{"id":9360,"date":"2003-02-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-02-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/irpp.org\/research-studies\/canadas-democratic-malaise\/"},"modified":"2017-12-04T13:14:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T18:14:21","slug":"canadas-democratic-malaise","status":"publish","type":"research-studies","link":"https:\/\/irpp.org\/fr\/research-studies\/canadas-democratic-malaise\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada’s Democratic Malaise"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A number of authors maintain that a connection exists between media coverage of politics and a declining level\u00a0of trust in politicians and political institutions. However, a review of the literature on this issue gives rise to mixed conclusions. Although it is dif- ficult to establish a direct link between media cov- erage of politics and increasing cynicism in Canada and elsewhere, an exploration of this issue nonetheless highlights the widening gap between a certain concept of what constitutes the ideal way to cover politics and the forms of political jour- nalism that currently exist.<\/p>\n

Political journalists are widely criticized. They are accused of exaggerating the negative aspects of the facts, usurping the role of elected officials by giving themselves excessive visibility, redirecting voters’ attention towards secondary issues, pre- senting abridged information on the issues and cheapening the image of politics by placing pri- mary emphasis on partisan conflict.<\/p>\n

Various reasons are cited to explain political journalism’s apparent drift. The conditions under which political journalism is practised are called into question. The lack of resources and pressure from employers concerned about profitability may lead journalists to produce stereotyped, superficial and sensationalistic political coverage. Such trends have worsened over the past few years, due to increased media concentration and the weakening of public television in several coun- tries, including Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The solutions proposed in this study are based on an assessment that is neither totally positive nor totally negative. Three avenues are explored. First of all, we believe that journalists must pro- mote more meaningful contact between elected officials and voters. To accomplish this, they must remain vigilant but learn to become less omnipresent. They must also revive the tradition of investigative journalism and stop limiting themselves to a single interpretation of political issues based on partisan conflict. We also believe that the concentration of Canadian media owner- ships makes it increasingly difficult to air in- depth, varied political perspectives, and recom- mend that there be a wide-ranging debate on this issue. Lastly, we deplore the fact that the public service news tradition in Canada is being eroded. We believe that increased, stable funding of this public service, with no political strings attached, would be a highly profitable civic investment. We therefore conclude that a serious return to the pub- lic service news tradition would serve well the requirements of Canadian democracy.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A number of authors maintain that a connection exists between media coverage of politics and a declining level\u00a0of trust in politicians and political institutions. However, a review of the literature on this issue gives rise to mixed conclusions. Although it is dif- ficult to establish a direct link between media cov- erage of politics and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9360","research-studies","type-research-studies","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n