Source : Globe & Mail

The 1,000-page, six-month study by the CBC on how to improve its news broadcasts will not result in radical change, nor did it give any indication of viewer disenchantment with veteran anchor Peter Mansbridge, the CBC insisted yesterday.

"There is absolutely nothing in the summary or nothing in the report that does anything but just reinforce the trust and affection that Canadians have for Peter Mansbridge, and that we at the CBC have for him," said Tony Burman, editor-in-chief of CBC's English services division (CBC news, current affairs and Newsworld).

Burman was thrown into the role yesterday of having to explain a mammoth survey conducted earlier in the year and released to CBC news staff in November. Like a gargantuan memo of self-improvement tips, the study, which was created with two outside research firms, was pulled together to better gauge viewers' tastes as the CBC restructures its news departments, Burman said.

The study particularly found a desire among CBC's television, radio and website viewers for more international news and news that is more appealing to younger viewers.

However, one line in a summary, which distills a portion of the detailed study -- including a survey of 827 Canadians from April to June earlier this year -- notes that the network's image could be "enhanced by having a more youthful and lively style, a style more people like and journals, hosts and a news anchor more people would like."

Burman insists that Mansbridge isn't lumped into that catch-all recommendation. "There's no survey that I'm aware of -- and I include this one -- that doesn't reinforce the fact that Peter Mansbridge is perhaps the most respected broadcast journalist in this country," Burman said.

In addition to polling viewers, the study included workshops with CBC executives, interviewed individuals from different professional fields and people who recorded their thoughts at home in diaries. Style, or a lack of it, was a central theme. The summary argued that while people found variety in the "substance" of CBC's news reporting, there was no variety in the CBC's "style." The "core weakness is that CBC news is not seen as inclusive, but rather exclusive -- being for older people, not for the young," the summary said.

Some of those surveyed also believed that the CBC, like all media, had certain biases.

Yet "the majority of Canadians feel that CBC news is not biased -- and certainly when compared to other news organizations," Burman argued.

As for the unusualness of the study, "any big television operation should be looking at their image and should be doing research to find out how they are perceived, and should be trying to find ways to reach out," said Ian Morrison, head of the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

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