CRTC PUSHES DIVERSITY STRATEGIES Broadcasters must file annual reports - Multiculturalism a growing niche Sharda Prashad – Toronto Star The federal broadcast regulator has rejected a task force's recommendation to stop requiring private broadcasters to file cultural diversity strategies, saying annual reporting will guarantee accountability.
"(The task force) confirmed that there were serious problems with under-representation of visible minorities and aboriginals on television," said Martine Vallee, director of social policy for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The CRTC-sponsored Task Force for Cultural Diversity on Television, made up of industry and non-industry members, found that visible minorities and aboriginal people represent just 9 per cent of all people in English-language news programs that it studied and 13.5 per cent of people in drama roles.
"We believe annual reporting means there will be accountability," Vallee said at an Ethnicity and Media in Canada conference in Toronto yesterday.
Madeline Ziniak, vice-president of Omni Television and chair of the task force, said the task force recommended the CRTC require broadcasters to follow best practices, which would have made the annual filings redundant.
Of her own station, Ziniak said Omni has done "a trailblazing job" in its ability to share best practices with other private broadcasters. Omni I and Omni II broadcasts, respectively, in 60 per cent and 70 per cent non-English languages. For example, it has worked with the APTN, Aboriginal People's Television Network.
"There has been a huge attitude shift," said Ziniak, regarding building relationships with advertisers. "Nineteen years ago (when Ziniak started at Omni), it was militant, just to get in the door."
Omni "lives and dies by advertising" and Ziniak has found that advertisers are "getting educated about the potential and how important a niche (multiculturalism) is. They are now realizing that it's better to get involved sooner rather than later."
Wal-Mart is one of the station's largest advertisers. Automotive and banking and financial services advertisers are new and growing.
Andrew Cardozo, former commissioner of the CRTC from 1997 to 2003, said that in order to get audience acceptance, viewers need to see themselves reflected in programming.
"Look at shows like ER and CSI," he said. "They all have leading minorities. ... The U.S. reflects the population better in terms of drama."
He worries that Canadian broadcasters may lose some of their ethnic viewers if foreign-owned stations like Al Jazeera or Italy's RAI, which have applied to the CRTC to broadcast in Canada, are better able to cater to the country's changing demographic.
With visible minorities representing almost one half of Toronto's population, it makes business sense to advertise to them, said Cardozo, whether it's on mainstream media or on ethnic language stations. A 2004 report by the Conference Board of Canada said that 20 per cent of Canadian employees will be from non-European backgrounds, the task force report found. The report also found that the combined spending of the Chinese, Portuguese and South Asian communities in the GTA is $25 billion.
"It is imperative, from both a business and journalistic perspective, that we recognize and act on the changing demographics of the communities we serve," Michael Goldbloom, publisher of the Toronto Star told the audience yesterday.
He also noted that while traditionally the first generations of immigrants were not targeted as potential readers, this has changed. "This perception is outdated because many new arrivals speak English, many new arrivals are highly educated and many new arrivals bring with them a newspaper reading habit."
Goldbloom said this presents two challenges to the media. "We must provide content that reflects the changing reality of the city and which captures the true texture and complexity of people's lives. Secondly, we must reflect the diversity of the population in our workforce."
Initiatives like the Star's Vaughan Press Centre and its Community Editorial Board are attempts to reach out to the diverse community the Star serves.
The Star, he said, is also looking at ways to integrate its foreign coverage with that of local ethnic communities.
"There's no such thing as perfect inclusion," Cynthia Reyes of consultant DiversiPro Inc. said.
She recommended media organizations encourage communities to contribute story ideas, write editorials and letters to the editor.
Reyes said decision-makers in media need to be more aware of their audiences. |