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Gemini Award-winning reporter David Akin is the National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service and is based at the CNS Parliamentary Bureau in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
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Who pays for this blog? I receive no fees, considerations, etc. etc. for the posts on this blog nor do I have any plans to accept any. My salary is paid by Canwest Global Communications Corp. I work for that company as the Ottawa-based National Affairs Correspondent for Canwest News Service. The blog publishing platform used here is called Blogware and it's developed by Tucows Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Blogware users typically pay a monthly fee for using this platform but I do not as Tucows has kindly provided me with this platform. I may report on Tucows, its associated operations and executives, and on industry issues that may affect Tucows. I am grateful for Tucows' assistance but that's it. No favours were promised for their generosity nor do Tucows executives expect any. I hold no direct equity or stock in any company, Tucows included. If you think other disclosures are appropriate in this space, I'd like to hear from you. All of my contact details are always at www.davidakin.com You can read more about this section Login
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TV news worst when it comes to reflecting Canadian cultural diversity, report says
Today, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters released a report prepared by the Task Force for Cultural Diversity on Television. The task force examined the quantity and quality of cultural diversity
in Canadian television programming.
On the quantity side, a panel of experts looked at a broad variety of programmming and attempted to determine the number of representatives from Canada's ethnic, racial, and aboriginal minorities which appeared on certain programs. The report says that ethnic, racial and aboriginal minorities make up 15.3 per cent of Canada's population. They suggest then, that that figure is a good benchmark for broadcasters to aim for, that if 15 per cent of the on-screen individuals are from this population group, then the program is reflecting Canada's cultural diversity.
English-language TV news scored lowest against this benchmark than other kinds of television programming.
"Nine per cent of all appearances in English-language TV news is by visible minorities. However, visible minorities are more prominent than average as anchors/hosts ... 12.3 per cent of all anchors/hosts in English TV news were visible minorities . . . only 4.4 per cent of expert/guest appearances in English TV news were members of visible minorities."
The report also says that "visible minorities are somewhat more likely to be associated with arts/entertainment, accident disaster, religious and war-related stories or contexts".
The report says that in English-language TV drama, "visible minorities are somewhat more likely than non-minorities to be depicted as criminals and police or emergency officials. In an exploratory qualitative context, a slightly lower proportion of visible minorities in drama programming were portrayed as intelligent or successful and a higher proportion were protrayed as threatening."
"English language children's drama ... shows a different pattern.Visible minorities are prominent as primary characters and they were more likely to be portrayed as caring, respected and successful than non-minority characters ...""
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