The Contributions of Government to the Media Environment in Canada - Essay Example

 The Contributions of Government to the Media Environment in Canada CANADIAN MEDIA An insight into the media environment and its stakeholders in Canada Canada is a large, diverse and multicultural nation, spanning six time zones and a widely dispersed population. Owing to geographical factors, Canada functions as a decentralized federal system. The mass media in Canada exists largely in the private sector, as profit-seeking enterprises, owing to the predominant liberal belief in freedom of press. However, aspirations to foster communication for national purposes have encouraged the federal government to support and construct communication facilities that private businesses cannot profitably provide. The mass media set the context for information to be collected, determine how chosen facts should be viewed and debated, and analyze and express opinions on significant events and issues. In this manner, the news media decide not only how events are presented, but also how these events become applicable to the community. Currently, the media business is in a state of turmoil. The Internet, for example, is revolutionizing the way distributed network communication works and has been, at times, disruptive to news media’s traditional content. Stakeholders involved in shaping the media environment are ground level journalists who capture and narrate local and international stories, media owners who work on production and the financial aspects of news-making. In the public sector is the government who is responsible for using media to build peaceful social communities. This section discusses the roles that these stakeholders play in Canada’s media environment. In Canada, the federal and provincial governments have turned to mass media to assist develop and convey a sense of harmony and identity to join together a large and disparate nation. As the society has become more complex, media have played a larger role in carrying political information, opinions and values to the population. The importance of media to policymaking has grown over the last century. For instance, over the years, the Canadian government has enacted measures to support fragmented cultural industries. The public broadcaster, the CBC, was founded in 1936 to deliver a national broadcasting service, and has been the key broadcaster of budget and program development. However, public broadcasting, which traditionally has played a pivotal role in Canadian media, has been weakened to the point where regional concerns are virtually disregarded and its national future is in question. Since the federal government funds the CBC and appoints the CRTC, which regulates the entire Canadian broadcasting system, the government has significant influence on the media industry. Through the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and laws such as the competition law, broadcasting act, and the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission Act, the government ensures that media industry is properly and ethically handled). The government also sponsors the Canada Magazine Fund, which propagates media democracy Journalists are building blocks of any media organization and their quality reflects in the quality of the media network. And since a strong democracy needs a rich and assorted nature of knowledge and opinion, the job of the journalists is principal to the effectual performance of representative administration. Journalism creates and signifies not only authority, but also relegation Furthermore, news is an imperative measure through which those in power hear the opinions and thoughts of the citizenry. Journalists play chief political roles in representative unions by serving as fundamental communication channels not only among the authorities and the governed but also between different groups and regions. This connecting role of journalism has particular importance to Canada, where the connections that fix citizens together are stressed by the immense size of the country, its decentralized character, and its lack of a common culture. “Freedom of the press” has constantly had an exceptional meaning for journalists. They understand in personal, professional and collective positions that their capability to serve their viewers and readers is regularly inhibited and negotiated by the economical, commercial and political objectives of media owners and shareholders. The growth of media ownership concentration in Canada is intertwined with the weakening of government funding for public broadcasting, chiefly for the CBC. After a 1996 resolution by the CRTC to modify regulations that had been intended to keep newspaper, broadcasting and telecommunications firms isolated, cross-media ownership deals happened in year 2000 that drastically changed the Canadian media landscape . Three major corporations surfaced out of grand scale mergers with an authoritative control of Canadian news markets: CanWest Global, Bell Globemedia, and Quebecor. Since then, Canadian media ownership is amongst the most highly concentrated in the world, with high barriers to foreign ownership that were intended to prevent U.S. domination. This consolidation of the industry indicates more power in the hands of media owners who run this business to earn profits and increase shareholder value. However, since most of the media owners are Canadian, it is imperative that they keep Canadian interests alive and focus on developing Canadian programs for the viewers with limited influx of American entertainment media. The new corporate media production differs greatly from that of the media magnates of the past with their corporate structures and cross-ownership from telecommunications to broadcasting, from broadcasting to newspapers, from cable and Telco carriers to television stations and networks, and to film and cinema. . Media owners now exchange digital material from all of these media platforms to the Web, and deliver these communication outlets to households and offices. The new corporate media authority is also distinguished by its dependence on high sums of investment capital and the primary objective of increasing shareholder value. Investors often are anonymous in media workstations but their interests are significant and result in far reaching management calls. On the other hand, technology and the digital revolution in media have made convergence feasible, letting multiple media platforms to be brought under the control of one corporate network. Technology has also changed essentially the way individual Canadians interact with the media and acquire information. In today’s times of convergence and exceptional media ownership concentration, the conflict of interests is bound to be present between different stakeholders; between on the integrity of journalism and the private interests of media corporations. Additionally, there are a number of scenarios where the government and public broadcasters have clashed. The first happens when the public broadcaster is blamed for political advocacy or bias. The second is a presence of a conflict of interest, which may occur when the public broadcaster seems eager to do the bidding of the funder to the loss of the credibility and creative freedom of the journalism. A third example is when the values of the investor seem to be in disagreement with the principles of public broadcasting . There is an important public policy goal of encouraging diversity of ownership in the Canadian media.. Since the Canadian government and regulators have become increasingly attentive to the private interests of the new media corporations, the legal and regulatory framework for Canada’s media industries needs reinforcement and reform. The federal government, should have an outlook of democratic Canadian media, and have a policy to achieve this. Read More