About Reimagine CBC
What does the CBC think about all this? | Who's running Reimagine CBC?
What is this all about?
We can all feel the world changing, and we can see traditional media struggling to respond to the crisis and opportunity of our times. As digital technology is breaking old business models, it is also enabling new forms of participation in our culture, economy and governance. Perhaps most importantly, it’s connecting Canadians as never before.
Given the dramatic economic and social changes that are now unfolding before us, we need informed, engaged citizens who can seize opportunities and confidently react to challenges.
Public media organizations have a mandate to serve citizens, and this puts them in a unique position to add value and opportunity in this period of change. The CBC is in the process of conducting a major strategic review both internally and through outside regulators. The question is, who will shape the CBC of the future? We think you should. We’ll bring the best ideas to the CBC, and together we’ll work with decision-makers to turn your ideas into reality.
There is so much creativity and intelligence in Canada. We’re excited to see all the ideas, and curious to know which you think are the best.
Now is the time to confront the challenges we face, celebrate what we have, and create the future together. Now is the time to re-imagine the CBC.
Why Reimagine?
Informed Citizenry
Public media is good for democracy. Research shows that citizens of countries with well-funded public media are more engaged and better informed of the pressing issues facing their country than people who live in a media market dominated by big commercial media outlets.
Given the dramatic economic and social changes that are now unfolding before us, we need informed, engaged citizens who can seize opportunities and react confidently to the challenges we face.
Digital Deficit
Canada has a digital deficit. We’re falling behind other countries in essential areas of our digital economy: Our Internet is slower and more restricted, both mobile and wired access to the web are more expensive, and much of our content is beholden to a handful of huge media conglomerates. In short, Canada is lagging in the four key areas of our digital economy (speed, openness, affordability, content). If left unchecked, the digital deficit will be bad for our economy, bad for innovation, and just plain bad for our country.
When it comes to content, we’ll need to find new and inventive ways to support our content creators. The CBC is in a unique position to help overcome our digital deficit, and put Canada back on the map as a leader. We know, thanks to a recent report, that for every dollar invested in the CBC, the economy gets $4 back. What’s more, the CBC is the only major media network that is independent from the big phone and cable companies. And since the CBC receives public funding to meet its social mandate, we have a much greater opportunity to influence it.
Encouraging the CBC to invest more in digital services is the best way to overcome the content element of our digital deficit. Not only is the CBC an effective and ready source of support for digital content, it's also a source that avoids many of the pitfalls (like price increases) associated with other mechanisms to support content put forward recently. (like putting a levy on online innovators, Internet Service Providers, or media devices.)
If we want a dynamic, fair, globally competitive and secure 21st century society, we need to get serious about overcoming our digital deficit.
History
As a publicly funded organization with a strong social mandate, the CBC played a lead role in the development of broadcasting in Canada. Now it has a unique opportunity to pioneer beyond the broadcast model into the new digital media ecology.
What came out of this process?
Through this project, 36,479 people signed an online petition opposing severe cuts to the CBC. 496 ideas were submitted by the public and rated in our online Ideas Forum, which ran from January 24th to April 16th, 2012. Over 1500 people attended our “Reimagine CBC Celebration” on May 7th, either in-person in Vancouver or online. And an impressive 10,940 people participated in our public survey, created from the top-ranked ideas from the Ideas Forum.
Together, the ReimagineCBC.ca community has crafted a clear vision for the future of the CBC. We want a CBC that is courageous enough to take on powerful interests, with uniquely Canadian content that includes the best from community media. We want CBC to play to its strengths by supporting radio, and bringing the best of its past and present online for everyone to see. Read and share this vision now – finding solutions is only half the challenge...building lasting and engaged support for those solutions is the other crucial piece.
What did we hope to achieve?
- Ignite a national conversation to reimagine the role of public media in the age of participation.
- Develop a crowd-sourced plan to enable the CBC to take on a leadership position in the digital era.
- Enable the CBC to delve deeper into exploring online tools and web-inspired practices for collaboration, civic engagement, conversation, innovation and new forms of storytelling.
What does the CBC think about this?
The CBC was not affiliated with our campaign nor did they formally endorse it. We sent a letter to CEO Hubert Lacroix, and got an encouraging response. We were also invited to present our findings at the Canadian Media Guild, the union of CBC employees.
Who ran Reimagine CBC?
Reimagine CBC was a project of OpenMedia.ca and Leadnow with support from a community of people and organizations.
OpenMedia.ca is a grassroots organization that safeguards the possibilities of the Internet. We empower people to participate in Internet governance through fresh & engaging citizens’ campaigns. We’re known for co-ordinating Stop The Meter, the largest online campaign in Canadian history, involving nearly half-a-million people. We’ve proven that the pro-Internet community can come together and make change. More at http://openmedia.ca/
Leadnow is an independent community that brings generations of Canadians together for progress through democracy. We’re focused on equality, deep democracy and climate justice. Leadnow was founded in 2010 by a group of young people who care about a wide range of issues and wanted to create a new way for people to participate effectively in our democracy. More at http://leadnow.ca/
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