National Research into Role of Public Media in Canada, Announced by McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy

September 25, 2023

The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy is delighted to announce the appointment of Jessica Johnson as a Senior Fellow. Johnson, formerly Editor-In-Chief of The Walrus, will lead a national research project to explore the role of public media in Canada. 

The project takes place within a charged news ecosystem that has seen audiences turn to a widening range of sources and channels for information against a backdrop of growing concern about the polarization of information ecosystems, and increased government policy activity to support journalism, as well as transformational shake-ups like the removal of Canadian news from the biggest tech platforms. 

This media climate has also intensified an already fervent debate about the necessity of publicly-funded media in Canada, leading to a growing focus on where we get our news, what constitutes news, and by extension, what news should be. In response, Johnson and a network of experts invited from across Canada and elsewhere will explore not just the current landscape of publicly-funded journalism but its underpinning values to question: “What should the CBC be?”

The project will engage industry experts and civil society as well as solicit comprehensive public opinion in partnership with the University of Toronto’s Policy, Elections, and Representation Lab (PEARL) in a bid to explore what people really want and need from publicly-funded media. Over the next year, the team will conduct interviews with a broad range of experts in public service, media, and academia, and engage Canadians in a fulsome survey with the aim of sharing findings to bolster the state of our media ecosystem. 

“Concern about the state of Canadian media, including the declining number of outlets and journalists, has been well established by audiences, government, and within the media itself in recent years,” says Jessica Johnson, Senior Fellow at the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy. “We’re all worried about the information climate and the future. But most solutions thus far have focused on preserving what we already have. It’s time to bring this discussion back to the most important question: What is the media for, and for whom? And to put the concerns and priorities of audiences at the heart of the solution,” adds Johnson. 

“Nearly ninety years after the inception of CBC/Radio-Canada, the need for reliable information has never been more important, and at the same time the mandate of our public broadcaster has never been more scrutinized. The health of information ecosystems and our democracy are inextricably linked, and there is a growing need to examine and perhaps even re-imagine the role that CBC/Radio-Canada play in our news ecosystem and our country,” says Taylor Owen, the Beaverbrook Chair in Media, Ethics and Communications and the founding Director of The Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy at McGill University.