Journalism and Political Exclusion: Social Conditions of News Production and Reception by Debra M. Clarke (review)

The heart of this book, and what distinguishes it, is the research the author conducted ‘in a medium-sized central Canadian city’ (p. 135) on how audiences in Canada respond to television news broadcasts and other journalistic sources of information. The fieldwork involved household interviews, news diaries, and questionnaires. The results suggest that for many viewers across class, age, and gender boundaries, television news does not offer enough in-depth information about Canada and the world beyond, is too focused on daily events and too dependent on official sources; furthermore, the working class is seriously under-represented. Paradoxically, however, most of Clarke’s interviewees felt themselves to be reasonably well informed by the news sources available to them! This finding she describes as ‘unanticipated’ (p. 180). And she puts it down to ‘an ultimate conformity with the hegemonic cycles of daily news production and reception’ (p. 181).

As that comment indicates, Clarke does not have a high regard for the current contribution of broadcasting and the press in Canada to stimulating informed democratic participation. Nor does she believe that the news available on the internet remedies the deficiency, not least because much of that news is ultimately derived from the same traditional sources. Clarke takes the view that scholars like herself should ‘explore questions such as how and why contemporary journalism fails to enlighten the impoverished and the oppressed’ (p. 172). Potential readers need to know that the book is clearly focused on this issue, which might put off those who prefer a less overtly committed approach. But that would be unfortunate, for much of the book summarises and discusses in lucid fashion the work that has been done by scholars in the last several decades to deconstruct the processes of news production in relation to professional practices and the constraints of ownership in a commercially driven world. Furthermore, the book usefully charts – in depressing detail – the consequences of consolidation and contraction in the Canadian news market.

Unfortunately, Clarke is on somewhat shakier ground when she ventures across the Atlantic, at one point citing research which purports to show that ‘highly commercialised systems display a soft news focus that renders American and British citizens less politically informed than those who reside in nations with strong public service broadcasting systems’ (p. 165; emphasis added). The BBC, Channel 4, and ITN have their faults, but can the argument cited here really be sustained? And notwithstanding the apparent hostility of the current Conservative government to the BBC and the clear desire in parts of that government to privatise Channel 4, does the UK not still retain a strong public service broadcasting system?

So, in the end this book is interesting and stimulating when firmly located on its home ground but when it ventures further afield it may not be entirely reliable.