Transcript Powerpoint

Democracy’s Oxygen
The Media and Canadian
Politics
Spring 2007
CMNS 130
0
Objectives
• Map the Political Press in Canada
• Contrast ideal and reality of theory
of press freedom
• Identify at least three principal
outcomes from concentration of
ownership
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1
Structure of the Political
Press in Canada
• Source: The Senate of Canada,
Interim Report on the Canadian
News Media April 2004, Chaired by
the Honourable Joan Fraser
• ( Senate Standing Committee on
Transport and Communications)
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Theory of the Press in
Canada
• Classical Liberal/libertarian view: Fraser
Institute, old Alliance wing of the
Conservative Party
– Argues for radical freedom of expression
– No difference between freedom of press and
freedom of expression
– Property rights of press synonymous with
freedom of expression
– Thus, do not restrain “marketplace of press
anymore than you restrain marketplace of
ideas”
A thorough rejection
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CMNSof
130 any propaganda
model
3
Theory of the Press in
Canada Cont’d
• Social Responsibility View
– Origins with the CBC/radio
– Argued by two major Royal Commissions
– Assumed in the professional standards
adopted by the news profession: eg.
• http://www.bcpresscouncil.org/code.html
• http://www.cbsc.ca/english/codes/rtndacode/rtnda.
htm
– But: low awareness, only 2 public editors(
news ombudsmen in Canada)
– Reactive, under funded
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Background
• 37years since the Davey Commission: the
Uncertain Mirror (1970)
• 23 years since Kent: Royal Commission on
Newspapers ( 1981)
• 2004 ( April) Interim Report on the
Canadian News Media: Senate Standing
Committee on Transport and
Communications , chaired by the
Honourable Joan Fraser
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Changes
• Professional training of journalists
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–
–
–
More formal education
More standards to comply with
Technological change
Proliferation of electronic news
sources
– Drive for growth and consolidation
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Statistical Snapshot
• Daily Newspapers
– Circulation about 5 million daily
– About one in two read one every day ( General Social
Survey 98)
– Now about 100 papers nation wide
– Big Five Dailies( share as at 2003)
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CanWest ( 13) 28.5%
Quebecor (15) 21%
Torstar(5) 13.8 %
Gesca(na) 9.2%
Osprey (22) 9.2%
Bell GlobeMedia (1) 6.4%
– Note: this replaces estimates CC234.
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Snapshot cont’d
• Top 3 control 63% of circulation. Top 5
…79%
• About 1000 community papers
– Much less highly concentrated: top 8 control
39% of circulation
• TV:
– According to Statistics Canada, one quarter
of all viewing is of news and public affairs.
– Viewing share: 19.2 % for
Bell/CTV/Globemedia
– CanWest:14.7% CHUM 7.6%CBC 15.2%
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TV News Summary
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•
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Newsworld, RDIm Newnet, LCN
CNN, CNBC, CNN headline News
TV%, BBC World
Application from Al Jazeera/Fox News for direct
importation on satellite and cable channels in Canada
• In English share, CNN gets 1.7% and Newsworld 1.1% (
with bumps for major events)
• Most watched: supper hour news, where CTV or Global
dominate local markets
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TV News cont’d
• Of Canadian broadcasters, 50% of spending on
Canadian broadcasters is on news.
• Total news spending in 2002 was $654 million (
Broadcasting Policy Monitoring Report)
– $230 million by CBC alone
• Would expect at least that again by print media
• Major wires: CP and Broadcast News
– CanWest uses own wire
– Wire Coverage Provides one third to one half of
average paper content
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Internet:
• 16.8 million users
• 27% view the news, or 29% access government
information directly
• Media Metrix says the following sites most
frequent:
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1. Msnbc.com
2. Cbc.ca
3. Cnn.com
( bbc ranks 8th.)
Foreign ownership: 25% in print, 20% direct and 33%
indirect in TV
– Of the 12 largest firms, only BCE widely held
Very profitable: margins
20%
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130 or more, lower in TV than11
print
Urban Landscape
Most competitive market: Toronto
5 dailies
2 alternative weeklies
Many third language papers,
3 TV all news
3 all news radio
Internet
Least competitive: Vancouver
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Profile of Journalists
• Montreal: 150 journalists on TV
• Plus 351 for print
• Vancouver employment highest for community
papers 113 work for 25( 5 p per weekly)
• On TV: CBC has 15, CTV 22, Global 13
nationwide.
• Sun employs 96, Province 70
• Many more print journalists
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Ethics & Diversity of
Coverage
• Differing interpretations of the Charter
• Differing interpretations on balance
• CanWest’s drive for a national editorial policy:
resignations of editors ( Russell Mills)( Stephen
Kimber)
– A firing of an editor for publishing an editorial critical of
then Prime Minister Chretien: Shawinigate
– Tried to impose a national editorial policy 3 times a
week: partial retreat
– Caught instructing insertion of the word “terrorist” for
Fallujah insurgents ( CC:254) and protested by the
National Council on Arab relations
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Reality Collides with the Ideal
• Press freedom presupposes free, fair and equal
competition
• But the market does not allow that: instead, it promotes
concentration of ownership
– Oligopoly: control of a view
– Monopoly: control of one
• What oligopoly can do:
– Raise the threat of direct owner censorship of editorial
content
– Diminish freedom of individual journalists
– Prioritize cost cutting/shareholder value
– Reduce local coverage and substitute chain coverage
– Lead to a decline in public service values ( CC: 252)
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Major Media Issues
• Relaxing restrictions on Foreign
Ownership
• Avoiding forced sale or significant
regulation of competition
• Linguistic Solitudes: french, english
and third language media?
• Loss of journalistic
specialization/training
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Pending Mergers
• BellGlobeMedia ( CTV) takeover of
CHUM
• Canwest/Goldman Sachs takeover
of Alliance/Atlantis and over 14
Specialty Channels eg. History
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Other Proposals before
Senate
• National public newspaper
• Professional designation for journalists like
doctors
• National ombudsperson( more consistency
among provincial press councils)
• Arms length monitoring( like Pew Foundation or
Canadian Media Research Consortium)
• Need for study of impacts of concentration
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POSSIBLE IMPACTS OF
CONCENTRATION OF
OWNERSHIP
• Costcutting after acquisitions?
– Closure of CITY news after proposed buy out by Bell
Globemedia
– Closure of high cost bureaus: eg. Foreign News
• Current breakdown: CanWest: 2, CTV 9, Globe 7, La
Presse 3, Torstar 6 CBC 12 ( Final Report on the Canadian
Newsmedia, Report of the Standing Committee on
Transport and Communication, June 2006).
• Decline of voter Turnout?
– Loss of local news bureaus in Ottawa in 3 communities
leads to larger decline ( Christopher Waddell, ibid. 11)
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Experience in Other Countries
• France restricts ownership and control of press
• UK limits concentration indexes
• US and Germany limit cross ownership
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Recommendations
• Revise Competition Act
• Require Self Identification: declaration of
controlling shareholder
• CRTC put a priority on news and information
programming
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THE DEMOCRATIC IDEAL IN
CANADA
• Fletcher and Everett
– Media define a national political discourse
– Allow Canadians to defines themselves as members of
an “imagined community”
– Set the Agenda for public debate
– May even influence the values, attitudes and beliefs of
Canadians
• Strong hypothesis: a kind of ‘hyperdermic needle’ model
of propaganda cultivation
• A weak hypothesis: tell us what to think about, not what to
think
• Certainly: important enough in Canada that we regulate
the summit of political discourse: election speech ( see
next week)
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