Date of Award

2007

Publication Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Communication Studies

Supervisor

Valerie Scatamburlo-D' Annibale

Rights

info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Abstract

Although new media have the potential to improve some of the chronic problems of Canada's media system, the political economy of communication demonstrates that under so-called "free market" conditions, it is often large media conglomerates that benefit the most. This thesis investigates how a new media policy arrangement that is favourable to traditional broadcasting and telecommunications interests is justified and framed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), and how alternatives, including new media for an improved public sphere, are marginalized from the debate. A Critical Discourse Analysis was performed on policy texts relevant to two case studies--the CRTC's 1999 "new media" decision and the 2005 licensing of satellite radio. The results illustrate how consent for a "hands-off' regulatory approach, one that functions in the interests of transnational media conglomerates, is constructed within the hegemonic discourses and myths of neoliberal ideology.

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