From Public Interest To Creators’ Interest: An Examination Of The Policy Discourse Shifts in Canadian Broadcasting: 2003-2007

Abstract

This thesis investigates the policy discourse shifts in Canadian broadcasting that occurred between 2003 and 2017 by examining two government consultation processes about Canadian broadcasting in the digital age: the 2003 “Our Cultural Sovereignty: The Second Century of Canadian Broadcasting” report, and the 2017 Canadian Content in a Digital World consultations. These two consultation processes are compared through a policy document analysis, analyzing government policy documents and stakeholders’ submissions to the consultations. Through this analysis, it was found that, although both reports stressed the necessity of policy reform, three key shifts in the policy discourse were identified: a shift from distinctly Canadian to internationally viable, a shift from cultural good to economic good, and a shift from public interest to creators’ interest. Because of these shifts, although these reports addressed similar problems about broadcasting in the digital age, the reports had considerably different outcomes regarding their policy recommendations