S2E07 - PUBLIC BROADCASTING AND THE BIAS OF COMMUNICATION - David Cayley

Canadian historian Harold Innis devoted the years before his death in 1952 to the question of communication–its bias, its relationship with empire, its capacity to foster thought styles so dominant as to entrain "all minds and set them running in predetermined 'grooves.'"

Those last words belong not to Innis but to David Cayley. Cayley is a writer and broadcaster, whose decades of work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation–the CBC–ranged in subject matter from history and philosophy to criminology and current affairs. On CBC Ideas, his voice and style were instantly recognizable.

Drawing on that background, David Cayley’s newest book is called The CBC: How Canada’s Public Broadcaster Lost Its Voice (And How to Get It Back). In it, Cayley pushes his reader to develop the recognition, humility and humour that he thinks might constitute "the first step to a responsible practice of media." 

This episode draws on passages from the following CBC Ideas series produced by Cayley:

• The Legacy of Harold Innis
• Turning Points in Public Broadcasting: The CBC at 50
• The Origins of the Modern Public

Music for this episode from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Uppbeat⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. License code: 2CWHTEVPITF6KWEO.