Public benefits or private? The case of the Canadian Media Research Consortium Marc Edge, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Mass Communication Sam Houston State University Huntsville, Texas, U.S.A.
[email protected] Submission #55 A PAPER FOR PRESENTATION TO JOURNALISM RESEARCH IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST, NOVEMBER 19-21, ZURICH ABSTRACT Canada exhibits one of the world’s highest levels of media ownership concentration, due in part to a failure of regulation. In an attempt to ensure that a portion of the benefits from broadcasting takeovers and acquisitions accrued to the public, the broadcasting regulator Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission established the Public Benefits program in the late 1980s. Under the program, a minimum of 10 percent of the value of acquired broadcasting licences was required to be devoted to worthwhile initiatives. In the Cdn $2.3-billion takeover of television network CTV by Bell Canada Enterprises in 2000, however, a portion of the Cdn$230 million Public Benefits package was devoted to funding a Canadian Media Research Consortium established between several universities. Mandated to “focus on the development of Canadian data for use in media planning,” the CMRC issued its first report in 2003. A Report Card on the Canadian News Media was criticized for flawed methodology and was cited as an example of “administrative” marketing research performed to the benefit of media owners rather than to the benefit of the public. The CMRC issued a five-year retrospective study titled The Credibility Gap: Canadians and their News Media in 2008 that addressed some of the earlier methodological flaws and perhaps as a result reached different conclusions.