The Canadian Magazine Dispute: The Negative Impact Of Globalization

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...”

One giant difference between the United States and Canada is the currency. In the United States the people use the American dollar, and the people of Canada use the Canadian dollar which has a smaller value in the United States. In the United States one Canadian dollar is worth seventy-six cents, but in Canada the American dollar is worth one

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.

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

THE EXTENT TO WHICH THE US-CANADIAN MAGAZINE DISPUTE WAS MOTIVATED BY GENUINE DESIRE TO PROTECT CANADIAN CULTURE?

Canada is seen as this peaceful country with an extremely polite population. Where no discrimination or conflict occurs. This usually the point of view of people out of canada who have heard stories about his country. The truth is before Canada has became this peaceful, a lot of horrible events and discrimination occurred. Such the discrimination against First Nations, the Jews, the germans and the Japanese.

1. As the Canadian governmental committee put it, "magazines constitute the only national press .. in Canada, …..( it) can help foster in Canadians a sense of themselves." A legacy that is threatened by more than 100 US Magazines established in Canada. If the majority of magazines are printed in America, there will be no need for printing magazines in Canada. In an effort to preserve this identifying mark of Canadian identity, culminated into the Canadian magazine dispute. When thoroughly analyzed, America, the biggest foreign magazine contributor in Canada is to blame for the dispute. In an effort to monitor and control imports of foreign publications. Canada was only trying to protect what rightfully belongs to them.

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

Continentalism is a major contributing factor because it can be very threatening for the less powerful country. Continentalism refers to “the presence of a global power (e.g., United States) at one’s border must be considered a fact of special importance” (Hiller 61). This is to say that the more powerful country has influence over the less powerful country. This concept is relevant to my argument about protecting Canada’s cultural industries because there has been an increasing level in American and foreign cultural penetration in Canada. Sharing a large border and more importantly a common language with the United States means Canada is in a very difficult position in regard to American culture, with direct attempts at the Canadian market or the general diffusion of American culture in the globalized media arena. Thus the people of Canada are influenced heavily by American culture and are surrounded more by their culture. The Canadian government should regulate cultural industries so we do not lose interest in our own content. Most of our culture in Canada is from foreign sources: “More than 80% of English-language magazines available in Canada are imported. 88% of new record releases are foreign content. Foreign films take about 95% of the screen time in our movie theatres. Foreign content makes up 61%

The Canadian magazines constituting only 11 percent magazine sales in Canada to me seems very important to the Canadian culture because low percentage of magazine sale is a way of protecting their culture since the it will provide a way for them to watch what they read in the country as well as encouraging young authors in Canada to write and create a pure Canadian ideas without depending on other countries ideologies to write their magazines.

Depending on where you are in Canada, there may be different languages that are smaller than the area that you in’s official language like in America where the official language is English, you may see on different packages some Spanish of the package’s description. The same goes for things in Québec. An example includes different street signs, one of which is a stop sign that can say “ARRÊT” with

One of the CRTC’s initial jobs was enforcing the Broadcasting Act of Canada, which stated that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by people from Canada. This requirement soon became known as CanCon, or Canadian Content. Now, as time flew by, a principle concern was raised amongst a group of intellectuals and critics of the CRTC, a question that sparked a national debate: To what extent should the CRTC and CanCon play a role in today’s global world? Those that believe that the CRTC have a significant place in this globalizing world cite how CanCon prevents complete Americanization of Canada, protecting Canada’s culture, and gives exposure to Canadian content creators. On the other hand, the opposition side believes that the CRTC has no place, since CanCon gives not necessarily good content priority over better content just because they are Canadian, and also forces media outlets to make time for Canadian content that may not do well, thus wasting their time, and money. Personally, we believe that since it protects the culture of Canada, helps bring Canadian talent into the limelight, and gives consumers a more diverse selection, not just American music and films, the CRTC and its CanCon has a crucial part with Canada in modern day’s

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.

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.

It is known that the economy is definitely effected by globalization, but not always in a negative way. In a sense, the world revolves around some situations dealing