Given the mandate of better understanding and harnessing the potential of traditional media and new communication technologies for youth, both locally and farther afield, the Centre for Youth and Media Studies was officially inaugurated in February 1988. From its earliest days, the Centre has been strongly driven by the quest to make a significant concrete impact, through its research, on the quality of products aimed at young Canadian television viewers. To this effect, the CRB Foundation (presided over by Mr. Charles Bronfman and Mrs. Andrea Bronfman) concluded an agreement with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the Université de Montréal to support, through an eight-year grant, the creation and activities of a Centre that would work toward this objective.
At the time, this initiative was strikingly innovative: it marked one of the first times where a Canadian university established a bilingual centre of international scope with research priorities on the question of youth and the media, priorities that could lead to academic and theoretical considerations as well as to practical actions applied to the professional market. If at first the more immediate needs concerned television, the Centre soon decided to create a research field dedicated to the study of psychosocial and cultural changes sparked by the diffusion of new communication technologies.
In 2008, the GRJM/CYMS was pleased to celebrate its twentieth anniversary. Over the last two decades, the Centre has formed partnerships with renowned organizations and companies such as Bell University Laboratories, the Montreal Science Centre, Société des arts technologiques, Groupe Vidéotron Lté, the National Film Board of Canada, the Régie du cinéma du Québec, MediaSmarts (Media Awareness Network) and the Youth Media Alliance. In addition, the Centre has been associated with several significant international events such as the World Summit on Television for Children, held in Australia, London, Greece, South Africa and Sweden.
After 30 years of research, activities and contributions , the Centre has now decided to cease it’s activities . On this note, we would like to express our sincere appreciation to the many people, groups and institutions that have provided invaluable support to help us successfully carry out our projects over all these years.
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