Playing for Good: The Public Value of CBC's Canada Reads

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the Making of Literary Audiences in Digital Spaces1

“…According to Fuller and Sedo (2006), while the broadcast achieved its goal of fostering new readers of Canadian literature, it was not immune to the globalized publishing dynamics of the 21 st century which tend to favour only a select of highly commodified texts and authors while overlooking small and independent publishers in Canada. Zanchi (2019) argues that debates surrounding various seasons of Canada Reads serve as a crucial site for discussing knowledge, identification and social relations within Canada, aligning with the CBC's mission to promote societal change through public education. Cronin (2021) highlights the program's success in mobilizing mass participation in reading and encouraging Canadian readers to engage in conversation about their own literature.…”