About Canada Media

Peter Steven

Canada enjoys a long-held reputation for producing high-quality media, from National Film Board documentaries to the CBC to children’s programming. But in recent years, funding cuts, commercial media concentration and a sour political environment have been steadily eroding this reputation. In About Canada: Media, Peter Steven examines developments in film, television, the internet and newspapers and finds that the quality of our news and entertainment media is steadily declining, as well as becoming increasingly restricted and less diverse. Although Canada is not alone in this crisis of quality, we are particularly vulnerable living in the shadow of the United States. However, despite this decline and the shadow of our southern neighbour, Canada still produces distinctive and popular work, which receives critical international acclaim. About Canada: Media explores all things CanCon and argues that the Canadian people must reclaim the media from elite interests in order to ensure its democratic and quality future.

Contents

1. THE CRISIS OF QUALITY IN NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT
2. GENRES
3. BIG ISSUES: NATIONALISM, CAPITALISM, THE PUBLIC
4. MEDIA IN QUEBEC
5. NEW MEDIA
6. MEDIA AND CANADIAN SOCIETY
7. WHAT IS TO BE DONE

APPENDIX:  The big Institutions and corporations

About the Author

Peter Steven teaches media studies at the Sheridan Institute for Technology, and he is the author of The No-Nonsense Guide to Global Media. His writing has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Le Devoir, the New Internationalist, Jump Cut, the Canadian Journal of Film Studies and the Beaver. He holds a PhD in Radio/TV/Film from Northwestern University in Chicago. Peter lives in Toronto, Ontario.