Canadian Magazine Globalization

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.

Canada’s media industries have played a huge role in the Canadian culture. The Canadian culture has integrated with other countries forming a successful globalization. Many countries including the United States have contributed to the success in Canada’s media industries. The success of globalization between all of the countries was predicted by Marshall McLuhan and ever since his prediction, the world can be depicted as a global village. The global village can be viewed as a tool, a tool that is bringing the world together, despite the different languages, locations, and diverse cultures. With new technologies being developed more often, the communication skills between different countries are very successful. Canada’s diversity in their media and policies has established a global village with people around the world, allowing them to relate to the Canadian culture.

The recent Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) (2013c) 'Broadcasting Regulatory Policy on the Distribution of Canadian Category C national news speciality services' marks a new regulatory approach to distributing competitive news and sports programming in Canada. This policy is a response to Canadians' concerns over consumer choice due to program bundling and an inability to select news and sports programs on a stand-alone basis (CRTC, 2013c; CRTC, 2014). Based on the Commission's public notice on 'Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings and Discretionary Programming Services', the new regulation demonstrates an effort to reduce national news and sports program regulations and to

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

For example, most magazines focus on American celebrities and American trends. People’s magazine is very popular, with 3 527 541 copies paid and verified. It’s an American magazine that talks about celebrity gossip. Reader’s Digest is also quite popular, with 4 288 529 copies paid and verified. It’s a general interest family based magazine.1 There is also Twist, a magazine popular among teens. It teaches them about all the different beauty and fashion trends that are currently popular.2 However, these magazines almost never touch upon what’s happening in Canada, as people assume that what’s going on in the USA must also be happening in Canada. While that’s not completely true, events happening in the USA will likely affect Canada in one way or another. Pierre Elliotte Trudeau even stated, “Living next to the United States in some way like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even tempered the beast: one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”3 Finally, Canada covers a lot of what’s happening in the USA but the states don’t do the same with Canada. As Canadian author Margaret Atwood said, “The boarder separating the two countries is like a one-way mirror through which Canadians can see the United States but Americans can’t see

In the Roaring Twenties, Canada changed for the better as it was a time of happiness after the war. Happiness was not the only thing that came in this time, industries began booming like “Foreign demand for Canadian raw materials increased after 1926. There was a better market for the traditional resources, like wheat and timber, and increasing demand, especially from the United States, for new resources like pulp and paper and base metals.”(Canada A) This finding indicates that Canada was doing well since it was a new country it had many resources to share like it’s large amount of lumber of the west. It also helped as industries begun to advance quickly rising the demand for the resources. The many resources like metal, and wood boomed which increase Canada’s economy. Canada didn’t just change, but it society did too. Canada society was more accepting as it

It was the mass media and the entertainment which helped Canada to forget about the hard times and to recover. Multimedia such as live broadcasts from new invention “radio” fascinated the Canadians. They could tune in to different channels in order to listen to many different types of programs. They could hear the music, live broadcast of the hockey game, live entertainment session with the comedian, and so on. The farmers in remote regions in prairies could even hear the live broadcast of the Maple Leaf’s match! Radio therefore has contributed a lot towards the society such as connecting the nation together, sending out information, entertainment, and so on.

The U.S.’ negative dominance has been so damaging to Canadian culture that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, also known as the CRTC has had to step in and implement laws under the 1991 Broadcasting Act of Canada (Branch, Legislative Services). The CRTC says, “One of our goals is to ensure that Canadian broadcasting content meets the needs and interests of Canadians by delivering compelling, high-quality Canadian-made creative content from diverse sources on a variety of platforms (“Content Made by Canadians,” 2016). The role of the CRTC is to ensure that the United States, being the mega country that it is does not overshadow Canadian talent and does not limit the opportunities that Canadians may have when

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

The 1920s was an exciting time for broadcasting technology in the west; the possibilities of all that this era had to offer were infinite and with it came much needed regulatory policies. Radio and television broadcasting were at their infancy and no one knew how big this idea of instant, national connection would become. Soon after this, it became apparent that Canadians prominently turned their attention to American broadcasting and, in turn, overlooked their own. This piece of information sparked the birth of regulatory policies and the Canadian Broadcasting Act which would control percentages of original Canadian and foreign content to see to it that Canadians would not lose sight of their culture and that the Canadian broadcasting industries could stay in business. Then again, why should the government have say over what their people are allowed and not allowed to watch, listen to, or enjoy? As it is, times are changing and more and more people are able to download or stream movies to which the government has very little control over. Is the idea that the Canadian Broadcasting Act was originally implemented for, even still necessary? New media has taken over the world, social media is a constant, and even if attempted, people would not be able to get away from the hundreds of advertisements that they see each and every day. The essential control needed to keep Canadian content, culture, and industry thriving is found in the Canadian Broadcasting Act (CBA) to which

I think Canada’s own government pressured itself to self-preserve the publishing industry with Canadian driven material along with local publishers in efforts to continue to provide local culture and issues for its citizens. The article doesn’t mention how the Canadian government is helping the publishing industry to reorganize, in order to compete with American magazines. This area may be where the problem lies and probably wasn’t assessed until US magazines came into the picture. But if Canada wants to continue to maintain the small percentage of Canadian magazines they should be looking at

If Canada wants to protect their national identity, they must all embrace each other’s cultures, instead of creating multiple broadcasts that preach one view or culture. Without state governed media, the dominance of US products in Canada would diminish its identity as a nation, fail to serve the public interest and create less profits causing more advertising and less content in the media. Government regulated media proves to be more favourable and beneficial than policies based off of self-regulated solutions when addressing Canada’s media industries and cultural

The US-Canadian Magazine Dispute was unequivocally inspired by an authentic craving to ensure the Canadian culture in light of the fact that the Canadian government has since quite a while ago recognized the generation of magazines as an essential touchstone of Canadian National Identity. Moreover, agreeing the board of trustees, since magazine contrast from other media in their flexibility

Canada has a wide variety of media outlets including local newspapers, commercial broadcast radio groups, magazines, and a variety of radio stations. Overall Canadian media has progressed throughout the years, though they deal with a few problems similar to media in other countries. Today more than 80% of Canadian media is owned by a cartel of just five corporations: Bell Media, Rogers media, Postmedia, Corus, and

The United States and Canadian magazine dispute was a reaction to the U.S. company Time Warner’s circumvention of Canada’s outdated trade laws. In 1965, Canadian tariff code 9958 was created to prohibit the physical importation of foreign split-run periodicals and magazines (Thomas, 1998). As satellite technology was introduced into the world of publication, in 1993, the U.S. company Time Warner was able to send the contents electronically via satellite across the border to a Canadian printer. Time Warner began printing split-run Canadian Sports Illustrated issues. While the electronic border crossing was against the spirit of the 9958 Canadian tariff code, the wording did not prohibit the new technology. Instead of amending tariff code 9958, the Canadian government, in 1995, used Bill C-103 to set an 80% tax on split-run advertisements; thereby, ending split-run publications (Thomas, 1998). The Canadian government was primarily focused on protecting its small market domestic publications. The 80% tax from Bill C-103 was not intended to create revenue; instead, it was an extreme preventative measure to prevent the proliferation of foreign publications. The Canadian government was also reacting to the sneaky methods used by Time Warner to print split-run magazines in Canada via satellite communication and circumvent the spirit of the tariff codes that govern imports. Had Time Warner approached Canada with information about trends in communication, perhaps the World Trade