Canadian Newspaper Ownership in the Era of Convergence

Extract

Canadian Newspaper Ownership in the Era of Convergence, Walter C. Soderlund and Kai Hildebrandt, Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta, 2005, pp. 194.

This timely book contributes to ongoing debates in Canada about media ownership. The opening chapters summarize government responses to concentrated media ownership since the 1970s and survey some academic studies on the issue. The study's carefully compiled data on the influence of changes in ownership on content poses a strong challenge to those who see media moguls as using the media to pursue their own ideological and corporate agendas. Journalistic values, organizational realities and the relentless challenge of new technologies severely constrain such action, claim Soderlund, Hildebrandt and two others who contribute to this volume, Ron Wagenberg and Walt Romanow. Perhaps the best chapters in the book are those dealing with the creation by CanWest, one of Canada's largest media organizations, of its ill-fated National Editorial Policy and the dismissal of Ottawa Citizen publisher Russell Mills.