Media in Alberta includes published, broadcast, and digital media originating in the Canadian province of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest T ...

Print media

Daily newspapers

In 2010, daily paid circulation for the largest Alberta-based newspapers were: * ''

Calgary Herald The ''Calgary Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Publication began in 1883 as ''The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate, and General Advertiser''. It is owned by the Postmedia Network. History ''The C ...

'' (Postmedia) – 914,165 * ''

Edmonton Journal The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network. History The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...

'' (Postmedia) – 756,148 * ''

Edmonton Sun The ''Edmonton Sun'' is a daily newspaper and news website published in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is owned by Postmedia following its 2015 acquisition of Sun Media from Quebecor. It began publishing Sunday April 2, 1978 and shares many c ...

'' (Postmedia) – 323,410 * '' Calgary Sun'' (Postmedia) – 279,724 * ''

Lethbridge Herald The ''Lethbridge Herald'' is the leading daily newspaper in greater Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. It is owned by Alta Newspaper Group and also publishes and distributes a weekly newspaper, the ''Lethbridge Sun Times''. Early history On November ...

'' (Glacier/Alta) – 112,622 * ''

Red Deer Advocate The ''Red Deer Advocate'' is a daily newspaper in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. Published by Black Press, the newspaper was first established in 1901 as the ''Red Deer Echo'', changing its name to ''Alberta Advocate'' in 1903 and ''Red Deer Advoc ...

'' (Black Press) – 83,987 * ''

Medicine Hat News The ''Medicine Hat News'' is a daily newspaper published in Medicine Hat, Alberta. It features a city news section, a national news section, a world news section, a sports section, a comics section, and a classifieds section. The paper is owned ...

'' (Glacier/Alta) – 70,452 * '' Grande Prairie Daily Herald-Tribune'' (Postmedia) – 28,155 * ''

Fort McMurray Today The ''Fort McMurray Today'' is a publication based in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada. It is considered the paper of record for Fort McMurray and covers a number of topics affecting the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo. The daily newspaper was ...

'' (Postmedia) – 10,305

Concentration and political leanings

Concentration of ownership

The Foundation for Democratic Advancement did an overview of media ownership in the course of a paper on media coverage of elections in 2012; this found that the majority of the daily newspaper market in Alberta in controlled by two companies

Postmedia Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia News or Postmedia) is a Canadian media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in newspaper publishing, news ...

(64.8%) and

Quebecor Quebecor Inc. is a Canadian diversified media and telecommunications company serving Québec based in Montreal. It was spelled Quebecor in both English and French until May 2012, when shareholders voted to add the acute accent, Québecor, in F ...

Sun Media Sun Media Corporation was the owner of several tabloid and broadsheet newspapers in Canada and the 49 percent owner of the now defunct Sun News Network. It was a subsidiary of Quebecor Media. On October 6, 2014, Quebecor Media announced the ...

(24.9%). A different measure of media concentration was used for broadcasting in the same study, that of ownership of stations (including stations with no news content), rather than by ratings. The largest radio company was

Newcap Broadcasting Stingray Radio (formerly Newcap Radio) is a Canadian radio broadcasting conglomerate owned by Stingray Group. It owns and operates 101 radio stations in Canada—making it the second-largest radio conglomerate in Canada behind Bell Media. It also ...

which owned 32 of 92 total stations,

Rogers Media Rogers Media Inc., operating as Rogers Sports & Media, is a Canadian subsidiary of Rogers Communications that owns the company's mass media and sports properties, such as the Citytv and Omni Television terrestrial television stations, Sports ...

owned 14, and James A. Pattison owned nine. In television, the largest companies were Bell Media with four stations, Rogers with four,

Shaw Media Shaw Media was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. Shaw Media owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice, HGTV Canada, ...

with three, and the CBC with three (two English-language, one French).

Political bias

In 1937, the Social Credit government of William Aberhart passed the ''

Accurate News and Information Act The ''Accurate News and Information Act'' (complete title: ''An Act to Ensure the Publication of Accurate News and Information'') was a statute passed by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta, Canada, in 1937, at the instigation of William Aberhar ...

'' which forced newspapers to print "corrections" to stories the government objected to, and would require the papers to reveal their sources in the case of statements against the government. This bill became part of a

constitutional crisis In political science, a constitutional crisis is a problem or conflict in the function of a government that the political constitution or other fundamental governing law is perceived to be unable to resolve. There are several variations to this ...

between the lieutenant governor and the federal government on one side, and the Social Credit government (especially its radical wing represented by the Social Credit Board) on the other. This led to the '' Reference re Alberta Statutes'' case in the Supreme Court which ruled the act to be ''

ultra vires ('beyond the powers') is a Latin phrase used in law to describe an act which requires legal authority but is done without it. Its opposite, an act done under proper authority, is ('within the powers'). Acts that are may equivalently be termed ...

'' (unconstitutional). As well the ''Edmonton Journal'' won a special Pulitzer Prize for Press Freedom for fighting against the law, the only non-American newspaper ever to have done so. The Foundation for Democratic Advancement’s study stated that the media coverage of the political parties in the 2012 election was biased, in their opinion, in that it focused overwhelmingly on the two supposed

front-runner In politics, a front-runner (also spelled frontrunner or front runner) is a leader in an electoral race. While the front-runner in athletic events (the namesake of the political concept) is generally clear, a political front-runner, particularly i ...

parties, the Progressive Conservatives and the

Wildrose Party The Wildrose Party (legally Wildrose Political Association, formerly the ''Wildrose Alliance Political Association'') was a conservative provincial political party in Alberta, Canada. The party was formed by the merger in early 2008 of the Al ...

, as these parties received 62% of media coverage although seven other political parties fielded candidates, including two (the Alberta Liberals and the

Alberta New Democrats The Alberta New Democratic Party (french: Nouveau Parti démocratique de l'Alberta), commonly shortened to Alberta's NDP, is a social-democratic political party in Alberta, Canada. It is the provincial Alberta affiliate of the federal New Democr ...

) that fielded candidates in every constituency. The two front-running parties went on to capture 77.3% of the popular vote.

References