[Music] welcome back to the show today we are talking about media in Canada with crossroads and yes TV CEO as well as host of the TV show context Lorna Dueck you are the mother of media in Canada right now I didn't start as a Christian journalist when I went home and had small children reading the newspaper on the floor watching them as they were playing I realized there was nothing of God in the media and I just had a prayer Lord let me impact the media for you woman came on my television progr
am at the time she pulled a prosthetic limb out of a bag she challenged me to do something you've got to give a voice for the voiceless that's why we are stewards of the gift of media it's only Christian Productions that require a hundred percent donations every other media outlet has tax funding we should be watching the CBC like a hawk it gets 1.2 billion dollars of our funding every time you see something that offends you on your publicly funded your tax dollar outlets and write to the presid
ent's level write to the Ombudsman and go as high up the ladder as you go it has to have accountability to the citizenship it's a trigger of democracy it has been said that if Jesus was alive in the earth today he just might be making media why well the famous Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan put it this way we become what we behold if McLuhan was right and the statistics around media and Canada are accurate there is no doubt that media is one of the most powerful forces influencing the hea
rts and minds of Canadians and therefore our nation's future here are a few stats that show just how media saturated we are here in Canada according to a 2017 crtc report 94% of adult Canadians watch television they listen to 15 hours of radio per week 7.2 hours of streamed audio services and watch over 30 hours per week of television children aged 2 to 11 watch an average of 17.8 hours of TV a week and seniors an average of 42 hours a week that is a full work week of TV every single week progra
mming ranks top of the list with Canadian news programming hitting twenty six point seven million hours of viewing per week in the French market and seventy six point five million hours of viewing per week in the English market the next most watched categories are drama comedy and sports these stats do not even begin to scratch the surface of how much time canadians spent on social media forums such as Facebook of which seventy-seven percent of Canadians use Twitter Instagram snapchat or another
forum when you think about how much media our nation is consuming there can be no doubt that what is being broadcasted on these platforms is shaping our national future this is why it is so important that we pay attention to what's happening with media who's controlling the messages and why it is important that people of faith stay engaged and influential in media perhaps few in Canada know this better than my guest today Lorna Dueck Lorna has been a journalist for over 30 years she currently i
s the serving CEO of crossroads Christian communications and yes TV she started as a co-host on 100 Huntley Street with the beloved David Maine's host a new show context is the recipient of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee for her contribution to Canadian society and the list goes on it is an honor to have her in studio with us today to talk about media in Canada so let's get to it [Music] Reverend David Mane's is regarded as Canada's most beloved evangelist a broadcast pioneer in 1977 David launched
100 Huntley Street the longest-running daily talk show in Canadian history which still features 24/7 prayer lines for viewers to call he created the popular children's telecast Circle Square which resulted in 11th summer camps across Canada David was also one of the first to respond with media to global humanitarian needs sending aid into various crisis zones he took the gospel message into four world Expos reaching millions of people in 1998 David launched CTS TV now yes TV a television statio
n licensed to bring faith and values programming to primetime Canadian television through the years viewers always saw the heart of David mains and his love for the God he so faithfully serves well Lorna Dueck I cannot even express with words how honored I am to have you in studio in your own studio that I use every once in a while but you are literally the mother of media in Canada right now I can think of no one else that's deeper into this than you in the faith community so thank you for bein
g with me today and we're so proud to see if a teen produced here in this in the Crossroads studio you know this is such an unprecedented thing that a new television show gets up gets running and you're doing such a great job you know Ottawa so well you know our Christian prayer community across the country so well we just want to cheer you support you we're thrilled that you can produce your and we're with you all the way 18 you've done a wonderful job this is what season four for you five or s
ix but let's talk about you and media in Canada croute mean a Christian journalist how did you get started in this well you know I didn't start as a Christian journalist I just started as someone who had a passion for telling story but when I went home and had small children who are now 31 and 33 years old had a prayer was sitting on the floor and you know when you have children God just speaks to you in a great way and I I was reading the newspaper on the floor watching them as they were playin
g and I realized there was nothing of God in the media and I just had a prayer Lord let me impact the media for you and then I started crafting a freelance career alongside the mothering we had a nice little office downstairs in the house and the kids would tear the house apart while I wrote and sometimes had a babysitter and and those stories I began to find a way to work my faith into print journalism and that's when my mentor Reverend David Mane's noticed those print articles and through that
he started a relationship with me and tried me out on air and yeah we became we became very very good friends through the process of making media and I just esteem and admires so much I could have never imagined that I would one day get to be the CEO of the organizations that he found it Wow now let me ask you this question you've seen a lot you've been around the block in this whole industry of media and Canada at this moment in our national history is it important for people of faith to be in
volved in the conversation or and if so why or why not well what media does it tells you who is Canada it you know you we get our identity from what we see so we recognize that we recognize this if you are a follower of Christ if you are a person of any faith group in Canada and you never see yourself in media the national conversation then unfolds that there probably is no faith in Canada or it is marginalized or it's not important so it's absolutely critical that we have shows like Faye teen s
hows like all the things crossroads and yes TV produces because we are privileged to give an identity to the faith community and that's why we need to be in media mm-hmm now that quote by Marshall McLuhan you become what you behold any thoughts on that when it comes to our national identity well media is getting more salacious than ever more amusing like helping people turn off their mind because the production qualities the boundaries they're breaking the the the competition that's out there fo
r what we call eyeballs that's what we call you sorry eyeballs and and and because of that happening I think that it's a very difficult time for the Christian voice specifically in media to be protected because the landscape is so competitive for people's attention mm-hmm now you mentioned David Maine's so he was your mentor and you know and you're now steering the ship that he built do you ever think about the the principles and the lessons that he taught you and if so is there one or two that
that is one of your governing well I think David means probably taught me that television starts with a tea because it's a team so there's many that are needed to steer the ship and I just get to be the one that cheers everyone along but absolutely as I think of the lessons David left for me was that this was a calling that God gives us to try to be in media with a Christian perspective it's a calling from God so stay really anchored in that secondly quality he he had no use for something of pur
e quality it was of poor quality sorry it was always important to him that we had good quality and then relevance you know make this about something that matters to the way people live I love what you've been doing on your election coverage on your life issues you it matters to you that the Faye teen show affects the way people live that was always a David mains connection and that not to be afraid of the personal nature that the media is to just really use that and work with that mm-hmm and we'
ve got a couple minutes here before going to throw to a clip I want to put you on the spot any defining moments that you can think of over the years whether it was an individual that you interviewed or an instance that happened that you know really influenced you in terms of how you do media well clearly the responsibility that you have to tell them for those who do not have a voice so for me a defining moment was in 2000 when Sri Lankans Sierra Leone was in a civil war and a woman came on my te
levision program at the time it was called listen up listen to the world look up and she pulled a prosthetic limb out of a bag and she said they didn't even have a word for amputation in Sri in Sierra Leone but because they had just had a horrible civil war over diamonds blood diamonds they the to stop people from voting the rebel forces were amputating children adults anybody and there were so many amputees and she challenged me to do something and I went on a documentary shoot to Sierra Leone
in 2000 and definitely was a defining moment for me to see all of these traumatized war victims and to be part of working with an on-air audience who then donated to the war amputation recovery efforts was real defining moment for me and and I still try to remember that that you've got to give a voice for the voiceless that's why we are stewards of the gift of media Wow that is so profound now in a moment here we are going to watch one of my favorite theatre houses in the nation and that's the H
ouse of Commons and they'll say that is alright but there have been talking a lot about media this year because 595 million dollars has been given by the government to support media and specifically journalism so we're gonna watch this clip it's feisty it's fiery it's incredibly partisan but I'd love to get your reflections on what's happening in our nation right now and so we are going to see that clip right after this the lack of virtue is going to hurt the Canadian economy that's a historic t
ruth that we have lived a generation after generation where every gut has called you to serve you need to shine your godly through the Faye teen show we're tackling issues influencing our nation's future like freedom of conscience racism poverty the debt human trafficking abortion democracy and much more if you missed a show you can watch anytime at Faye teen TV or on YouTube we hope to see you there we love Canada and we want to see it strong for generations to come that's why we do this show w
e can't do it alone we need your help unlike commercial TV this program is 100% donor funded if you'd like to see more episodes produced on important issues for our nation please consider signing up to be a monthly partner or giving a special gift today every gift makes a real difference and all gifts are tax-deductible together we can build a better Canada for the future visit fete teen TV or call six one three five five two five five seven two to donate today you know the scripture if my peopl
e who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then I will hear from heaven then I will forgive their sins then I will heal their land that is why believers from sea to sea are gathering in our nation's capital on October the 12th 2019 just prior to our next election to pray for godly leaders to be elected in Canada now is the time to cry out for our nation like never before if we will then he will join with us find out more at www.cannai
nsider.com it's just because the Liberals media funding plan needs to be sent back to the drawing board by putting aberrantly anti conservative UNICOR on the panel their Prime Minister's not only threatening the media's independence but he's threatening the credibility of the panel and now even the Canadian Association of journalists has spoken out about the lack of transparency of the bailout the Prime Minister's and fix this mr. speaker we will always support a strong free and independent pres
s house there the Liberals are completely disrespecting journalists with this panel the panel is being used by the prime minister for his own political gain we've learned that members of the panel are going to be muzzled and will not be allowed to discuss who they may have rejected and guess what if the Prime Minister doesn't like their decision he's gonna override it so don't worry so much for accountability and transparency and there is no respect for journalists on this panel why is the Prime
Minister always trying to interfere in democratic processes for his own political gain mr. speaker a healthy democracy relies on independent press free from political influence this independence is now at stake with fists half a billion dollar media bailout unifor Boston good liberal friend Jerry Diaz said last week am i coming out against the Conservatives you're darn right I am when asked appears got a tonne doubt is at the conservative campaign now that his Union is on the prime-minister so-
called independent media panel he said quote I'm probably going to make it worse there are lots of other organizational Asst why did this current put such a biased organization on this strong independent media is essential to the functioning of a healthy democracy that is why we wanted to make sure it's just newspaper owners and media giants that are on that panel we need to make sure that hard-working journalists are well we will always defend labor we will always defend workers very Diaz is no
t a journalist he represents a union that has called itself the to conservatives its bankrolling partisan attack ads put out by a third party organization and run by high-level liberal backroom veterans there are other entities that could represent workers on this panel now it's very clear that this is just one aspect of the prime minister's attempt to rig the next election including putting caps on conservatives but not on on government spending okay I'm not sure but I think this might be one o
f those cases where the issue isn't the issue it isn't about the conservatives I don't think are the Liberals this is about unbiased media okay Canada I'm glad you called it theater as you introduce the clip so let's talk about the panel so there's a media so here maybe we should just impact this a bit because we have had I have had to study this a lot as as a media leader myself because I wanted to apply for that government funding so what you have is this is this controversy you just saw in th
e House of Commons that's about half a billion dollars 500 million plus for print productions like the small town newspapers anything that's an underserved market let's say you might have you know the Tamil community times the Chinese Alliance press the Salvation Army press anybody who's got a journalistic faith today perhaps could apply for those funds you know the Sarnia news all of those small western publications perhaps from northern Saskatchewan that's the fund they're talking about so the
re's a half a billion dollars to keep small print journalism alive in Canada doesn't apply to us broadcasters it's only for print now here's the problem because you have had so many media outlets go down in the last in the last 10 years we've lost over 10,000 jobs in media 250 media outlets have closed and so the Conservative government before this liberal started started lobbying that these small markets these diversity voices would be protected they didn't get the job done before they got vote
d out of the office and now interestingly coming up just before a liberal election so the panel which everybody was alarmed at in that clip was one month long and it was seven journalistic organizations and the reason unifor got picked Jerry Diaz wasn't on that panel but uniformed did you know Ford it is because they represent 40,000 journalists in Canada so he had the CBC's Ombudsman you had unifor you had the Quebec press you had National Post you had the Toronto Star you had different places
that were on there and your the Canadian Association of journalists on that panel for 30 days to say here's how we should structure it and the big flag they said is it needs more transparency so unifor the the unifor representative and those other six representatives I just named they all flagged what Candice Bergen so rightly pointed out transparency we need to have transparency so now that the panel got picked they did their job of saying here's who we think should help say we're that half a b
illion dollars of funding goes and and so that's going to unfold now so if you are part of a small town community in a small town newspaper you should apply for that fund and those that those people now who adjudicate it not the panel that the others but the ones that were chosen now they will say this this bailout should go to this group this group in that group immediate funding is very complicated it's only Christian productions like yours and ours that require a hundred percent donations a h
undred percent donations so thank you we all need them for the Christian voice to be supported but every other media outlet your your daily local news your entertainment all of it has tax funding in it I'm just recently back from the bath media festival where we learn and watch and how this is adjudicated if you want to blow the whistle on anything about tax funded watch the CBC it gets 1.2 billion dollars of our funding and I went and spoke to the president of the CBC to say the what you're put
ting on snapchat is not representative of young Canadians that should not be how my tax dollars are being spent we should be watching the CBC like a hawk as those of us who don't have a majority voice in media and we should be lobbying for what every time you see something that offends you as a Canadian on your publicly funded your tax dollar outlets be at the CBC be it the evening news all of the places where you don't feel Christianity or your faith view is being represented reported on you sh
ould call you should call the news director you should call the president of the organization you should call the CEO and say how come you're not covering this or that to represent who we are in this community wow that's powerful and so if someone wants to say file a complaint to the CBC they just go to cbc.ca or maybe you just do your do your Google work and write write to the president's level write to the Ombudsman phone you don't get off the phone until you say I want to speak to the produce
r of that show and go as high up the ladder as you go and make three or four calls to the same organization I don't know if you've ever heard from your viewers I'm sure you have I've heard from my viewers it affects us yeah it affects us because we are here to be a conduit or for the public view and so when people write us or talk to us you know as the CEO of yes TV we are part of the Canadian broadcast standards Council I'll tell you we I don't know how government bodies have the time to do thi
s but if we get a complaint which we do occasionally get a complaint it ripples all the way down from that broadcast body in Ottawa I have to write a letter response within 30 days I have to write a response it ripples back up through the ranks I mean for all the unregulated that happened over Facebook and the internet which I would love to do a whole show on that but anyway for all the unregulated the broadcast world is heavily regulated in fact the broadcast Act of Canada is being rewritten an
d we have about Corus media the largest media house in Canada would tell you we have about three years to get this right or the Canadian distinctive in media will be just wiped out Wow because of the streaming services and the powerful voices of Netflix Amazon Apple so those are those anyway Wow very complex world and it needs you and I and it needs the viewer at home to engage it so so it doesn't just go its own merry way it has to have accountability to the citizenship it's a trigger of democr
acy that's what media is and so as one of the building blocks we need to hear from the public powerful powerful so we're in an election year obviously this is something that people can be bringing up to their candidates when they're knocking on the door but what I'm hearing you say Lorna is that your voice matters when it comes to the media world I want to close out here we just got about a minute left a quote from a 2012 interview with you and actually Maggie I think from 100 headless Street wh
ere you said these words the people who know him speaking about the people who know God need to make themselves more accessible join the high-risk conversation you close out with a couple there's a word of admonition for our viewers to join the high-risk conversation of media beyond what you just said okay and so anywhere where there is high risk so your relationship with people on the front line of the greatest social needs we need to be friends with those who are hurting broken and down-and-ou
t that's why we did the opioid Prayer summit we need to tell people embrace the trouble embrace where the pain is and bring God's love we need you to join the conversation in the highest levels of wherever you work you need to be visible if you're a Shoppers Drug Mart clerk and you don't like the skin on the magazines you need to tell the boss this shouldn't be there you need to be the thoughtful person in the boardroom that objects to when virtue gets trounced you know the lack of virtue is goi
ng to hurt the Canadian economy that's a historic truth that we have lived generation after generation you need to speak into it and wherever where every God has called you to serve you need to shine your godly powerful well lorina I'm so humbled that you took this time to be with me today wonderful all the best where can people find you contacts the website yeah yeah just just go to Crossroads CA and you'll find everything there you'll find all our different show things there so crossroads CA a
nd also if you want to see what the topics that we've been going through and the different blogs that I or the others write just go to context with Lorna Dueck comm well thank you so much for blazing a trail in this meteor world and thanks for being with me today you're welcome this is a big year for Canada a federal election is right around the corner and who governs our nation has an impact on important issues such as how our tax dollars are managed freedom of religion how the poor are cared f
or our seniors vets and the unborn are valued currently the lead parties are pulling very closely what this means practically is that it will be a few swing ridings across our nation that will determine who our next prime minister and government is if you care about the future of our nation we want to encourage you to get involved in supporting great candidates in a swing riding near you that you believe in visit on it for my Canada CA to find out how you can have a game-changing impact for the
sake of Canada's future thank you for being with us today you know we love Canada and it is such a critical time in our nation right now that's why it means so much to us that we can come to you every single week to talk about the issues shaping our nation and how together we can build a better Canada for the future we can't stay at it without help though as a nonprofit program we are 100% dependent on the generous donations of people like you who care about our nation's future so we'd like to i
nvite you to join the team by signing up to be a monthly partner are giving a special gift today for those that sign up to partner for 50 dollars a month or more we will send you a free copy of the amazing book created by the Canadian Bible Society called tracings of the Canadian soul which beautifully details scriptures set in stone throughout the Parliament of Canada to sign up to partner visit phaeton TV or call 655 to 5572 today every gift makes a real difference god bless you god bless your
loved ones and God bless Canada you [Music]
Comments