the ownership of Southam as the sole newspaper in the capital.

These actions led to a major review of mass media by the Government of Canada in 1980. This was characterized by the formation of the Kent Commission (the Royal Commission on Newspapers).

Media owners also determine the content found in the media. Many media owners do have strong political opinions that they present in their news outlets. This may reflect specific biases of the media owners which may in turn affect the type of content evident in coverage of several issues. Media play an important role in formation of opinions, attitudes, beliefs and values in the community.

There has been a debate on the level to which media influence behaviour and opinion. The general accepted view is that free and diverse media are an important part of good democracy. This is because of the ability of the media to convey the opinions of the people who then choose their political leaders.

Although many people believe that much of the media coverage on political issues only reinforces the previous values, beliefs and political views, it is crystal clear that media coverage can affect the formation of opinions and assessment of political phenomenon.

This brings in the importance of understanding the factors that influence media content. In the case where content of media influence opinions and assessment of issues, and these assessments and opinions then go on to influence the components of political behaviour such as salience of certain policy issues or the choice to vote for a given party.

Therefore the responsibility of the media in a democratic process is to inform and not to direct. If the media offers direction, and then it should not be biased but rather provide a variety of voices to achieve balance since greater choice means more diverse content. Most media houses espouse right wing values in talk shows and commentary. These values carry across media networks not simply on isolated shows or stations.

There are people who argue that journalists tend to be more liberal than the public and this leads to left-wing slant in coverage of issues by the media. Journalists play the role of producing the content of the media. Content producers are the heart of the media enterprise.

The manufacture of the content that we hear on our radios; see in our books, newspapers, and magazines; and see on our computers, cinema screens and televisions is done by journalists, television producers, radio hosts, film editors and magazine photographers. These have broad job descriptions and work environments.

The images we see and the stories whether factual or fictional are constructed and never naturally presented. The construction process comprises a series of choices about which stories to present and how to present them. This happens both when journalists attempt to make the reality accurate and when they are trying to stress on a particular point of view or style of presentation.

All in all, no story is a complete story and no picture is complete. This section will look at journalism as a process of producing content and look into a broader perspective of who the Canadian journalists are and the contexts of their work in influencing the media environment in Canada.

Journalism as a form of story telling is based on the real people and events. But the reality as is always implied, the journalists instead frame reality, choosing specific occurrences, people and particular aspects of a story as worthy to make news while leaving others stories.

Journalists share some of the characteristics of other types of storytellers but they are distinguished by features such as their guiding principles of seeking for truth, objectivity and independence; the legal and ethical rights and responsibilities of practice in an environment of free-press; and the context of news production in an institution.

Although one of the linchpins of news reporting is freedom of press, this does not imply that journalists are at liberty to report whatever they like or that news organizations can practice impunity through publishing and broadcasting. Such constraints as privacy and libel keep journalists in line with accepted standards of integrity.

Given the nature of news production which is selective it is crucial to know the origin of the news report. Canadian journalists do not represent the population at large. They are mostly young, male, white, and well educated and they mostly work for commercial news organizations with large corporate owners. These factors influence both what and how the news is reported as well as what may not be reported.

The above discussion has outlined broad roles with regard to media regulation, ownership and news production in Canada. The Canadian media environment has continued to experience the impact of the significant transformation that has occurred in the recent years.

Key stakeholders have been reshaped due to a series of new acquisitions and mergers that have taken place in this century. This has initiated moves to democratize media to take two forms; media reform and alternative media. These seek to establish ways to diversify and make the media organizations that are in existence more accountable and the establishment of new independent media outlets specifically to serve defined communities respectively.

This accountability will be depicted in the way the three organs of the media will operate and ultimately, they should serve the citizens of the Canadian government with an insight into the country’s state of affairs

Reference

Lorimer, Gasher, M. & Skinner, D. (2008.) Mass communication in Canada.6^th Ed. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press

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The Nature of the Distinct Contributions Made by Government, Media Owners, and Journalists to Canada’s Media Environment

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