Chapter 9 Chapter Overview

Whether we are talking about culture in general or media structures in particular, we can often fall into the trap of imagining that our way of doing things is the correct way; however, there is no natural or inevitable way to set up a mass communication infrastructure. The media are social institutions structured in various ways according to their technological characteristics, the resources they draw upon, and the socio-political context in which they operate. If all media organizations have something in common, it is that they participate in the economy by generating revenues for media owners, providing communication services to their audiences, advertising goods and services, and providing employment.

The chapter begins by overviewing key issues related to ownership in the Canadian mass media industries, in light of a number of factors that have impacted the industries from an economic perspective. It goes on to address the various resources needed to create media content (time, labour, technology, capital and materials) and how these resources are acquired and distributed.

While the mass media in Canada are owned both privately and publicly, all need to be cognizant of the demands of the marketplace and are subject to federal government regulations regarding ownership. The critical difference between public and private forms of media ownership, however, does boil down to their bottom lines: public ownership provides communication as a public service to address social and/or national goals, while private ownership provides communication for the profit of media owners. These distinctions are fundamental because they speak to the role communication is assigned in Canadian society. As private enterprise has encroached on more and more areas of mass communication in Canadian society, concerns have been raised over the commercialization of cultural production, conglomerate ownership of media organizations, conflicts of interest between media companies and other businesses owned by the same parent, and corporate concentration. Likewise, concerns over funding for public media such as CBC television and radio are often voiced.

Moves to democratize the media have assumed two forms: media reform, which seeks to find ways to diversify and render existing media organizations more accountable, and alternative media, that is, the establishing of new independent media outlets dedicated to serving defined communities. Both of these “solutions” bring with them economic, and ideological, implications.