Unwarranted hopes and unfulfilled expectations: Canadian media policy and the CBC.

• Author: Smith, Joel

* An earlier version of this paper was prepared for delivery on November 20, 1997 during a panel on "Alice in Wonderland: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in a Marketplace Culture," held at the Biennial Meeting of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States in Minneapolis, MN.

* A list of acronyms used in this article is provided on page 34.

Joel Smith is a professor emeritus of sociology at Duke University, where he has been a member of the Canadian Studies Program since 1973. Among his recent publications are "Media Policy, National Identity and Citizenry in Changing Democratic Societies: The Case of Canada," in Joel Smith (ed.), Media Policy, National Identity and Citizenry in Changing Democratic Societies: The Case of Canada (1998); Understanding the Media: A Sociology of Mass Communication (1995); "Culture nationale et entertainment au Canada: un faux probleme?" in D. Atkinson, I. Bernier, and F. Sauvageau, (eds.), Souverainete et protectionnisme en matiere culturelle (1991); "Emancipating Sociology: Postmodernism and Mainstream Sociological Practice," Social Forces 74: I (September 1995) 53-79; National Images of Canada and the United States: Their Structure, Coherence, and Meaning," American Review of Canadian Studies 20:3 (Autumn 1990) 327-355. E-mail: djssoc@soc.duke.edu

Changes in organizational location and fiscal support during recent years have not been kind to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), one of the crown jewels of North American broadcasting. In view of these circumstances, as well as several critical reviews of its performance, a session of a recent meeting of the Association for Canadian Studies in the United States (ACSUS) was devoted to the Corporation's current position and future prospects in a globalizing, privatizing, retrenching environment. As an invitee to that session, I saw opportunity to consider whether the CBC's declining esteem could be attributed primarily to its past and present associations with missions largely beyond its control, and, if so, whether an alternative mission and appropriate resources might help it recover.

My starting premise is that evaluations of the Corporation are strongly influenced by its success in attaining policy goals with which it was or is associated and for which it is held accountable. I propose a candidate for that primary mission, examine how it accords with other national policies, and consider whether the CBC can succeed by such standards. This exercise suggests that the CBC has been, now is, and will continue to be in a `no win' situation because the relevant policies are in conflict and unrealistic -- in short, because they are unattainable. I conclude that they constitute the unfulfilled expectations that erode the CBC's position with the state. The addition of poor management to the mix is an additional burden. In assessing the Corporation's future under current conditions, I have tried to take recent events into account.(1) Obviously, much has happened recently; there have been major changes in the CBC's situation and operations. But an updating as I edit the manuscript suggests that little has changed since the ACSUS presentation.

The aforementioned organizational changes may introduce some unintended confusion. The facts are that the CBC is no longer a regulatory or autonomous organization; it and all other Canadian broadcasters, as well as the entire public and private telecommunications industry, are regulated by the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). Their current aims and justifications are specified in the Broadcasting Act of 1991 and its subsequent amendments.(2) Both are situated in the Department of Canadian Heritage after having been independent agencies prior to that department's creation. Although the act pertains to all Canadian broadcasting -- it does address the CBC specifically as well -- I argue that the position of the CBC in Canadian Heritage, its surveillance by another agency within Heritage, and its primary dependence on government funds make it a party to Heritage's broader cultural mission. This does not mean the CBC censors or biases materials to appease incumbent regimes; rather, it makes more understandable the facts that only the CBC has implemented an all-Canadian programing regimen and that the television network rarely gets high audience ratings. The organizational nesting of CBC and other Canadian broadcasters under the authority of the CRTC, and the nesting of the CBC and CRTC but not the rest of Canadian broadcasting in Canadian Heritage, which also monitors other media less directly, shapes my interpretation of recent events. The position of the CBC in the Canadian Heritage-CRTC-CBC hierarchy of control contributes to its weakened position in two ways; it undercuts the CBC's ability to compete with private broadcasters, and diverts it from a non-competitive role as a national public broadcaster. Both circumstances have given rise to the concerns that led to the ACSUS session as well as to the formation of several Canadian public interest support groups.

Despite these major changes in organization and function, the more things change the more they remain the same. As a target of frequent criticism, the CBC limps along, defensively proclaiming past successes while publicizing plans to fulfill its mission better. I shall maintain that this is because the CBC has been and continues to be judged, in part, in terms of a former mandate to contribute to national unity by building a Canadian culture. The Corporation's current mandate (in the 1991 Act) is to provide programs that, among other things, will be "distinctively Canadian," "contribute to shared national consciousness and identity," and "actively contribute to the flow and exchange of cultural expression." Two observations may be made about these specifications. First, because they are vague (e.g., the third), and imply the reality of central undefined and hotly debated concepts (e.g., distinctively Canadian, national consciousness, national identity, cultural expression), they are subject to interpretation. Secondly, there is no reference in the act to a responsibility to create or contribute to national unity. But many of these same programing mandates were linked with that goal in earlier legislation and/or legitimating statements pertaining to the CBC made by government officials or its own executives and partisans. Moreover, the threat of Quebec separation loomed large when the act was drafted. Therefore, my premise is that contributing to Canadian unity by building a Canadian culture continues to be a goal associated with the CBC and that failures in this regard help account for an erosion in status.

If the premise is correct that these goals knowingly or unwittingly affect evaluations of the CBC by those who shape its future, it will remain a weak and vulnerable organization for several reasons. I shall argue that culture building is an unattainable enterprise for a state and its agencies, the assumption that the media can have a determinative role in such a project is questionable at best and probably wrong, and, consequently, that efforts to attain these goals enmesh the CBC in a web of contradictions. I also shall argue that, on balance, recent events indicate that Canadian media policy still is shaped by conflicting and unreachable goals that also conflict with other policies, policy implementation is impeded by national and international political considerations, and the CBC is becoming a minor cog in pursuing these policies.

I first address the reasons for employing the premise that the CBC's early mission as a player in Canada's project of nation-building still shapes expectations for its goals and assessments of its accomplishments. Then, two basic assumptions behind the nation-building project and CBC's involvement in it -- that a national culture is necessary and can be built by state efforts, and that the media in general, and broadcasting in particular, can be harnessed for that purpose -- are examined, and their feasibility and consistency with each other and with other policies are considered. Finally, in light of this assessment of assumptions and policy coordination and a review of the current situation, I consider the CBC's future.

1. NATIONAL POLICIES AND THE MISSION OF THE CBC

   It is appropriate to assess the CBC and its mission in the context of broader issues of cultural and media policy because for many years Canadians have considered communication crucial for the country's unity and future. Harold Innis identified it as critical in his lifetime effort to understand Canada (cf. The Bias of Communication). More recently, B.W. Powe (1993), in expressing deep devotion to Canada, stressed the role of communication. "I perceive communication to be the value of Canada" (51) he wrote. ...I call it a communication state...The only way we can live in this country is through advanced technologies of communication (67)." The government's position has been that a country of enormous area and small population with a very large and dominating neighbour that shares the same language, religions, and practices of everyday life, depends on its means of communication and what they can provide to people to bind the country together. The need to develop and protect a Canadian culture is a major corollary. The logic is captured succinctly in a statement by then Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, quoted in the introduction to the Canadian Broadcasting Company's submission to the Federal Task Force on Broadcasting Policy, to the effect that "...cultural sovereignty is as vital to our national life as political sovereignty" (1985:5). Mulroney's speechwriter well may have seen the Royal Commission on Publications' earlier claim that" communications of a nation are as vital to its life as its defences, and should receive at least as great a measure of national protection" (quoted by...