Public Media in Canada Group 11 is: Adella Angela Hanna Jasleen Michaela

Public Media in CanadaGroup 11 is:

AdellaAngelaHanna

JasleenMichaela

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What is public media?

Publically funded

Government involvement or entrenchment

For the public good

Accessible to a majority of the population

Public vs. private media

Privately funded – more funding options

Large media conglomerates

Can potentially be partisan or niche

Not bound to work in the public interest

Ethics

Government in power has funding control

Tax payer money being spent

Private media and owners

Mandate of the CBC

The Broadcasting Act says the CBC is to inform, enlighten, and entertain

Be predominantly and distinctly CanadianReflect Canada and its regionsContribute to the flow of cultural expressionBe in English and French and be available

throughout CanadaContribute to the shared national

consciousness and identity

Early radio in Canada

Radio first appeared in Canada in 1920 – in three years, 3/4 households owned one

Huge growth here

American stations and programs dominated

Fears of Americanisation

Organization takes shape

1928 Royal Commission to advise on the control, organization and financing

Recommended creating a public

broadcasting company

The CBC is born

In 1932, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission is established

In 1936, it became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, like it is today

Supervise the private stations and “foster a national spirit”

Limited funds meant limited programming

The approach to TV

Television becomes a possibility in the late 1940s

The CBC prepares a 15-year plan

In 1952, the first two CBC television stations began broadcasting

66 per cent able to access television by 1955

Like radio, huge growth

Legislative framework

Fowler Commission establishes the CRTC in 1957

The 1968 Broadcasting Act entrenched CBC as the national service provider of media

Important in identity entrenchment in Canada

Advancing technology

Satellite technology in the 1970s This is an important development for

those who couldn’t previously access services

An examination of private media

1980 Royal Commission on Newspapers

Since then, the CRTC has attempted to fix this

Concerns over the fair representation of all view points

What is the CBC today?

Many national news services

2/3 budget provided by the government, the rest from advertising

$1.5 billion on average is funded - $30 per Canadian per year

Problems facing the CBC today

CBC French programs have a 3x larger audience than English

Funding is always a challenge

Private media is always a challenge

Comparisons to private media

Private media does not offer content in Aboriginal languages, not as much French

But, more financial resources

Coverage is based on financial aspects

The two mediums provide options for consumers

NPR: The Funding Model

“We are unbought and unbossed. The Listeners own us.” – Michel Martin, host of Tell Me More, quoting

congresswoman Shirley Chisholm

Where do the dollars come from?Source: NPR.com

Member Stations

There are about 900 member stations that carry NPR’s content

NPR does not own any stations; member stations own NPR

They are independent, locally owned and operated broadcasters

About two-thirds of stations are licensed to, or are affiliated with, colleges or universities

Partners with NPR in newsgathering

Member stations pay fees for the individual NPR programs they choose to broadcast.

These fees and dues make up the largest source of operating revenue for NPR.

Source: NPR.com

Source: NPR.com

Corporations that Support Member Stations

AMC American Apparel Apple

Capitol Records Chrysler Group ESPN

Fox Searchlight General Mills HarperCollins

HBO Netflix PBS

Rosetta Stone Starbucks Corporation Visa

Walt Disney Records Weight Watchers

Source: 2010 NPR Annual Report

Source: NPR.com

Audience Growth from 1998 to 2009

Source: 2010 NPR Annual Report

The (Apparent) Freedom to Report

The economic climate still affects not for profit organizations

Two different notions of what constitutes the public interest:

The Market Model versus The Civic Model

Source: Wade Rowland. Saving the CBC (2013)

Jeffrey Dvorkin, Lecturer and Journalism Program Director, University of Toronto

“If it Bleeds, it Leads.”

Let me offer you an example…

What city in the United States has the fastest growing classical music audience?

“The CBC may have a bigger house proportionally, but NPR has a bigger backyard.”– Jeffrey Dvorkin, former NPR ombudsman

An Evolving Financial Strategy

CBC faced with a $115 million budget reduction from the government

Partnership between CBC and VIA Rail lets passengers watch a variety of Canadian programming on demand

On Radio-Canada International (RCI), the number of languages they broadcast in was reduced from seven to five

Sold Bold, one of their specialty channels. Reduced the square footage of their newsrooms

Source: CBC Annual Report, 2012-2013

The Need for Digital Spaces

Advertising revenue decreased by $42.9 million compared to 2011–2012.

The Corporation will face $200 million in financial pressures over the next three years. 600 analogue transmitters were shut down. And yet…

The CBC feels the need to “create and nurture Canadian digital spaces”

To enhance the reach of their content, CBC renewed existing agreements with Netflix, Air Transat, Telus, Rogers On Demand, Rogers Wireless, Vidéotron, France Télévisions, Bell, Samsung and Xbox

Obtained a licence from the CRTC for Trésor, an upcoming new French-language specialty channel

In 2013, CBCMusic.ca portal expanded from 40 to 50 channels, and CBC Music mobile apps for Android and Blackberry 10 were introduced.

Source: CBC Annual and Quarter Financial Reports, 2012-2013, 2013-2014

How does the economic climate change the way journalists feel about their job?

Voice of Caitlin Crockard, CBC Producer, All In A Day

“In the future we need to be more nimble when it comes to playing

around with new ways to let people hear and see us.”

– Caitlin Crockard

“No single national voice reflects all of Canada.” Maybe the CBC needs

to be decentralized into smaller blocks, with one English service for

the West and another for the East.

Source: Roland Renner. “Options for the CBC: Alternative roles for the national public broadcaster.” (2013)

A broad outlook on CBC radio content

More sensational, hard news stories to appeal to a younger audience

If it bleeds, it leadsCBC has also changed some of their music

selection to play occasional pop songs Becoming increasingly similar to private

radio

Sarah MacFadyen, former CBC Radio Broadcaster, now teaches radio at Carleton University

Radio: Changing content

“CBC television news has ceased to be serious. The truth is if you watch The National, three out of four days starts with some awful, horrible accident. It’s become un-serious, the opposite of serious.” – Eric Koch, former producer of CBC TV

Ethical impacts of changes in content

•Public radio exists to keep the public well informed and updated on the news in their local area and around the world.

•Ethically, when sensational stories run simply to draw in a broader audience, the good of the public is not always being served.

Impact on stories

There are hardly any government voices in public radio

Lack of government support has caused funding cuts for CBC Radio

Journalists are now required to do more stories on a tight deadline, which can affect the quality of the stories

Stories are less layered with fewer sources

Model has shifted from “user-informed” to “user-driven”

Canadian content and national identity

50% of CBC’s popular music content must Canadian

Only 35% of private radio popular music content must be Canadian

Promotes national identity

What is NPR?

NPR is a national public broadcaster in the United States. It has roots across the country, much like the CBC does here.

Best known for programming like “All Things Considered” and “This American Life”, which are accessible as podcasts worldwide.

How did they start?

NPR started in the 1970s as a radio network by a group of public radio stations, allowing them to share content.

They started earnest expansion into

national news right before 9/11, which acted as a good transitioning time because people were hungry for information.

What do they do now?

Everything.

NPR has become a news organization that shares content across the

country from local stations, as well as their own programming, and uses this content across platforms.

You can find them on the radio, on npr.org, or on a podcast. They cover political news in the United States Had the first online stream of The Great Gatsby soundtrack, and has

syndicated radio programs. They’re listenership has more than doubled since 1999 and they

have an operating budget of $183 million.

Why are they so successful?

They’re everywhere.

They work with member stations across the country so they have content originating from all of these stations, and share their content with them.

Ninety-five per cent of Americans live within listening range of a station carrying NPR programming.

Aaaand the Radio BOOM

Whereas the CBC saw the Canadian public radio boom in the 1970s, the U.S. is in the midst of it.

“Because public radio in the United States grows from the tips of the roots in, rather than from the main trunk out, it comes more slowly”—Dick Gordon

Digital Media

They train everyone on digital media Every journalist, producer, editor, etc.

gets trained on how to put together and think about digital media, allowing them to be ahead of the curve in connecting media.

They were the first mainstream-media organization to enter podcasting and are still succeeding there, with top programs in iTunes.

Quick facts:

• 27 million average monthly downloads of NPR podcasts

• 23 million average monthly unique visitors for NPR digital media

• 26.8 million average weekly listeners for NPR programming and newscasts

In 2011 CBC listenership was at an apparent high with 4.9 million listeners on CBC Radio One and 2.1 million listeners on CBC Radio 2

That fall CBC also had over one million unique pages views per month

5.7 million podcast downloads per month

INTRODUCING: Dick Gordon

Worked at the CBC for over 20 years when they were experiencing the radio boom, moved to NPR for a few years in the early 2000s, and worked with another public radio station in North Carolina on The Story until he retired last fall.

CANADIAN PUBLIC TELEVISION

Funding for public TV

Over the past decades, however, funding has been either been flat or declining, and with inflation 'flat' means it's declining

In the 2012 budget, it was announced that CBCs budget would be cut by $115 by 2015

Why no funding?

Canada does not put an importance on investing in the public broadcasting system.

Mark Allen, Director of Research and Analysis at the CBC/Radio-Canada says:◦We have an industry that's focused on private

broadcasters◦The biggest problem for Canadian TV is the

regulation behind it

Canadian content regulations

CRTC established Canadian Content regulations:

Private television stations and networks (e.g., CTV, Global) and ethnic TV stations must achieve a yearly Canadian content level of: ◦ 60 percent overall, measured during the day (i.e., between 6

a.m. and midnight) ◦ 50 percent, measured during the evening broadcast period (i.e.,

6 p.m. to midnight)

CBC (public) must ensure that at least 60 percent of its overall schedule, measured during the day (i.e., 6 a.m. to midnight), is Canadian

Affects on Canadian TV programming

Almost all the shows played during primetime, when the most people are watching, are American

The Canadian content that is produced to fill quotas in the private sector are usually American knock-offs (cheap to make)

Affects on news programming

Bottom-line affects when the news in aired

Supposed to be watchdog on government for the public, but problematic with the power the government has with funding

For the future of TV broadcasting in Canada, ideally…

Mark Allen, Director of Research and Analysis at the CBC/Radio-Canada

What we can learn from the British system

Britain puts the responsibility on the public broadcaster

The result: their private sector is trying to catch up to the quality of the BBC programs, which are very popular with the British public

Where does public radio and TV fit in a world of citizen journalism?

Citizen journalism can be a great tool for public media

However, CBC must have methods in place in order for it to be successful

This should include methods for reviewing the work of citizen journalists to ensure there are no factual errors as well as having back up plans in case deadlines are missed

How will this evolution of public media affect newsrooms?

Additional pressure on journalists to turn around multiple stories quickly in several different mediums

Staff burnout

More jobs for younger reporters but a loss of knowledge from experienced reporters

Speed vs. accuracy

Some tips for journalists…

Wait before you tweetHave journalistic skills in all forms of mediaHave knowledge in as many subjects as possibleBe prepared to chase several stories per day Be flexible, adapt when stories take a different

turn than anticipated and run with itAlways be on the lookout for hard news stories

that can be turned around quickly

So, what does the future hold for Canadian public broadcasting?

Is public media still relevant?With increasing private concentration, public

media has become importantPrivate and public media are still trying to fix

their revenue models Shrinking budgets, changing newsroomsCultural identity? (Legislative mandate?)Privatization?Digital platforms, apps, innovationJournalists being experts in all fields

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