Media Coverage of Federal Spending Announcements on Child Care, Pharma Care, and Dental Care

— Published on September 26, 2024

Media Coverage of Federal Spending Announcements on Child Care, Pharma Care, and Dental Care

The federal government has introduced three new social programs since 2021, increasing permanent spending.
This analysis investigates if the media questioned whether the government’s new programs observed its own fiscal principles.
A machine content analysis of CBC and CTV network television and cable public affairs programs was conducted to assess media coverage of the new social programs.
A separate machine content analysis of government press releases and announcements of the programs was also conducted.
The cost of the programs was mentioned in only 0.6% of the government press releases and 4% of the television coverage (CTV 4.1% and CBC 3.7%).
Budget and fiscal issues more broadly were covered in 3.5% of the press releases, and in 15.3% of CTV’s and 9.4% of CBC’s news coverage.
There were only five mentions on CBC and two on CTV that talked about how the programs created new permanent spending. This was a significant lack of criticism of a key component of the Finance Minister’s mandate letter, which instructs her to “avoid creating new permanent spending.”
The most common theme in the press releases was the programs themselves, which accounted for 53.9% of the content. This was discussed in 14.8% of CTV’s coverage and 7.2% of CBC’s coverage.
Features of the program that purported to provide benefits to Canadians represented 17.9% of the press releases, but only 6.4% of CTV’s and 10.2% of CBC’s coverage.
Critical questions regarding how programs might be funded were ignored in favour of the politicians’ political strategies and process questions on how the minority government would remain in power.