The Contributions of Government to the Media Environment in Canada Essay

The Contributions of Government to the Media Environment in Canada - Essay Example In this manner, the news media decide not only how events are presented, but also how these events become applicable to the community. Currently, the media business is in a state of turmoil. The Internet, for example, is revolutionizing the way distributed network communication works and has been, at times, disruptive to news media’s traditional content. Stakeholders involved in shaping the media environment are ground level journalists who capture and narrate local and international stories, media owners who work on production and the financial aspects of news-making. In the public sector is the government who is responsible for using media to build peaceful social communities. This section discusses the roles that these stakeholders play in Canada’s media environment. In Canada, the federal and provincial governments have turned to mass media to assist develop and convey a sense of harmony and identity to join together a large and disparate nation. As the society has become more complex, media have played a larger role in carrying political information, opinions, and values to the population. The importance of media to policymaking has grown over the last century. For instance, over the years, the Canadian government has enacted measures to support fragmented cultural industries. The public broadcaster, the CBC, was founded in 1936 to deliver a national broadcasting service and has been the key broadcaster of budget and program development. However, public broadcasting, which traditionally has played a pivotal role in Canadian media, has been weakened to the point where regional concerns are virtually disregarded and its national future is in question.