Research Catalog

Title

Recasting history : how CBC Television has shaped Canada's past / Monica MacDonald.

Author

MacDonald, Monica, 1965-

Publication

• Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxii, 263 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations; 23 cm

Summary

"This book explores Canadian history documentary and docudrama programming on CBC television since its beginnings in 1952. During this fifty-year period, television was a uniquely powerful medium --at once intimate and widely shared, reaching millions of people. CBC was the only Canadian broadcaster to consistently show history programming and has played a unique role in shaping Canadians' perceptions of their history. Analyzing the major works of Canadian history on CBC television over fifty years -- Explorations (1956-63), Images of Canada (1972-76), The National Dream (1974), The Valour and the Horror (1992), and Canada: A People's History (2000-02) -- reveals patterns and developments in content and presentation. As the author argues, these developments were not arbitrary but were impelled by a wide range of external factors: developments in broadcasting policy and regulation in Canada; television industry developments, including competition from a growing American market and for new Canadian broadcasters (such as CTV and Global) for viewers and for advertising revenue; the evolution of television itself, including the standards and financing of production and attention to ratings, technological change, and job creation; and the evolution of journalism and the role of journalists as supposed authorities. This book is both a critique of public history and a political economy of television production. The author has three major findings."--

Subject

• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. English Television Network > Influence
• Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. English Television Network
• Television > Social aspects > Canada
• History on television
• Television and history > Canada
• Television broadcasting policy > Canada > History
• Historical television programs > Canada > History and criticism
• Documentary television programs > Canada > History and criticism
• Documentary television programs
• Historical television programs
• Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.)
• Television and history
• Television broadcasting policy
• Television > Social aspects
• Canada

Genre/Form

• Criticism, interpretation, etc.
• History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-250) and index.

Additional Formats (note)

• Issued also in electronic formats.

Contents

CBC television presents ... Canadian history! Explorations -- A New History of Canada? Images of Canada -- Television History and the Star Journalist: The National Dream -- Behind the History Wars at the CBC: The Valour and the Horror -- One Big Story: Canada: A People's History.

ISBN

• 9780773556317
• 9780773556324
• 077355632X
• 0773556311

OCLC

• on1045738675
• SCSB-9432117

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library