Boneyards of broken dreams
The CRTC is poised to discover what Canadians think about the concentration of media — but what will they do with that information?
TESSA VANDERHART STAFF
By the time you read this, it may already be too late.
The CRTC is holding a public hearing on media concentration in Canada beginning Sept. 17, 2007.
That’s the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, charged with independently and publicly regulating and supervising the popular media of Canada.
To the end of this public hearing, a press release was sent out on April 18 to let citizens know about their right to give feedback, but — let’s assume because of its heightened “timeliness” and not for any ulterior reasons — most of the media coverage of this call to citizens has been released in the past week, only just before the deadline of July 18, the release date of this newspaper.
It’s too late to contribute, so why should you care?
Well, it happens all the time.
Just in 2006, the standing Senate committee on transport and communications produced the “Report on the Canadian News Media,” finding that fewer than one in five Canadians thought news organizations were independent.
In fact, this happens every couple of years.
And when that report was published, the Senate committee took more than two years to collect more than 304 submissions from interested parties, finally releasing the report after another year of study.
What they discovered wasn’t shocking or groundbreaking or, probably, worth all of that time and effort and public money.
What they discovered was that “Traditionally, news was supplied to the public in a fixed format, such as a newspaper, or at a fixed time, such as the 6 o’clock news.” And that that, frankly, is not the way it’s done any more.
They found that the CBC needs to go “back to basics,” that Canadian students need to get basic media training, that better copyright policies can protect our artists and that better access-to-information policies can protect our good government. They specifically called for amendments to the Competition Act that would empower the CRTC to be involved in an automatic review of each individual media merger, by public panel. What they found could constitute a journalism-school textbook. So why is the CRTC going through these same motions, not one year later?
No matter why. Like any good media conglomerate, there are interests to be protected.
And yes, it’s too late for you to give the CRTC whatever feedback you may believe it needs.
But the big media companies are only banding together because of the frightening fragmentation of media opportunities — even the Senate report said so. Which means that if you, dear reader, are as tired of this rant as I am, then we can work on making things better.
Work on contributing to Internet media, pirate radio, campus radio, find ways to sneak onto TV and make things better.
Do more reading into the Freedom of Information Act and make it work for you — did you know that the U of M, as a public institution, is legally required to give you almost any document of theirs you want, provided you ask for it correctly?
For me, of course, “making it better” that involves making improvements to this very paper: things as simple as putting our bylaws online, finding ways to draw more students in to volunteer to assure a greater diversity of voices — finding ways to be more accountable to students. Did you know that as a student at the U of M you pay $6 per year toward the operations of the Manitoban? It’s definitely worth your money to care.
In fact, I will set right here in stone-type forever, that the Manitoban will do its utmost to make you care, for better or for worse.
Bad journalism only wins when they think no one is reading. So read. And let them know.
And, come to think of it, tell the CRTC what you think anyway.
The king is dead; long live the king.
