Canadian Magazine Dispute Case Study

Canada as a nation has been striving to characterize itself as more ?Canadian? for decades. This has included numerous struggles and events such as protests, bans, and the creation of the Massey Commission, to encourage national development in the arts, and support major companies like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and National Film Board (NFB). However, this has not been an easy task for the Canadian government, as major influences from below the border (the United States) have been captivating the Canadian audiences by large. American media has had a momentous revolutionizing effect on Canada, even through efforts made to define Canada with its own cultural identity.

Since the country’s conception in 1867, Canada has lived in the shadow of it’s southerly neighbour, the United States of America. Through the years, what started out as a country with very distinct culture has morphed and become Americanized. Historically speaking, American influence has had a great economical impact on Canada. Speaking about the Americanization of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, has said, “Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United states has produced…” This pressure has changed the way Canadians live and conduct business. This pressure has Americanized the Canadian economy. American culture has a very far reaching effect on Canada with many trickle down effects. Americanization of the Canadian economy has lead to the American control of the Canada’s corporate structure, Canadian dependence on American capital, turned the Canadian economy into a mirror image of the American economy, and has led to loss of

Always a threat, foreign substitutes and the threat of new competition are very real. Our three main competitive advantages will be able to transfer to Canada. The pleasing experience

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 main competitive advantage that the organization has had relates to the sense of pride of its’ Canadian Roots as well as previous success in relation to the speed of strategic decisions in the past.  To begin to address the situation faced by this organization, it is impertinent that all of the mandatory government legislations are updated and in full effect.  It would also be worth doing research on similar industries and competitors to see how they have made their compensation strategies successful as well as any best practices that we might want to consider benchmarking.  This should be an eye opener to the organization to insure the appropriate changes are made to put them at a more competitive advantage.

Essentially covering the same timeline the chapters differ by covering different thematic content. Chapter Two largely deals with the rationing and price control Canadians faced during this period. The key aspect of the culture surrounding these policies Mosby discusses is the remarkable popularity of these measures and the implications of that popularity on Canadian culture and politics. The argument is made that the measures lead to an enjoyed level of equality and unity amongst Canadians from disparate backgrounds. This idea of national unity is also supported by the central topics of Chapter Three in which Mosby tackles the concept of the “housoldier.”

Ever since the 1950’s more of the American culture has been known to influence Canadian ways of living through the media.

The war in Vietnam had a very big impact on Canadians as it divided them by their response to the war. The government “tried its best to stay neutral during the Vietnam War” (pg. 231 Counterpoints: Exploring Canadian Issues). Canada did not want to become involved in a war that was not theirs to fight, they did not send troops to fight in the war. Canada did not participate in the war and became a safe haven for Americans who would have been forced to fight. This shows that Canada can be independent and not follow what other countries tell them to do. In 1949 Canadians watched American news and saw the world through an American lens. The Canadian government did not like this; the Massey Commission was formed and, “suggested that Canadian culture needed to be protected from U.S. influences” (pg. 176 Counterpoints: Exploring Canadian Issues). The National Film Board (NFB) would be strengthened. The CBC, which was already a radio network, was put in charge of the development of television. Massey Commission also led to, the creation of the Canadian Council for the Arts which awarded grants to writers, artists, and theatres. Another important step was the creation of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). They regulated the airwaves and guarantee that Canadian content was played. The measures that were taken encouraged the growth of arts and culture in Canada. In the 1920s the American investment in Canada increased. American investors started to set up branch plants in Canada. They did this so that “American car makers avoided having to pay high tariffs” (pg. 63 Counterpoints: Exploring Canadian Issue) Canadians were very happy with the investments so they did not think of the long term consequences. The branch plants were a good thing because it meant more jobs but it also meant that the U.S owned Canada. Canadians did not think of that

Currently in Canada there are no government regulations placed upon video and film making. The certification of Canadian films and videos is passed off to the Canadian National Film Board, which has been “charged with the duty of certifying on behalf of Her Majesty moving picture films, separate sound film track, filmstrips and slides, videotape and sound recordings — produced in Canada or produced abroad by persons normally resident in Canada as being of an international educational, scientific or cultural character”(Canadian Film Certification Regulations). Therefore, the only job of the Canadian National Film Board is to certify it a film classifies as Canadian, yet does not regulate its content or distribution. This follows the same pattern as many countries such as the United States, and the United Kingdom. If Canadian film and video was regulated by the government, certainly some regulations may affect its growth compared to other countries without regulations. While others would help guide the industry towards a new path of growth and success. Canadian films and videos have, historically, had a difficult time breaking into the industry. With our close neighbour the United States over taking all of the spotlight with their major motion pictures. “Given the longstanding difficulty Canadian-made feature films have had in penetrating Canadian movie theatres, television has been their most reliable means of distribution”(Gasher, Skinner, Lorimer, 2012,229). Certain Canadian government regulations on film and video could help change this unbalanced representation of film and video in Canada. Government regulations placed upon guaranteeing a certain amount of Canadian feature films playing in cinemas would greatly benefit our film and video industry. Currently “Hollywood is the dominant player in the

While some may agree that it is not appropriate to keep selling and buying a newspaper every few months, using several different strategies and laying off employees that are essential to the newspaper in order to keep it alive has certainly not work in the past years. The price tag keeps falling every year, while, the amount of money needed to keep publishing daily editions increases. Currently, the newspaper does not have the capacity to investigate and report all the potential news in the City of Philadelphia as the number of staff has immensely decreased in the last several years. Subsequently, there are numerous local business owners in Philadelphia that are fighting to find a solution to the problem. The Philadelphia Inquirer has been in existence for almost185 years. The paper was a key source of news during the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War I and II, shutting down the Inquirer will end a key role in the evolution of the American

Canada is considered to be a cultural mosaic, where all cultures are embraced opposed to a melting pot where it is expected to adopt one culture. Government regulated media is more favourable than policies based off of self-regulated solutions when addressing Canada’s media industries and cultural needs. Canadians place importance on national identity and without government regulated policies, the content in the media would have minimal Canadian information. According to the Aird Commission, when Canada’s media was operating through private enterprise, many stations expressed conflicting content, however, with state regulated media, broadcasting allows the nation to have a unified vocation. One unified message being sent to the nations citizens is more beneficial than multiple broadcasts on differentiated and insignificant information.

Up until the end of the 1960s, the French people of Quebec could be seen living as second-rate citizens in Canada. It wasn’t until 1969, that the Official Languages Act was passed by Pierre Elliot Trudeau giving both the English and French languages equal representation in Canadian parliament. Up until then, most documents written by the Canadian government and its affiliates were solely in English and did not recognize French as an official language. In The Hockey Sweater, the character of Mr. Eaton can be equated to the role of the Canadian government. The order forms provided in the Eaton’s catalogue were completely in English even though they were being shipped to a small French town in Quebec. This could be seen as the English speaking people of Canada imposing their language and culture upon Quebec in an almost assimilation-like manner. The lack of equality with regards to the French and English language pre- 1969 led to many people of Quebec feeling subservient to the rest of Canada. The language issue played a vital role in the story of The Hockey Sweater which led to great turmoil just as it did with Quebec’s culture during the

Canadian and American cultural views were different which was proved because one is multicultural and the other is not. Canada was known as “mosaic” which means immigrants from any ethnic group were accepted here and were allowed to practice their religion. Therefore, they have a double identity ,meaning they are their ethnic group before a Canadian citizen as in Japanese-Canadian, Asian Canadian and so on . Whereas ,American culture was known as the “melting pot “, where they accept other cultures however they encouraged their citizens to give up their original culture ( Wells ,10 and 11 ). Canadian’s usually describe themselves as “NOT AMERICAN“(Wells,35) . Many Americans view Canada as a positive nation and as a better environment to live in then the United States . A legal sectary from Gastonia ,North Carolina said “Canada’s such a terrific place, I’d move there tomorrow if I could” (Wells, 35). This proves that Americans want to come to Canada since it is a safer environment due to it’s unique culture. Canadians are recognized as more modest, less aggressive and more down to earth then their southern neighbors (Wells,35).

Q.2: To what extent do you think the government of Canada was pressured to seek to protect its market because of the financial interests of the Canadian magazine industry?

The New York Times, as well as every other newspaper and magazine around the world, is struggling to find the best way to transition from traditional print to the digital space while still maintaining a profitable business. The current solution for the largest local metropolitan newspaper in the United States is a paywall, which requires readers of online content to pay for a digital subscription in order to have access to the site after a fixed monthly allowance of 20 articles. However, this pay metered method has been tried by the most popular American newspaper website before and the question is whether or not this strategy can help The Times evolve