The Multiculturalism Program: Tapping into the Potential of Ethnic Media

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The Multiculturalism Program Tapping into the
Potential of Ethnic Media

• November 16, 2000
• Presentation for the Panel
• Ethnic Media and the Public Sphere
• Metropolis Conference
• Vancouver, B.C.

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CONTEXT

• Approximately three million Canadians, roughly
  equivalent to 10 of the total population, lack
  fluency in either official language. -
  1996 Canadian Census, Statistics Canada
• There is an extensive network of television,
  radio and print media for ethnocultural
  communities. The majority of Canadas ethnic
  media are located in three major immigrant
  population centres Toronto, Montreal and
  Vancouver, although their reach is considerably
  farther.

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CONTEXT (CONT.)

• In fact, ethnic media are sometimes the only
  means beyond word of mouth to transmit
  information to ethnocultural communities.
• Because ethnic media have the potential to reach
  such a large audience, they also have the
  potential to help federal departments deliver
  information to members of ethnocultural
  communities and to learn about issues of concern
  from ethnocultural communities.

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LINK TO FEDERAL MANDATE

• In 1971, federal government adopted formal
  multicultural policy that directs all federal
  departments to promote the goals of identity,
  civic participation and justice.
• The mandate, role and responsibilities of the
  Department of Canadian Heritage include working
  with Canadians to strengthen their shared sense
  of identity while respecting the diversity of the
  people.
• The Departments Multiculturalism Program is a
  fundamental component in carrying out this
  mandate. One of the ways that the
  Multiculturalism can fulfill this commitment is
  through the use of the ethnic media.

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CURRENT INITIATIVES

• Family Violence Public Service Announcement (PSA)
• UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial
  Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related
  Intolerance (WCAR)
• Ethnic Media Monitoring

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FAMILY VIOLENCE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

• The Multiculturalism Program is one of several
  partners in the federal governments Family
  Violence Initiative. Our Programs strategy
  involves working with NGO partners and ethnic
  media to address the need to provide family
  violence prevention information to ethnic and
  visible minority communities.
• Ethnic media can be very effective in getting
  family violence prevention information in
  non-official languages to ethnocultural
  communities, particularly those lacking fluency
  in English or French and those unlikely to be
  reached by other outreach programs.

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FAMILY VIOLENCE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
(Cont.)

• Through an innovative partnership with the
  Multiculturalism Program, CFMT-TV, Canadas
  largest multilingual broadcaster, produced a 30
  second Public Service Announcement (PSA) on
  Family Violence. CFMT-TV - paid for all
  production costs. - has contributed 500,000
  in air time over five years to run the PSA.

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FAMILY VIOLENCE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
(Cont.)

• This PSA entitled, Violence Hurts Us All lt
  makes the point that conflict in families has a
  serious and long-term impact on children
  lt is available in 14 heritage languages
  lt was developed with extensive community
  input lt was focus tested in
  ethnocultural communities with very positive
  results lt won a Canadian Television
  Bureau Award lt has gained more than a
  million dollars worth of media commitments as
  ethnic television broadcasters and networks
  across the country have committed air time
  and lt has potentially reached more than 3
  million Canadians.

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FAMILY VIOLENCE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
(Cont.)

• The PSA complements other key family violence
  prevention activities of the Multiculturalism
  Program and helps to reinforce family violence
  prevention messages being delivered by NGO
  partners which include lt
  COSTI in Toronto lt Shield
  of Athena Family Services in Montreal
  lt The Vancouver and Lower Mainland
  Multicultural Family Support Services Society and
  Peoples Law School, both in Vancouver.

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FAMILY VIOLENCE PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT
(Cont.)

• This initiative is an example of a very
  successful partnership between the public and
  private sectors. There has been such a demand
  for the PSA that ethnic media broadcasters are
  airing it for a second round this fall.
• We are evaluating the PSA and want to develop a
  document of lessons learned that can be passed on
  to other departments to demonstrate the
  usefulness of ethnic media as a tool for
  government outreach to ethnocultural communities.

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UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM

• We are also using ethnic media to disseminate
  information about the UN World Conference against
  Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and
  Related Intolerance, or WCAR for short, which
  will take place in South Africa in August of 2001.

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UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM (Cont.)

• The Canadian Secretariat for WCAR is based in the
  Department of Canadian Heritage. Its
  responsibilities include
  lt coordinating the extensive
  cross-country consultations with a diverse group
  of interested individuals and organizations to
  help shape the position Canada will take to the
  World Conference lt overseeing
  the development of a renewed action plan to
  combat racism at home.

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UN WORLD CONFERENCE AGAINST RACISM (Cont.)

• In consultation with the WCAR Secretariat, the
  Multiculturalism Program is encouraging
  ethnocultural organizations to present project
  proposals focussing on the UN World Conference.
  Priority will be given to those projects that
  help build a domestic anti-racism agenda.
  Projects may include an ethnic media focus.
• Ethnic media are seen as key to the efforts to
  raise public awareness about the WCAR
  consultation process and conference themes and
  can assist in improving understanding of
  diversity issues and the importance of combating
  racism.

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ETHNIC MEDIA MONITORING

• Just as the federal government has an interest in
  mainstream media coverage of events and issues
  that relate to its mandate, the government has an
  interest in ethnic media coverage of events and
  issues.
• For the last 10 years, the Multiculturalism
  Program has had an ethnic media monitoring
  contract in place to provide weekly reports
  which lt provide summaries of news and
  issues from about 85 print publications in 19
  languages, plus English and French lt are
  based on a subject/key word list and include news
  items, feature stories, editorials and letters to
  the editor

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ETHNIC MEDIA MONITORING(Cont.)

• Weekly Reports (continued)
• lt focus on community news and community reaction
  to national news (mainstream news is not
  repeated)
• lt provide insights into barriers faced by
  members of ethnic visible minority communities
  and communities perspectives on issues that
  affect all Canadians, for example, national
  unity
• lt capture information on issues relating to life
  in Canada for members of ethnic groups
• lt include information about home country news
  only if issues or events impact on communities in
  Canada.

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LANGUAGES OF ETHNIC NEWSPAPERS

• Arabic
• Armenian
• Chinese
• Farsi/Persian
• Greek
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Polish
• Portuguese

• Punjabi
• Russian
• Somali
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Tamil
• Ukrainian
• Urdu
• Vietnamese
• as well as English and French

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ETHNIC MEDIA MONITORING(Cont.)

• The Multiculturalism Program has entered into a
  new ethnic media monitoring contract where the
  contractor will make the reports more
  user-friendly by
• lt providing a table of contents at the beginning
  of each report
• lt providing a function where readers will be
  able to click on key words that will take them to
  the information that interests them
• lt providing the Department with red alerts-
  rather than waiting for the weekly report, the
  contractor will send us politically sensitive
  items that appear in ethnic media before the
  issues appear in mainstream media.

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ETHNIC MEDIA MONITORING(Cont.)

• Recent survey of readers provided positive
  feedback which indicated that reports are useful
  for program delivery, policy development and
  issue identification.
• The weekly reports are sent to approximately 125
  departmental employees, including the office of
  the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and
  the Status of Women, Dr. Hedy Fry. Dr. Frys
  office then forwards the reports to the Prime
  Ministers office, communications officers and
  several other ministers offices.

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ETHNIC MEDIA MONITORING(Cont.)

• The Department of Citizenship and Immigration is
  also a partner in this project. The Departments
  key word list is included as part of the larger
  key word list provided to the contractor.
• We have had indications of interest from other
  departments about this service and are
  considering expanding and marketing it to other
  federal departments and agencies. We may also
  explore potential interest from provincial
  ministries, official of large municipalities,
  national NGOs and foundations.

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FUTURE POSSIBILITIES

• The Multiculturalism Program is currently
  exploring the feasibility of raising awareness of
  governmental hiring procedures through ethnic
  media, which may be best placed to run PSAs
  targeting ethnocultural communities. The Public
  Service Commissions hiring website could also be
  marketed to visible minority communities.
• Although potential public service candidates
  would not necessarily be regular readers of
  ethnic media, these media may provide an
  effective mechanism to communicate to communities
  the governments interest in equitable workforce
  representation of visible minorities

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FUTURE POSSIBILITIES (Cont.)

• These are just a few examples of the value of
  ethnic media in promoting the governments
  diversity agenda. This presentation has
  highlighted the Multiculturalism Programs
  current and potential use of ethnic media in
  engaging ethnocultural communities. We believe
  that ethnic media are an under-utilized resource
  with great potential for wider application in
  both the public and private sphere.
• For further information, please do not hesitate
  to contact Sandra Murray at [phone] or by
  e-mail to sandra.murray_at_pch.gc.ca