Citizenship - "Wandering Between Two Worlds"

I’m a citizen attempting to discover methods and models of empowerment within my community. Unlike many, I have a great respect for the place of politics in the shaping of the national character and its ability for change through effective legislation and economic innovation. I believe the true power of citizenship has never been fully addressed or tapped and that the present breakdown of political patterns and archaic thinking presents unique opportunities for the rediscovery of public life.But for all that, I need information – lots of it. Like many of you, I attempt a fair bit of personal research to add context and understanding to my daily life. Yet for a lot of input I also need the media, and that’s where some difficulties present themselves. For the last 30 years I’ve known plenty of journalists, editors and television personalities, both on the national and local scene, and I’ve detected for some time their frustration with the dysfunction within the media system itself.I found it ironic in Ottawa that, while much of the media focus on the political order related to its partisanship, lack of effectiveness, and concentration of power in a few hands, these same traits were mirrored in the media establishment itself. Writer Lawrence Martin detected some of it back in 2005 when he wrote: “The conservative media tend to favour a clear embrace of the United States and its values. Canadians themselves show little inclination to go that route. It is a storyline – the press versus the people – that runs right to the heart of the debate over the future of our country and to the heart of politics.”Some in the media continue to mock Parliament and the inability of MPs to act more independently because of the party system of discipline, yet I’ve spoken to countless media types who chafe under similar restrictions. As well-know journalist Geoffrey Stevens puts it: “Media ownership is more concentrated in Canada than in any other western country – and our laws to protect the public interest from excessive media power are the weakest anywhere.” He goes on to add: “What use are 100 voices if they are all saying the same thing, promoting the same values, advocating the same policies?”We’ve all watched or read of Rupert Murdoch’s publishing free-fall in England and cringed at the sheer reach of his power and its effects on the lives of average people, including politicians. The ramifications will go on for years. From everything I have witnessed, Canada is in no such precarious position. There are media monopolies in this country and in the end we might discover they represent a kind of “collusion threat” to the public interest, but we are not there yet. Yet I never met a politician in Ottawa or a citizen in London that agreed with the present concentration of media power in such few hands. Today there are very few independent operations of any size left. And keep in mind that Parliament produced major papers on this subject, including the Davey Report the Kent Commission, and the 2006 Senate study on the dangers of the accumulation of media power in to few hands. It’s not new, but it’s not being dealt with.My respect for the media aside, no Canadian citizen desiring to engage in public life can simply downplay the problems this brings to democracy. As Kim Keirans, director of the School of Journalism at King’s College in Halifax, prophetically puts it about Canada’s media landscape: “Public dialogue is taking a back seat to a profit-driven business model.” For private citizens and honourable journalists committed to public engagement, this should be of serious concern.There will be more on media’s effect on citizenship in future summer posts, but we should state firmly that Canada is blessed with many fine and dedicated media representatives; I know many of them and can say this with conviction. But at times, because of the conditions in which they presently function, they remind me of Matthew Arnold’s poem of struggling souls in Stanzas From the Grande Chartreuse: “Wandering between two worlds, one dead, the other waiting to be born.” The old political and journalistic orders are clearly passing and the concentration of power in both realms is stifling the new life from arising. To ultimately succeed, the committed journalist and the engaged citizen will both have to cooperate in “truth telling” and that will take some courage.You might have read Vancouver Courier writer Sandra Thomas’s retort to the refreshing 3,000-word blog put out by the young and retiring CTV reporter Kai Nagata. It was saddening in part because his profound outlook found a ready audience and didn’t merit such a dismissive response, but also because, whether or not she was correct, Nagata’s outlook is the perception of the modern media held by most citizens and is therefore a pressing reality that media must deal with. Nagata’s insights might well prove beneficial to media folks seeking a new accountability and change, but Thomas's response and defense of the present reality is much like the blind partisans in Parliament stifling the undercurrents of democratic change. We all have to do better.