Canada Lives Here: The Case for Public Broadcasting

Rowland, a veteran journalist who has held senior positions in CBC's management and news production, offers his deep insight into the tumultuous journey of Canada's public broadcaster and how new technologies and dwindling funding have brought the CBC to its current perilous state. Since the 1936 inception of the CBC, it has been mandated to educate, inform, entertain, ensure Canadian cultural sovereignty, and promote a "Canadian identity" through Canadian content programming, deemed vital if the country was not to be entirely culturally dominated by the U.S. Rowland outlines why fulfilling that mandate has been next to impossible, due to a lack of stable funding and subjection to the whims of successive governments' interpretation of the role and value of public broadcasting in Canada. For the past 20 years, as subsidies to private, commercial broadcasters have grown, funding to the CBC has stagnated. He writes that direct political interference in content and programming decisions and contract negotiations has signaled what may be the last breath for CBC, though a change in government may offer some hope. Rowland's book persuasively argues that Canada's most important cultural institution must survive, and offers fresh ideas and strategies to make that possible. (Aug.)