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The CBC was pressured to defend its plans for branded content material on its digital platforms Friday because the CRTC peppered senior executives of the general public broadcaster with questions in regards to the controversial resolution at a broadcast licensing listening to Friday.
CBC’s new advertising and marketing division known as Tandem, which creates branded marketing campaign content material for company purchasers, has sparked criticism, together with denunciations, an open letter and a petition from plenty of stakeholders, together with former and present CBC journalists.
They fear that the paid content material blurs the strains between promoting and information and will erode the integrity of CBC journalism.
In November greater than 70 former CBC workers despatched a letter to Canada’s broadcast regulator asking it to research Tandem. The CRTC is at present holding hearings into CBC’s utility to renew its numerous broadcast licences for its English and French companies.
During Friday’s hearings, CRTC Quebec commissioner Alicia Barin requested the company how the Tandem initiative aligns with the broadcaster’s public service programming mandate to not be unduly influenced by the manufacturers with which it companions.
“The concerns that have been expressed very publicly are about the risk of CBC’s journalistic reputation being compromised by even participating in branded content,” Barin mentioned. “So can you please respond to those concerns?”
CBC President Catherine Tait advised the commissioners that the community shares these issues, however mentioned that the Tandem initiative has nothing to do with the underlying journalism and different content material that the broadcaster produces.
‘Guardrails’ in place
Tait mentioned she believes a lot of these issues had been expressed previous to the CBC placing what she known as “guardrails” in place that she mentioned would guarantee there isn’t a confusion between CBC journalism and business promoting.
“Now that we have very, very clear guidelines that are going well beyond anybody in the industry, let’s see how it goes and let’s monitor it,” Tait mentioned.
Some of these pointers, which had been launched after issues had been raised about Tandem, embody:
- Restricting branded content material to digital platforms
- Ensuring no CBC/Radio-Canada journalists or hosts shall be concerned within the creation of branded content material.
- Ensuring branded content material won’t seem on nationwide information digital pages.
The CBC has confused that initiatives like Tandem are wanted to generate income amid massive monetary pressures.
Still, Barin pressed the CBC on how the Tandem initiative complies with one of many ideas of the broadcaster’s Journalistic Standards and Practices, which states it can’t commercially exploit the model of the company’s data programming.
Users are subtle, govt says
Barbara Williams, CBC’s govt vice-president of English companies, mentioned the CBC has to make it very clear that the content material is promoting “so that you are not commercially exploiting the content, you are selling the advertising, and you must be very clear about the two.”
“We do understand that viewers and users and listeners are sophisticated. They have seen this kind of content across many, many organizations,” Williams mentioned. “When we make it clear, they understand the difference and they’re not confused. And therefore we have not exploited commercially the content.“
Tait additionally defined that the CBC has been utilizing branded content material since 2016-17. Barin requested why she believed it hadn’t been observed earlier than or made a problem previously.
Tait mentioned she believed that the launch of the identify Tandem and “possibly some particular campaigns that caused concern among some of our own employees” had been what provoked the response.
On Thursday, the CBC is defending its efforts to diversify its workforce and re-think its total strategy to masking information and present affairs to make it extra inclusive.
The CRTC consultations on CBC licensing will proceed by means of January. The CRTC will hear from people, business and advocacy teams. The CBC may have a chance to answer to these submissions on the ultimate day of hearings.
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