The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is the government-operated television and radio system in Canada, a form of public broadcasting analogous to PBS and NPR in the United States and to the dual services of the BBC in Great Britain. The system in Canada has been developed both to provide service to regions of the vast country that otherwise might not be served, to provide specialized services to specialized populations, and overall to project a positive sense of what it is to be a Canadian. The latter element is in part derived from a continuing concern about the power of the American broadcast media and American culture in general, and the desire for protecting Canadian culture and for promoting Canadian content is very much an element in the operation of the CBC in all of its ramifications. An analysis of the system shows the nature of its programming and the way it views and fulfills its mission and also points to what the audience thinks of this service. The Canadian Radio Broadcasting system is based in part on the British Broadcasting Corporation model and is primarily an arm of the central government. The purpose of Canadian Radio programming is to inform, educate, and entertain the diversified peoples who compose the Canadian Radio audience. The impact upon Canadian Radio audiences is quite positive because the government is perceived as a protector of the image of being Canadian.
Radio and television in North America have typically developed as commercial media, and the programs exist to sell goods. The stations and networks are private ventures with only light state regulation. Canada is a country with social characteristics strongly resembling those of the United States, and yet it developed a very different model than that in the U.S. The system in Canada is unique and reflects values different from those prevailing in the British or American systems. Successive Parliaments have decided that broadcasting in...