 Defined to mean publiclyowned, independent TV and
Radio
 Historically, prevalent in all countries except US until the
80s
 Europe had mostly public

 Identity Defined
 Canadian Political Culture and Canadian
Values
 The Cultural Industries and Canadian identity
 Origins of broadcast regulation
 The CBC Story
 Arguments for and against the CBC

 Early history of media associates cultural industries with Nationalism
 Most regimes have strongly nationalistic or nationally oriented and local media content and systems
 Through the media, like education, citizens build self, social and political identities

 In group or out group
 Defines me versus them
 Us versus them
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What is the same: sameness, oneness
What is different: ‘othering’
Favouritism of one’s own group: ethnocentrism
 Prejudice against other groups: racism

 Self Identity
 Social Identity
 Political Identity

 Your life history
 Explains why you do something, who you want to be, and what to do about advancing your interests
 May be personal style, personal peer and family identity ( notion of primary group)
 Commercial systems good at delivering consumer identity menus

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Associated with the rights,obligations and sanctions you enjoy in your social roles
Usual markers are age, sex, race ( immutable social markers)
Primordial realms: immediate community of work or living
Increasingly involving social causes/missions
Media are resources in finding social identities: role assimilation —some systems recognize this and compel private broadcasters to monitor guidelines for social portrayal

 Deutsch:
 A nation must interact more often internally than externally to remain politically cohesive
 Media flows should promote national ID
 Contribute to the sharing of basic values and beliefs ( cognitive and rational)
 A Sense of Attachment to Place( emotional)

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Central to political socialization ( learning to be a citizen)
Convey information about basic citizen’s rights and responsibilities
Transmit /Promote basic national symbols
Create climate of political trust/alienation: political and consumer confidence in the economy, in foreign policy
Now an arena where political controversy is channelled: representative presence in media is key to political enfranchisement

 Most systems regulate election broadcasting due to the importance to political choice and identity building
 Only public broadcasting systems make explicit the role in political identity

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Nationalism/Chauvinism Defined
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Nationalism: devotion to one’s nation;
 Synonym: patriotism
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The doctrine that national interests are more important than international interests
The desire for or advocacy of national independence or autonomy
Chauvinism: excessive, narrow or jingoistic patriotism
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Militant, unreasoning and unqualified devotion to one’s country
Fanatical devotion with contempt for others

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Focuses on the special/different/ history
Tendency to seek ‘true’ ‘Aryan’ character: true
‘American’ or true ‘Canadian’ character may be fascist in orientation ( essentialism is to be distrusted)
Nationalism/19 th century tied identity to mobilization of empire and mercantilism – economic and political expansion
Tendency to see ID as singular, homogenous, stable and monolithic undercuts modern immigrant reality and the political economy of nationalism

 Political Culture
 Political Communication

 Historical Fragment Theory
 Linguistic: Official History of Quebec and the Rest of Canada
 Racial: aboriginal and then white; white euro then other/people of colour

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Defined against the US/ British or French fragments
Seen as ‘hybridized’, ‘hyphenated’: French
Canadian, English Canadian, Immigrant
Canadian, Aboriginal Canadian
A Mosaic, not a melting pot
Seen as ‘regionalized’– Western, Eastern or central Canadian
Increasingly seen not as bicultural but multicultural

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NOT American ( the ‘rant’)
NOT nationalistic ( no anthem in schools)
MORE deferential to authority (Garrison versus
Frontier mentality)
MORE public enterprise culture (rail, universal health care, education, CBC)
GO BETWEEN: international peace-keeper, trusted intermediary, history of land mines treaty: kinder, gentler peoples
Not Mono cultural: bilingual and multicultural( mosaic versus melting pot)

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Defined as fact: 50% today claim non British non-French ancestry; 12% visible minorities
As Ideology: Multicultural Act, equality rights in
Charter: notion of inclusiveness, unity in diversity; cultural differences not disparaged: tolerance valued ( Hate criminalised)
As Policy: Human Rights legislation, affirmative action or equity rights in employment in public agencies: funding of ethnic cultural practices; celebrating diversity
As Critical Discourse: criticised as bandaid measure which keeps white majority dominant ( eg: Fleras, Tator and Henry et al)

 Sense of belongingness-isolation
 Inclusiveness-exclusiveness
 Participation-non-participation
 Recognition-rejection
 Legitimacy-illegitimacy

 Assimilation or Diversity?
 Unity in Diversity?
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Community of Communities?
What provides the ‘glue’ for a disparate peoples? What provides to ‘code’ or
‘protocol’ for peaceful co-existence?
 The Media both reflect and produce this
‘glue’

 National popular culture increasingly mediated through a global one
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‘ Mondo Canuck’: Rant

 7-10% of students out of province
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Born out of province” 33% in ‘have’ provinces
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Other ‘connections’:
 Readership/media consumption

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Levels of attachment to Canada increasing
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Highest level of belonging in world values study
Economic and cultural security the biggest predictors of positive sense of belonging
Except in Quebec:
Strongest sense of belonging:
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Family (95%)
Canada (81%)
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Community (74%)
Ethnic Group (55%)

Where belong first:
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Country
Pride: unchanged in 15 years
Cosmopolitan ID increasing: local decreasing
Canadians support (70%) principles of multiculturalism, even higher majority supports Hate legislation

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Strongest in older, less secure anglophones who mourn a past Canada
Weaker among secure,younger and agile portions of society
Views on government interact with identity
Elites attach more value to economicmaterial factors in ‘conditional’ identity than do general public ( checkbook nationalists)

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World Values study
Book entitled How Canadian Connect(1998)
There is a distinct Canadian identity
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47% agree
40% disagree – there is no majority view of an
“imagined Canadian community”
Paradoxically, 83% agree Canadian culture is something we can take pride in

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Strong sense of awareness, pride and attachment to: authors, popular musicians, local news ,CBC radio etc
Low awareness and cultural preference for
Canadian TV drama
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2/3 of french viewing is to Canadian shows
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1/3 of english viewing is to Canadian
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12% of all entertainment
15 of top 20 shows all American
English canada is the only TV market in the world where local citizens do not prefer local product

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Watch 30% less TV
5 times more likely to watch a public/noncommercial broadcaster
Higher tolerance for complex info
 Watch more news: less infotainment
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West wing/Law and Order:SVU high end US shows
Watch Canadian first in
 News
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Sports
Comedy
Greater Participation: phone ins etc.

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The preeminent cultural industry as measured by leisure time ( 21 hours a week – most after work)
Now about 2 billion annually in revenues
TV has become the most trusted news source surpassing the newspaper
By age of 12, children have spent more time with TV than with school

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Competitive
Highly regulated by the CRTC
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Which licenses and monitors
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Classic case of social responsibility model

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The Canadian Broadcasting System will serve to safeguard enrich and strengthen the cultural, political social and economic fabric of Canada
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Each element will contribute to the creation and presentation of Canadian programs
Each.. Make Maximum use and no less than predominant use of Canadian creative resources

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Doctrine of national sovereignty(spectrum)
Natural Monopoly ( spectrum)
Market Failure
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History of spectrum chaos
Other case of Market Failure
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Diseconomies of scale in certain productions
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40% time spent with drama
Average drama $1.2 mill US per
US market recovers cost and can sell into Canada at
1/10 th/1/20rth the cost

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Requires 60% overall and 50% CANCON in prime time
Quota is a Make Jobs program:
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Its definitions revolved around citizenship of the writer, producer, technical crews etc. shooting the series
The Quota is not a qualitative one: requiring distinctively creative stories
That is why you get clones ( Peter Benchley’s
Amazon) qualifying for CanCon

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Restrict foreign ownership
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Disallow spending on ads in US border media
Simultaneous Substitution Rule to protect ad revenues of private broadcasters
ALL TO INCREASE ACCESS TO
CANADIAN ‘CHOICES’/ PRODUCT ON
SHELF SPACE

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20 years ago, no viable private network
Now 2 which have bought out newspapers
Now viable TV production industry
Now top 10 companies: Alliance Atlantis is in top 20 worldwide
Canada 2 nd largest TV exporter after US

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Internationally recognized news, sports
Animation/sci fi and special effects
Kids
Documentaries and Docudrama
Popular MOWs ( Anne of Avonlea,
Sheldon Kennedy Story)

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Still no Home Run series internationally (
CSI)
Still no star system
Domestically: DaVinci’s, Bob and Margaret among the best
But less than 12% of drama we watch is
Canadian ( versus 66% in most other countries)

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You Decide

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Strong in local news
Resellers of US programs
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5% of Global’s prime time audience is to Canadian shows (eg. BCTV)
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Schedules set in New York by US networks
Spend 400 m annually on US programming, 50 on
Canadian drama
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But eligible for over 500 million in subsidy and protections

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Underdeveloped Ad Market
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TV ad revenues are 66% the size of their US counterparts on a per capita basis
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Why? Overspill of US ads
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Underdevelopment of sectors of ads which are in the public realm in Canada (health, education etc)

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Global can go to Hollywood and buy rights to air
Friends in Canada, and pay 100 K or less per episode
But costs to produce a FRIENDS here would be
2 million per episode ( 10 to 20 times more)
Why? Economies of scale in the US: US product recovers most of its costs in the home market, can afford to sell below cost in foreign countries
Cheaper to import license than make

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Increasingly concentrated in ownership
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Why protect BCE/CTV?
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System of deregulation and competition has produced a more American, less unique entertainment market

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Created in 1932 by unanimous Act of
Parliament ( all parties)
5 provinces endorsed
Became dominant news source WW2
Still the largest single employer of journalists in this country
As measured by levels of trust, ratings on quality on national news stories in polls

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-two solitudes in one institution
Radio Canada integral to rise of Quebec nationalism
Subject of separatist witchhunts: allegations of bias from Trudeau to
Chretien

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Rise of English nationalism: royalist
Created national hockey culture
Golden age 30s to 60s
Commitment to “life of the Mind”
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Rise of political satire

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Town halls
No ads in news (less than 5% of TV content is non-commercial)
Pioneered “double enders”
Broke: tainted blood controversy, Rwanda, only network to cover 96 provincial election
Stuffy? White bread? Against, what? Say, Tony
Parsons?
Superb coverage of September 11: viewership of news now on par with CTV in Toronto markets

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This Hour Has 7 days
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Hot seat, first shock TV
Valor and Horror
Terry Milewski and APEC controversy
Constant political scrutiny of editorial tampering
Office of ombudsman: is political pressure more transparent than in private sector?
CBC, like private media, part of making power, reality and history
Newsworld: Counterspin and other innovations

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News
This Hour has 22 minutes
Hockey Night in Canada
Canada: A People’s History
Over 90% of programs are Canadian
Has a 45% share of audiences looking for
Canadian drama in prime time
CBC radio fans are most loyal

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1/3 government cutbacks since 95
Local and regional news most cut
Now among the lowest funded of public broadcasters in the world ( except for PBS)
Increasingly reliant on commercial revenue
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Half of all TV revenues
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Causes turn to sports, other low cost genres like informational programming
Now a “subsidized commercial broadcaster”

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Too culturally homogenous
Not relevant for young audiences
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Online
Drop the Beat/ Edgemont
DNTO
Counterspin
Regional: deracinated

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State and not a Public Broadcaster
Appointments should be by Parliament and not the PM
Need Citizens’ advisory councils
Need partnerships: campus radio, community cable channels and ETV
More responsive and open and innovative

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Only counterweight to media oligopolies
An important democratic tool: an independent news agency in competition with CanWest and
Vancouver Sun
Just as important as education/other areas of social policy
Market cannot do what the CBC does, and CBC should not do what the market can provide
CBC most aggressive in internet interactive portals: five years ahead of CTV/CanWest
Global
Canada’s Radio Canada International a service

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Share is now around 6%: half that of CTV
But reach is 80%
Widespread reach across age,gender,class and racial lines – but latter not as good as could be
Usage or time spent with CBC: 53% spend an hour a week; 63% a half an hour

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The majority support keeping the CBC, even if they do not watch it: for its ‘public good value’ the struggle for democratic CBC continues
Strongly influenced by:
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Libertarian versus social responsibility views of media
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Relative fear of covert political or economic censorship as threat to media and democracy
What should be the role of a “people’s network”?

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Canadian programming should be based on a profound curiousity about things Canadian, as well as the rest of the world. An understanding of the world, however, starts with an understanding of ourselves, of those near and dear to us, of our neighbours and compatriots. A vast country like ours desperately needs a medium of communication like CBC radio and television to enrich its citizens – not only as individuals but also as members of a community, a region, a province, a country. ( Mandate
Review Committee, Making Our Voices Heard, 1996: 43)
What idea is missing?

 assumes that a continuous flow of cultural products from the US will “cultivate”
American views
 British study of students found high school students believed they should be ‘read their rights’ if arrested for marijuana possession
 but Britain has no Constitution

 pretty primitive stimulus response model
 in essence, predicated on a passive mass audience concept
 held that traditional cultures would fall under modernization
 great ‘global village’ would emerge
 BUT

 it is found, in most countries OUTSIDE OF
ENGLISH CANADA, despite a marked popularity of American popular TV and films, there is a
“cultural affinity’ for local, indigenous product
 that is, given a choice, European or Latin
American, or South Asian audiences prefer local entertainment
 new centres of TV production surfacing: Britain,
Brazil, Calcutta

 Public, non-commercial broadcasting is democratic if:
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 it is accountable to Parliament it seeks to serve all of the people some of the time
 it allows the public to have a say in basic practices and priorities in the provision of programming
 Eamon in Channels of Influence (1994) maintains:
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 audience research should play a special role in a public broadcasting organization the public, rather than the state or market, must be enabled to determine the kind of services public tax money should provide

 Majid Tehranian:
 empowerment means the creation of communicators rather than audiences cum consumers or subjects; it demands, full, active conmunicative citizenship (Eamon, xi)

 input must be regular
 those who participate must be representative
 each vote must count the same
 the matters under consideration must be consequential and not trivial (Eamon, 6)
 Advisory councils or other representative bodies are not sufficient

 the Canadian broadcasting system is based upon a series of assumptions or contestable hypotheses
 contestable hypotheses:
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 people want commercial mass entertainment given a choice, the people choose American cultural products
 American domination of products has eroded Canadian identity
 A Canadian star identity is now emerging...
 Canadian communication scholars know little about how Canadian national identity is constructed in meaning