Abstract

The weekly radio program, National Farm Radio Forum (1940-1965) on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is the site of an examination of civic education in the mass media. The archived documentation of NFRF forms the corpus of my research. The subject of civic education is analyzed through a rhetorical examination of programs on the subject of health delivery, the latter chosen because it shares, with civic education, the topics of cooperativism and equity of access. I argue that the training of citizens in the habits, responsibilities and competencies of public life, elements essential for authentic democracy, demands a marriage of government, institutions and civic organizations. In particular, a developed and supportive public broadcaster is essential to facilitating the process of civic education. The site of examination, while a historical forum, suggests a number of possibilities and problematics that enable us to rethink civic education in contemporary Canadian mass media.