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Business & Economics Media & Communications Industries

The Public Eye

Television and the Politics of Canadian Broadcasting, 1952-1968

by (author) Frank Peers

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Dec 2009
Category
Media & Communications Industries, General, Media Studies, Telecommunications
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442613164
    Publish Date
    Mar 1979
    List Price
    $42.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442664814
    Publish Date
    Dec 2009
    List Price
    $54.00

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Description

This book traces the development of the broadcasting system in Canada from the inception of television in 1952 to the passing of the Broadcast Act of 1968, focusing on the policy decisions made by governments and broadcasting authorities and the circumstances under which they were made. Several public investigations of the system and its performance took place during television's first sixteen years in Canada and their aims and outcomes form an important part of the story.

 

The book deals with the relationships between the CBC, the private broadcasters, government, and the regulatory authority, and also with events that affected the perceptions of politicians and the public - the French network strike in 1959, the Preview Commentary affair of the same year, and the controversies surrounding the CBC program 'This Hour Has Seven Days' in 1965-6. Among those who figure prominently are A. Davidson Dunton and Alphonse Ouimet of the CBC; T.J. Allard and Don Jamieson of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters; Robert Fowler, chairman of two public inquiries into broadcasting; Andrew Stewart, chairman of the Board of Broadcast Governors; and Graham Spry, organizer of the Canadian Broadcasting League. The government officials involved include Prime Ministers Louis St Laurent, John Diefenbaker, and Lester B. Pearson, and ministers J.J. McCann, Goerge Nowlan, Jack Pickersgill, Maurice Lamontagne, and Judy LaMarsh.

 

Frank Peers has unearthed a remarkable quantity of new material – from government documents, CBC records, interviews with key figures, and the records and manuscripts of a number of principals – and woven it into a fascinating and authoritative account of the state's involvement in broadcasting during these troubled and changeful years.

About the author

Frank W. Peers was educated at the University of Alberta and the University of Toronto where he received a PH.D. Until 1963 he worked at the CBC as a producer, program organizer, and supervisor of public affairs programs in radio and television.

Frank Peers' profile page