Statscan struggles with new media data collection; more funding needed

Statistics Canada is anxious to start compiling timely and comprehensive data on the country’s new media sector, but first it needs more money for annual surveys and a consensus from government and industry on what exactly constitutes "new media". The agency expects to hear by early March on a funding proposal that would see about seven biennial cultural surveys returned to annual surveys, and data collection initiated on 10 new areas, including new media. "What we’re not getting is data that shows (new media) as a brand new industry, and that’s the next step," says John Gordon, chief of Statscan’s Cultural Surveys Section. "Most of what’s happened now is just following the standard model where we’re showing the older industries (i.e. publishing and broadcasting) using the new technologies." Dubbed the Cultural Statistics Program Improvement Initiative, the proposal is currently being reviewed by senior managers at Statscan and Canadian Heritage, whose departments are being asked to provide funding over two years. "What we’re looking at is enough to get the ball rolling," Gordon told CNM. "If we’re successful, then we would look at securing more stable, long-term funding, and we’d probably have to go to Cabinet for that." A report released in November 1999 by Canadian Heritage recognized a lack of timely and reliable statistical data that quantifies new media’s national contribution to economic growth (CNM, Nov. 9/99). The department agreed that better statistical collection of cultural industries was needed and committed to begin surveying all cultural sectors annually. It has yet to act fully on that recommendation. Government departments and industry are clamouring for hard data on the state of Canada’s new media sector. Without reliable data, bureaucrats are less likely to pursue policies that stimulate the sector, and industry is unable to confidently point to areas that could benefit from government intervention. Aside from funding, the other challenge facing Statscan is the lack of a universally accepted definition for new media or standards for measuring it. According to Gordon, defining new media "is like trying to nail jelly to a wall." "Certainly within Ottawa we know there are conflicting opinions as to whether it’s an industry or just a new means of dissemination," he says. "New media is not identified as a separate industry in the industrial classification system, so in the standard economic accounts there is no place for it." In addition to Gordon, Statscan has 11 managers who are responsible for individual cultural categories, such as periodical publishing and performing arts. There is no manager for new media. New media tentatively included in new cultural surveyStatscan released a survey in late December that for the first time included new media among the cultural industries it reviews, although the report itself was devoid of any statistics on this sector. "The inclusion of "New Media" as a cultural industry was a most tentative addition in the absence of a concrete definition of the products from this industry," states the report, Canadian Culture in Perspective: A Statistical Overview. "Some partners felt that these products might simply be new outputs from existing industries. Generally, however, the sentiment was that the new category should be added in anticipation of what might be missed among culture industry outputs if it were not." Overall, the survey found that federal spending on culture was $2.7 billion in 1997-98, nearly 8 per cent lower than in 1990-91. The largest recipient of this public funding was the broadcasting industry, which consumed $1.37 billion in fiscal 1997-98. It also found that between 1992-98, fewer Canadians were reading newspapers and magazines. The report suggested that rising Internet usage may be the reason for the decreases.

Statscan struggles with new media data collection; more funding needed

News | 01/24/2001 5:00 am EST

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