PCC's Academic Purpose
Thanks to funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), PCC has a scholarly as well as public function. PCC has undertaken to conduct a systematic 'negative content analysis' (a systematic review of what isn't part of the news) of Canada's national news media. From this analysis we hope to generate empirical data with which to assess the merits of various approaches already used to study news.
Studies of news media often focus on issues of bias and selective reporting. Most work in this area identifies various pressures and limits (economic, political, organizational, subcultural) that influence the selection of some stories over others and shape how these stories are presented. By contrast, PCC approaches questions of bias and selective reporting from the standpoint of the perceptions of news audiences, journalists and interest groups; that is, the individuals who submit nominations of under-reported stories. One way of considering PCC is to regard it as completing two tasks: first, exploring Canadians' perceptions of possible omissions in the national news agenda, and second, testing the accuracy of these perceptions. The testing of these perceptions shall, in itself, involve a variety of smaller projects.
First, through a review of the relevant scholarly and popular literature on news production - a gathering of an "inventory of propositions" - we hope to map out the approaches used to explain gaps in the news agenda. This is a necessary starting point for our exploration of Canadians' perceptions of the news the testing of the accuracy of those perceptions. Only by understanding the range of answers already provided in the existing literature can we begin to consider the usefulness of these answers to our particular context.
Second, we will conduct a content analysis to locate trends, patterns or recurring themes that appear in the under-reported stories. For each of the three years of the SSHRC-funded research program, all under-reported stories that meet the project's criteria will be collected in a database. Once the stories have been collected, we will conduct a large-scale content analysis, contrasting the subjects of the under-reported stories with the kinds of news that the media does cover. This procedure should enable us to indicate whether systematic discrepancies exist between the actual news agenda and the kinds of stories that Canadians of different political, regional, organizational and socio-economic backgrounds feel ought to be covered.
Third, we will ask news audience members and news producers for their views on news reporting in Canada. To more fully understand what types of stories Canadians feel ought to be covered, we will approach a wide range of national community organizations and journalists for their thoughts on the news agenda. This year, through a mailout survey, we are asking representatives of a variety of organizations for their thoughts on the effectiveness of the Canadian mainstream news media. PCC will also interview a small sample of journalists asking them for their perceptions of filters on the news system and their reaction to the stories we identify as under-reported.
Once we've completed these and other related tasks and have analyzed all relevant data, PCC will produce a book-length analysis of the Canadian news agenda, specifically examining the systemic omissions (if our research seems to indicate the existence of any). The public service and academic purposes of PCC are not mutually exclusive; they influence and contribute to each other. For example, annual top ten lists of under-reported stories may help illustrate trends in gaps in the news agenda and various approaches to the study of news may help us understand why certain significant stories do not receive the coverage they appear to deserve in the mainstream press.