1997: YEAR IN REVIEW

We like to think that the   Canadian news media provide us with substantive information about public policy issues. Indeed, most Canadians, when asked to rank newspapers, television, and radio, have indicated that television is their primary source of information about public policy. But what kinds of information do Canadians actually receive on the news? To answer this and other questions, the National Media Archive examined all stories reported on CBC's "National" and "Sunday Report" and the "CTV News" throughout 1997. We logged 3,477 stories on CBC and 5,410 stories on CTV for 1997, identified the main theme of each story, and the region or country on which the story was focused. This project is rich with data about the news stories covered, and which parts of the world receive what kind of attention. This issue of On Balance summarizes the main findings for 1997.

Political News Number 1 Topic for Both Networks

As Figure 1 shows, political news was the category most often reported on CBC and CTV. Twenty-one percent of CBC and 17 percent of CTV news stories focused on political news stories. As figure 2 shows, the most frequently reported political story on both networks was the federal election campaign (25 percent of CBC's and 27 percent of CTV's coverage of political news). The second most frequently reported political topic was the various political scandals that occurred in 1997 (14 percent of political news on both networks). The third most reported political event on CBC was the state of the government (11 percent), whereas on CTV, the third most reported story was public reaction to political events (14 percent of political news). The high number of public reaction stories on CTV is a result of a segment called "Talk Back," which features public reaction to news stories. Figure 2 breaks out the type of political news Canadians received during 1997.

Figure 2 also shows that of the political coverage, national unity comprised only 9 percent of CBC's and 8 percent of CTV's attention. This coverage did not include substantive issues about national unity, but did include the strategies and players in the national unity debate.

Governance number 2 story on CBC; number 3 story on CTV

Governance, the public policy side of the news, was the second most frequently-reported story on CBC, comprising 18 percent of the news agenda. It comprised less attention on CTV, taking up 12 percent of its news reporting, making public policy the third most reported story on the private broadcaster (figure 1).

As figure 3 illustrates, of the governance issues most reported by the networks, justice ranked first at 22 percent of CBC's and 18 percent of CTV's stories on that issue. The second most reported public policy issue was national defence at 17 percent of both networks' coverage of governance. Many of the national defence stories related to the scandals and controversies within the Canadian military—from the Somalia inquiry to Canadian troop actions in Central Africa and Bosnia. The third most reported governance issue was health care at 12 percent of CBC and 13 percent of CTV attention to public policy.

Keeping in mind that the classification of news used in this study identified only the main theme of each story, it is interesting to note that intergovernmental affairs, the policy side of the national unity debate, ranked quite low in the governance stories. It comprised only 2 percent of CBC's and 7 percent of CTV's attention to public policy. In other words, on CBC, only 13 stories gave the public policy side of the national unity issue compared with 66 stories that focused on the politics of national unity. Similarly, on CTV, 44 stories gave the policy side of national unity compared with 71 stories that gave the political side of national unity.

General human interest number 3 story on CBC, number 2 on CTV

Of the entire news agenda, the third most reported news category Canadians received on CBC national television news in 1997 was general human interest, which received 12 percent of the overall coverage (figure 1). On CTV, general human interest stories were featured more often, ranking them the second-most broadcast news item at 16 percent of CTV's entire news agenda.

Figure 4 gives the breakdown of general human interest stories. On both networks, the most frequently reported general human interest story was about the British Royal family (33 percent of CBC and 21 percent of CTV human interest stories). Of the stories about the Royal family, nearly three-quarters of CBC's (74 percent) and over two-thirds of CTV's stories (68 percent) were about Diana, Princess of Wales.

Stories about other celebrities accounted for 15 percent of CBC's and 16 percent of CTV's attention to general human interest. However, the networks differed dramatically in their focus on the rest of the general human interest stories. On CBC, illness or obituaries (13 percent), awards (13 percent), and holidays and festivals (5 percent) rounded out the 5 most frequently-reported types of general human interest story. CTV topped up its coverage of general human interest stories by including accounts of heroic acts (16 percent), and illnesses and obituaries of people in the news (12 percent).

War, conflict, and defence number 4 on CBC; number 7 on CTV

News of global unrest received different levels of attention on the national networks. It comprised 7 percent of CBC's and 5 percent of CTV's news agendas (figure 1). There were also differences in the ways in which these two networks focused on the topic. On CBC, general unrest comprised one-quarter of the stories on war and defence, followed by terrorism (20 percent), and various peace talks (16 percent). On CTV, the most frequently reported war, conflict, and defence story was terrorism (27 percent), followed by unrest (20 percent), and the repercussions of war (18 percent).

Crime number 4 on CTV; number 6 on CBC

The networks also differed slightly in their treatment of crime. On CTV, crime comprised 9 percent of the news agenda compared with 7 percent of CBC's news agenda (figure 1). As figure 6 shows, the crime most frequently reported on Canadian television news was murder. Half of CBC's (51 percent) and almost half of CTV's (46 percent) crime coverage focused on murder. Sex crimes received 14 percent of CBC's and 12 percent of CTV's crime reporting. No other single type of crime dominated the news, although gangs received 7 percent of CBC's coverage of crime, and assault received 6 percent of CTV's crime reports. All other types of crime accounted for less than 5 percent of crime news coverage.

This finding is noteworthy because violent crime is decreasing in Canada, while vehicle thefts are increasing. According to Statistics Canada, violent crime went down by 2.2 percent from 1995 to 1996. In the same time period, motor vehicle theft increased by 9 percent. The only other crime to increase was drug-related crime, which increased 4 percent over the same time. Put another way, there were 633 homicides committed in Canada in 1996, and 115 CBC and 220 CTV reports on murder. In contrast, there were 1,059,351 thefts in the country in that year, but only 3 CBC and 20 CTV reports on robberies and thefts. Clearly, television news would be tedious if it reported every break-in and car theft. However, the fact that television reports violent crimes proportionately much more than the run-of-the-mill daily crime occurrences illustrates how it can influence our views about risk and the real world.

Economy number 5 on both networks

As figure 1 illustrates, the networks each paid the same proportion of their attention to economic issues during 1997 (7 percent of their news agenda).

However, there were significant differences between the networks in the type of economic story reported. As figure 7 demonstrates, consumer reporting comprised 21 percent of CTV's coverage. Almost half of these stories (45 percent) involved consumer issues reported by consumer advocate Dale Goldhawk. The remaining consumer issues were reports of product recalls and product safety issues. In contrast, consumer reports comprised only 4 percent of CBC's attention to economic issues. CTV's second most frequently reported economic topic was prosperous businesses at 12 percent of attention to economic issues, followed by private sector labour disputes (9 percent).

On CBC, the focus of the economic stories was decidedly different. Stories about the stock exchange received 11 percent of the economic news coverage. This was followed by stories about Bre-X (10.0 percent of the economic news agenda). On CTV, Bre-X comprised 6 percent of economic news stories. Private sector labour disputes were the number three economic news story on CBC (9.6 percent of economic news stories).

Conclusion

This review of the news agenda for 1997 shows a number of things about CBC and CTV coverage that dispel popular opinion about contemporary journalism. First, while the public may rely and trust television news to provide them with information about public policy, Canadian television news focuses a relatively small proportion of its news agenda on substantive public policy issues. Governance issues—the public policy side of government—were the second most reported issue type on CBC, and the third most reported issue type on CTV. Political coverage, that is, news focusing on the nation's leaders and their strategies and tactics, comprised the primary news agenda item for both networks at 21 percent of CBC and 18 percent of CTV's entire news agenda.

Second, the networks differed quite a bit in the focus of their attention. Opinions about what rates as newsworthy seem to differ quite substantially between the two networks. CBC was more likely than CTV to examine the public policy side of the news in its reports on governance. For its part, CTV, with its frequent stories on general human interest, was more likely to focus on the trivial side of the news than on public policy.

Finally, television news has often been criticized for being overly concerned with violence, death, and war. This analysis of Canadian national television news shows clearly that not all of the news reported in 1997 was bad news. Reports on war, conflict, and defence comprised 7 percent of CBC's and 5 percent of CTV's total news agenda for 1997. Although murder stories were the most frequently reported crime report in 1997, overall crime reporting comprised only 7 percent of CBC and 9 percent of CTV's total news agenda.

Footnotes

• There are fewer stories on CBC than on CTV because CTV averages 15 stories per newscast, whereas the news portion of CBC averages 11 stories per newscast.  
  
• Statistics Canada, The Daily, July 30, 1997.  

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