The academic and former journalist Marc Edge discusses his new book, The News We Deserve: The Transformation of Canada’s Media Landscape (New Star Books, 2016), with Joseph Planta.

The News We Deserve: The Transformation of Canada’s Media Landscape by Marc Edge (New Star Books, 2016). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The News We Deserve

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Marc Edge joins me again. He’s just published a new book, The News We Deserve: The Transformation of Canada’s Media Landscape. In this engaging book, Marc chronicles how we’ve gotten to where we are with our media in Canada today. We’ve seen radical changes in the media today as opposed to how it was five years ago, let alone ten or 25 years ago. Marc looks at the people and policies that have brought us here, whether it was mergers, swaps, the influence on governments to change regulations, to colourful figures who ambitiously set out to reshape the media in their own image, how we got here is a good way to see where we’re headed. And by virtue of the title of the book, it’ll be a good chance to see what sort of media we ought to have. I’ll ask Marc about whether we can, and how we can get to a media landscape that is diverse and independent. I’ll also ask Marc about the role government can play, and whether that role should be bigger than it is. Marc Edge is a former reporter and editor. He’s been on this program before for his books Greatly Exaggerated: The Myth of the Death of Newspapers, and Asper Nation: Canada’s Most Dangerous Media Company. His first book was Pacific Press: The Unauthorized Story of Vancouver’s Newspaper Monopoly, a great history of the media in this town. He has taught in journalism and communications departments around the world. The website for more is at www.marcedge.com. This new book is published by New Star Books. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Marc Edge; Dr. Edge, good morning.

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