Canada Magazine Case Study

Media such as journals, television, music and movies have influenced Canada’s culture in the past and continue to do so today. The Royal Commission on Publications, the Committee on Broadcasting and the Senate Committee on the Mass Media are all concerned with the fact that periodicals and broadcasting are dominated by American content (Smith, 2014, p.105-106). Due to the American’s dominance, the opinions and messages that are conveyed to the Canadians do not reflect Canadian culture, but more so American culture. It has an effect on the Canadians that are on the receiving end because their values and beliefs are altered based on what they hear, and their culture is starting to resemble more that of America than Canada. This is further proven when an observer in 1889 states: “American papers, magazines, books, periodicals, secular and religious, for children and for adults, fill Canadian homes...”

It’s a pretty standard sociological equation that Canada has mastered. Free market proponents seem to think that if Canadians want US media, they shouldn’t have a legal choice, and should be forced to accept the violence and crime that seems to follow it. The argument goes that it should be an individual’s choice to view these things and they should also have the decisiveness and discernment to know what is acceptable in society, which makes sense, however, Western influence has a tendency to flood markets without leaving much of a choice in how to make such a decision. Thus, those who would wish to avoid such smut would be forced to see it every time they leave the house as we are here in the

The Canadian government identified magazines as an important touchstone of Canadian natural identify. If the government recognizes this as a national identify, then those who purchase it are showing loyalty to their father land and preserving their culture for the younger generation.

The U.S.-Canadian magazine dispute was undoubtedly motivated by Canadian protectionism of their own culture. The source of the problem was Sports Illustrated Canada, a split-run magazine publisher, was producing material in the United States and sending it electronically to Canada so it could be printed as a Canadian periodical. The fact that Sports Illustrated Canada was rendered as Canadian rather than American allowed the periodical to offer tax deductions to Canadian advertisers, in turn taking away from the potential advertisement revenue available for other Canadian periodicals. The only reason this became a problem was because the originally Canadian periodicals couldn’t compete with the prices offered by the American magazines that

The Canadian government sees magazines as an important part of their culture and gives Canadians a sense of identity.

Forty-two years and still going strong, This Magazine focuses on Canadian politics, pop culture and the arts, but in keeping with its radical roots never pulls punches. Subversive, edgy and smart, This Magazine is the real alternative to that.

This was “because these American-originating magazines serve a much larger market, they are able to take advantage of the principle of economy of scale, and to offer lower advertising prices. It was predicted that the diversion of advertising revenue would force many Canadian periodicals out of business”.

Newspapers are rooted together with the public sphere, globalization, and mass media. The newspaper and the public sphere give citizens an opportunity to examine public concern and global matters. Does this mean that those involved with the Canadian ownership and newspaper industry ultimately wield the power in Canadian society, by exercising this influence to mold the Canadian opinion of readers (Wagenberg & Soderlund, 1975)? Historically, multiple independent newspapers existed, but this had significantly lessened over time with the rise of concentrated ownership in the newspaper industry. Canada has the most concentrated ownership of any country in the free world, meaning that the ownership of newspapers are left into fewer and fewer hands. For example, there are 42 daily newspapers across Canada owned by PostMedia. This raises concerns about concentrated ownership, and if this impacts a Canadian society in having a free diverse range of voices in our national and local media in order to sustain a healthy democracy. The current issue is whether or not concentrated ownership is causing distrust in mainstream Canadian newspapers, creating a climate of insecurity, and if there is an effect on the quality of journalism.

The government had to find a drastic solution to protect the already low market of domestic magazines in order to avoid the closure of many publishing companies. In front of this danger and under the strong pressure from publishers and employees in the magazine industry, the government of Canada adopted some measures to prevent the entrance of foreign magazines in the Canadian market. The pressure was very strong because the government had to choose between the rights of Canadian business and the agreement with the World Trade Organization (WTO) for free market. The numbers speak for themselves and that means that this small percent of consumers cannot express the general culture and the habits of people in Canada.

“The Constitution Act, 1867 contained specific provisions designed to protect Quebec 's distinct culture and language” (Nicholson, 2003) Canada has always given guarantees to protect the Quebec culture, a policy would be nice but it is not an absolute must have as he portrays. Tremblay then moves on to say, that U.S Department of Commerce would like to deregulate the communications industry and how horrible this would be for Canada . He points out that once this happens the U.S will pressure Canada to do the same. Yet, he seems to forget that Canada is a sovereign nation that does not have to give in to U.S pressure. Canada sets its own policies without being influenced by others. It has and will always be this way. Quebec is already officially recognized as distinct, it is entrenched in the constitution. Simply put, it does not get any better than that.

The Canadian Magazine Dispute 1. — In order to maintain local cultural material being sold in Canada, Canadian legislature had to put a halt to constant import of magazines to encourage Canadian newsstands to have enough of their own. More then 90 percent (globalization101.org., 20??) of Canadian magazines were imported from other areas around the world. As thought in this lesson, media is a major cause of local neglect.

Based on my knowledge about the quantity of American content that is prevalent in Canadian airwaves these days, I do not believe that Canada has their own popular culture that is independent of the United States. To begin, Canada and the United States share a connection and a few similarities with each other - expected of neighbouring countries. Being first world countries with capitalist infrastructures, the target audience of these media forms are similar. The type of television and movies follow a similar format (or even exact copy) from American to Canadian television - media companies and networks know this format of media is effective for both regions, so why not reuse it? This eliminates drastic differences in popular culture from Canadian

If I were the Canadian government, my problem will not be the name of the magazine and where it was published. My major concern will be that, the magazine should carry at least 70% of Canadian life. This will mean, putting in place a medium of censorship. Consequently any magazine that does not fulfill the conditions will be considered a split-run. One of the criteria will be the content of the adverts. A magazine that is carries mainly foreign adverts will be classified as split-run. On the bases of those considerations, all split-run magazines would have to pay higher tariffs or face a ban. It sounds like violation of the freedom of press but a nation must not sit down and watch globalization eat up her culture.

Corporations are in positions to exert tremendous pressure on the media, which they virtually finance through their advertisement. As the companies duel, countries and communities often find themselves in the crossfire. Like all conflicts, the media war leaves a trail of victims and marginalized individuals. The corporate media give inordinate weight to the views of powerful people in business and people in positions of authority. But they pay meagre, and almost never positive, attention to people from less powerful groups, such as the poor, white-collar workers, unionized workers, feminist groups and environmental organizations. The result is that organizations representing the interests of millions of Canadians have little if any voice in

I suspect that the real motive of the Canadian government was not to protect Canadian culture in this dispute with the US. But rather, it seemed to concern more with political and economic factors. As appeared in the article, the Canadian government finally gave in and went on to settle the dispute (The Levin Institute, [1]). To me, that seems somewhat irrational to suddenly give up on one’s culture like they did, when the US threated to retaliate with trade barriers. As a speculation, I believe the dispute was motived by political and economic concerns. The Canadian government was attempting to defend the local media from a total domination by foreign media since it implies that Canadian businesses will be paying foreign corporations to have their products and services advertised on a magazine, even when local magazines have the capacity to provide the same type of service. Simply put, the concern seems to be related to the higher outflows of capital.