New Media Environment Needs New Media Rules

PRESS RELEASE

Campaign for Democratic Media advises CRTC on new media broadcasting

Vancouver, July 14, 2008:

On Friday, the Campaign for Democratic Media (CDM) submitted comments to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) about what issues need to be addressed in the new media broadcasting environment. The submission emphasizes that all Canadians are stakeholders in the creation and distribution of new media programming and that their democratic interests are of paramount importance when creating new regulations for the sector. The CDM submission will be considered as the CRTC decides what issues need to be addressed in a public hearing on new media broadcasting in early 2009.


The CRTC review is timely given the increasingly important role of new media to Canadians. "New media broadcasting is important in two ways: it expands opportunities for people to participate actively in cultural and social life, and it gives Canadians access to more information and greater diversity of opinions on matters of public concern", says Michael Lithgow, CDM Research Associate and long time media activist. Given the importance of new media to Canadians, one focal point of the submission is the need for regulations guaranteeing net neutrality: equitable and indiscriminate internet access. This issue cannot be considered separately from new media broadcasting; net neutrality is how and why new media broadcasting has come to play such an important role in allowing Canadians access to new Canadian-made electronic cultural products. CDM has been an advocate for government regulation ensuring equitable online access for all Canadian consumers.


"Questions of access are particularly relevant to the proceeding,” confirms Leslie Regan Shade, CDM Research Associate and Associate Professor of Communication at Concordia University. "Despite a decade of programs and policies by the federal and provincial governments, there are many barriers to accessing new media for many Canadians. ‘Digital divides’ are still an unfortunate reality, based on geography (rural, remote, inner-city), ability, class, age, gender, and ethnicity".


Another major challenge for the CRTC is the very definition of new media broadcasting itself. As David Skinner, CDM Research Associate and Associate Professor in York University's Communication Program explains, "given both the range of content and services available via various Internet venues (websites, video sharing facilities, blogs, podcasts, music downloading services, photo sharing sites, mobile applications, etc.) and the speed of innovation since the 1999 CRTC New Media Decision, it would seem imperative that the definition of “new media broadcasting” be kept as broad as possible."


Overall, CDM National Coordinator Steve Anderson is pleased by the consultation process: "The Campaign for Democratic Media is appreciative that the CRTC is taking new media seriously, and we look forward to contributing to the development of policy in the public interest".


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Contact:

Steve Anderson
National Coordinator,
Campaign For Democratic Media
[email protected]
Phone:(604) 837-5730

Campaign for Democratic Media! is a national, non-profit, non-partisan media reform network working to increase informed public participation in Canadian media policy formation. They strive to generate policies that will produce a more competitive diverse, and public service-oriented, media system with a strong non-profit and non-commercial sector.