TORONTO – The CBC should be forced to track how it creates awareness of Canadian authors and their works, the federal panel looking at Canada's communications legislation has been told by a prominent publisher.
"What CBC says it does and its mandate and its commitments to Canadian content are very strong and positive,” James Lorimer, head of his namesake publishing company, told the Broadcast and Telecom Legislative Review (BTLR) panel Saturday at the annual DM@X conference at the University of Toronto,
But "follow though" in terms in measuring whether it meets targets is missing, he said.
"The writing and publishing of books is as strong as its ever been. but the readership has been steadily declining over the past 15 years," he said, while Canadian book sales might account for only 12% of all English language book sales in Canada. In a later interview, Lorimer said at the beginning of this century it might have been twice that.
CBC's "performance of creating awareness of Canadian books and Canadian authors, regionally, locally and nationally has been – we don't know how much its declined, we just know there's been a big decline,” Lorimer added.
Lorimer said his complaint about the number of foreign authors the CBC interviews was also raised in a written submission to the panel from himself and a group of Canadian publishers.
The bigger question for the panel, Lorimer added, is how to translate big policy objectives into measurable and targets and results. "There's many really highly qualified people about regulation and the law," on the panel. "The challenge for you is to put in place somethings that's more meaningful [in legislation or regulations] than more than people having good intentions,” he said
It was one of a number of ideas tossed by conference delegates at the panel, headed by Janet Yale (pictured left, with moderator Trina McQueen, right).
They included:
a) The objectives of the CBC
Make it like the BBC and Germany's public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, and be full of Canadian content culture and news with no advertising, The CBC "has been totally watered down, and that has lost our Canadian content," said one man. (Ed note: Both of those public broadcasters benefit from funding many times that of the CBC.)
The CBC shouldn't have to be "self-sustaining," agreed one woman. It should focus on "market failing genres" like local news and drama.
On the other hand, another attendee warned against the CBC turning into a PBS-style broadcaster, which is "marginalized, unloved, has very little in the way of decent audience figures and finds it very difficult to engage at a popular level around things like comedy and popular drama … CBC needs to be popular and be part of Canadians' everyday life."
No one likes PBS fundraising telethons, replied another delegate. PBS does things that appeal to a niche market, and has emboldened that market. "The model may not be ideal but don't think it should be ignored," he said. As for speakers who lauded the CBC for being free, it’s not, one person pointed out, because it carries ads.
Rather than say what the CBC should or shouldn’t do, said one person, the panel's report should define principles to guide the CBC, like programming that reflects Canadian diversity and values, and ways of ensuring CBC independence, accountability, sustainability and predictability in financing.
b) How regulators can fight the rise of so-called fake news.
Yale noted one of the panel's terms of reference is to look at whether the current legislation is sufficient to ensure the provision of trusted, accurate and quality news information.
Australian university professor Stuart Cunningham, who spoke at the conference on the problems caused by over-the-top broadcasters, noted a suggestion from the preliminary report of Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission into digital platforms is to create a ‘quality badge' that would help indicate it is a trusted source of news. To get a badge the site would have to show it has signed a journalistic code of practice.
That commission's final report is due in June.
The idea was greeted cautiously, however (Ed note: and rightly so). A label may be beneficial, said one attendee, perhaps of granted by a body of educational institutions, but it can't be from a government agency.
"I'm not sure I want the government to be the arbiter of who is a trusted source of news," said another attendee, "and I'm not sure I want anyone else in that role either. I make my own judgments on who I trust."
A more important issue, he added, is ensuring broadband access for people in remote parts of the country or to those who can't afford it. After that, then let them figure out what sources to trust on their own.
c) What to do about declining local news coverage as news outlets close or cut back?
The BBC – which is financed by mandatory licence fees – recently began paying local newspapers to help hire for local reporters, one attendee noted. Maybe the CBC follow suit.
d) What should be the future role of Canada's private broadcasters?
"I search for content from all around world, and look from where (it comes from) second," said one woman. More important than whether or not people are seeking Canadian content, she added, is do viewers recognize it as Canadian content at all when they see it?
That suggests a branding problem.
A Chinese business student studying here said at home she watched a lot of BBC programs, which are associated with quality. She and friends also watched the comedy Schitts' Creek on a pirate web site, but no one talked about it being from the CBC.
Another business student noted the popular Pixar animated short Bao (nominated for an Academy Award) was made by a Canadian, but "profited by a U.S. company."
"The great thing about the panel is that it's looking at the overall state of digital media and communications," said Lorimer in an interview. "Across all media there is an access issue and a discovery issue. And there are lots of opportunities for the panel to point to ways in which the media and digital content providers in Canada could play a much bigger role in creating awareness, generating discovery of Canada content and providing access."
The panel is expected to issue a preliminary report in June and a final report in January, 2020.
Photo by Howard Solomon
