Abstract
Canada Lives Here is a call for action to the Canadian people and their government. Wade Rowland draws upon his many years of experience in Canadian public television news and management to make a strong case supporting the importance of a robust public service broadcasting system to Canadian culture and democracy. However, Canada Lives Here also has an important message that goes beyond the borders of Canada. The message is that the role of the public broadcaster is to ensure that people in a democratic society can learn about important issues, engage culture and the arts, and constructively tackle the issues facing their nation.
For Rowland, this role can only be fully achieved through noncommercial media. He asserts that “crafters of necessary illusions” and the “manufacturers of consent” theoretically do not influence noncommercial media, unlike their commercial counterparts (p. 2). Rowland is quite harsh on commercial broadcasters throughout this book, and he sometimes glosses over the fact that the governments with direct or indirect control of public broadcasting’s purse strings may also have points of view that they hope will be expressed. However, the essence of this point is well-taken.
Rowland believes that public broadcasting in Canada is in a state of decline. He supports this thesis by taking the reader on a historical tour of the origins of public broadcasting in Canada, through several administrations. Some of those administrations nurtured public broadcasting and others, through a number of measures, including budget cutting and administrative reorganization, brought the service to the brink of extinction.
All public television systems receive some sort of funding from their country’s government or a quasi-governmental agency like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in the United States. But ultimately the actual funds come from the people, and in the end, public broadcasting is expected to give back in the form of high quality programming that is beneficial to society. To do this effectively, a public broadcasting system must be adequately resourced. Rowland argues that Canadian public broadcasting lags far behind its European counterparts in the per capita subsidies at $28CAD. For example, he notes that in Norway’s public broadcasting, funding is $180CAD per capita, while Germany’s is $124 per capita and the United Kingdom is $97CAD per capita. As a point of information, in 2011, the United States spent $4USD per capita for public broadcasting (http://www.niemanlab.org/2011/03/Funding-Public-Media-How-The-US-Compares-To-The-Rest-of-the-world/).
Rowland worries that a combination of a dwindling subsidy, the migration of some heretofore public TV programs to commercial networks—including NHL Hockey—and a sense by some regulators that terrestrial broadcast television might no longer be necessary means that it could be replaced by less-expensive-to-operate online media services.
Rowland argues that terrestrial broadcasting is still a very important component in any public broadcasting system for Canada. However, he recognizes that online media can and should have a place in the future of public service broadcasting.
The author then takes the reader on a journey forward, with four specific ideas as to how the Canadian system of public broadcasting can be made more effective. First, to keep the system noncommercial in nature, he suggests a small levy of 5% to 7% on Canadian commercial television, cable, and broadband services. He projects that this would raise approximately $3.5 billion. He believes that this would be adequate funding for Canadian public broadcasters to join the ranks of the world’s most successful public broadcasters.
Second, he suggests that, like the United Kingdom, Canada should adopt broadcast regulations that require universal access to “sports events of national significance” (p. 193). A list of these events would be created by the Department of Canadian Heritage and would be available to all Canadians via over the air and basic cable via Canada’s public broadcasting system.
Third, he addresses the demise of quality produced Canadian programming by proposing that a greater percentage of the $3.5 billion noted above be earmarked for use by producers of programming with Canadian content (p. 196). These new programs would be commissioned, sponsored, or created by Canadian public broadcasters.
Finally, he calls for new leadership at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). He is critical of the political process by which senior CBC management has been chosen. He refers to senior CBC management as being dysfunctional and less than sympathetic to the role of public service broadcasting. Rowland proposes that the president of the CBC be chosen by the Board of Directors of the CBC and not by Cabinet, as is done now. This change, he says, would allow the CBC to do its job at “arms-length from government and its political preoccupations” (p. 200).
Rowland’s suggestions are certainly controversial. For readers outside of Canada, they may not be acceptable choices for their nation’s public broadcasting systems. However, Canada Lives Here is well researched and is a well argued defense of public service media and the important place that it occupies in a democracy. Readers from around the world will benefit from the author’s historical perspectives and ideas for strengthening the role of public media today and in the future. For example, the author’s concerns about Hockey broadcasts moving to a commercial channel in Canada are similar to U.S. concerns about the migration of sports from over-the-air-broadcasting to cable television. Educators may find this book to be a useful supplement in courses dealing with media history, public policy, and the future of media.