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Outgoing CRTC Head Says Technology Is Eroding Canadian Culture
Patchw0rk F0g writes "Canada's outgoing CRTC head, Konrad von Finckenstein, has some choice words for his successor: Internet and wireless technology has disarmed federal regulators of their weapons to protect cultural identity. The retiring Finckenstein cites over-the-top broadcasting, new Internet technologies and (perhaps most importantly) the fact that the CRTC is antiquated and can't keep up with these emerging technologies as factors in the (still)-growing culture-loss of Canada to the U.S. 'We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more,' he said in one of his last interviews."
"Technology is eroding the iron hegemony of Bell and Rogers! Sheeple Canadians are starting to wake up and realize they are being bent over a barrel and are getting restless!"
The CRTC is an unelected, largely unaccountable old-boy's club for power-players and lobbyists from Bell and Rogers. The CRTC's only mandate is protecting the duopoly of Rogers and Bell, nothing else.
This is a guy who's trying to stop the wheel of time from turning.
Why is the US pointed at as the reason for their culture loss? I'd agree that the internet is causing some culture loss, but you could also counter by saying it is causing culture gains. I know personally my life has been impacted by the culture of different nations due to the readily accessible nature of information on the computer. In my house you would think it more Asian than American due to the internet.
I also see this at my kids school. Both in style of dress and the behavior of the kids.
While I do agree that it is important to know where you come from, I don't think it is wrong to embrace other cultures. In essence isn't that pretty much where all culture stems from, the exchange of ideas?
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
The consumer ( aka normal people) are in control of their own decisions about information and culture?
Oh no, whatever will we do.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
I'm a native born white Canadian living in one of the most multicultural cities in the world and I can't stand the CRTC. Living here for 25+ years, I don't even know what Canadian culture is, let alone why we need a bureaucracy to defend it. The only people the CRTC are serving are hacky television writers whose shows get put on CBC and cancelled a year later. They are completely out of touch with reality and need to go.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
As a Canadian, here's the solution I'd suggest:
Stop trying to force Canadian content on Canadians!
If the content is good and provides something consumers want then it'll be a success. If it's Canadian-created filler crap then it won't, regardless of how forcefully it's stuffed down our throats.
And don't claim that Canadian content can't be successful on it's own because that's just bullshit. Just look at the music industry to see lots of Canadian content that's successful south of the border for the most glaring example.
'We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more,' he said in one of his last interviews."
You say that like it's a bad thing, Konrad.
Basically Canada is still going through issues trying to figure out what it means to be Canadian. A large part of how many Canadians seem to define themselves as as "not American" hence the "little brother" syndrome I talk about. They are like a little kid who is saying what they are is the things the big kid is not.
This isn't such a problem for the average man on the street, of course, but it is a big issue for the government and various folks. They have a real issue with trying to decide what it is to be Canadian and protecting that. There are even things like laws requiring a certain amount of content on TV and radio to be Canadian in origin.
Canadian what?
I'll back up your point about successful Canadian content here in the US. I've also noticed an interesting side-effect of the CanCon rules . . . There's a hell of a lot of CanCon on American TV. A lot of it is pretty good, and you wouldn't notice it except for the northern accents (which don't vary that much from northern states) and an occasinoal "eh", more frequent on documentary/reality shows (e.g. anything with Mike Holmes) than on works of fiction.
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There is more to it than that; we're more socialist, and less warlike. We have a smaller percentage of visible blowhards among our citizens travelling the world as tourists. We don't have isolationism or protectionism as a political philosophy. We don't (and honestly, couldn't if we wanted to) support puppet dictatorships to further our own ends.
Of course, the USA is a big place. So is Canada. Both countries have a wide variety of cultures within them, and I'm speaking only of the 'international persona' of the two nations.
Also, 'Eh' went out of style a long time ago. And we have milk in bags.
All the posts I'm reading are "Canada has no culture". Seriously?
Of course Canada has a culture; Quebec has a more unique example, but for English Canada there are a lot of cultural similarities between their culture and the United States' culture, so most of those characteristics are subsumed under the US cultural umbrella. Canada's resulting perceived culture is more fragmented, less in your face than other cultures. We could easily lose these fragments and become more 'international' (though most English speaking Canadians get information from english speaking countries, so that means the US and UK mostly). All nationalist cultures will face this in the coming years.
The question, really, is does this constitute a problem? It's a question of identity: 'what cultural groups do you identify with?'. Nationalism has a very real hold on our identity. We need that feeling of belonging to something, and everybody is born into a nation. However, online experience has already show us that 'virtual reality' provides that feeling of belonging and the groups with which we identify and to which we belong have changed drastically. This is a fragmentation of previous groups, and of course the previously established cultural groups are going to fight back.
Of course, the results of this fragmentation remain to be seen. Maybe it's better to belong to a group that all your neighbours belong to so that we share something in common with them, and some weak nationalism has a greater value then we currently understand. Maybe the explosion of smaller groups will allow a stronger connection within the group while a weaker without. I personally think that both are useful, and that Canadians should want to understand their culture, just as all other nations should want to understand their own culture. Having to legislate it in fear of losing it shows mistrust on one side and disinterest on the other, an ugly combination.
Globalization for the past couple thousand years have seems to be a factor in changing cultures for quite a while.
And there are always people who get pissed off by this natural effect.
You get those crazy Romans who take over a culture, if they didn't kill every man, woman and child, usually caused a portion of their culture to rub off to the entire roman empire, although the conquered people usually get the biggest culture shift. However if the mighty Roman Empire could be switched to Christianity, which has been a small sect in an outskirt territory. Putting all debates about religion aside it shows how globalization effects all cultures involved.
So now in the 21st century We have near instant globalization of ideas and products. So cultures are changing. They are not going away but they are changing and are being effected by outside sources. Americans know about the music and shows available in Japan, or in India, we can talk to people from these areas and make friends of them. Also vice-verse a lot of countries that are newer to globalization feel more threaten then others, because their culture has been isolated for so long that their culture has been the same for a long time, however forces are causing it to change. Ideas on morality, politics, and stereotypes are becoming more diverse and the culture is changing to either accept these new ideas or reject them... But these new ideas are out there to be thought about, and they are changing culture more rapidly then what everyone was used to.
Many Americans are threatened by the ideas from Asia and the Middle East, as well these groups are threatened by Western ideas. They put to call our ideas of morality and what is right and wrong.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Canada could have had British Culture, French Cuisine, and American Technology. Instead, they settled for American Culture, British Cuisine, and French Technology.
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What's really funny is, the US has long since lost it's various cultures. When I was a kid, traveling meant meeting people who spoke differently, thought differently, people with different histories and cultures.
Today? There is little variance between a fast food restaurant in New York or LA, and there is little difference in culture along any route between the two cities.
I wouldn't be smug about any nation becoming like America, because we've lost much more than we gained in the last 50 years.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
Everything's derivative at best. I would argue that The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are derivative of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I also wouldn't call shows like Kids in the Hall short lived when it aired for 6 years.
Saying Canada has no culture and that anyone of sufficient talent ends up in the US and effectively becomes more "American" than their country of origin is a pretty nonsensical statement. The NHL is filled with primarily Canadian players but most of the teams are American. Does that make all those Canadians playing in the US more "American"? Does it make hockey more "American"?
Canada's culture is one of individualism, tolerance and acceptance. The nation needed bilingualism to survive from it's very early stages and because it was much slower to be settled than the US, the native populations thrived much longer and had much more influence on Canada as nation. Multiculturalism is built into the foundation of the country, which can't be said of most other countries in the world (especially not the US which aimed to be a giant melting pot that assimilated other cultures into their own rather than preserve and nurture individual cultural groups).
The British aren't known for lumberjacks, beavers, poutine or long harsh winters the last time I checked. They had no Terry Fox, Tragically Hip, RCMP or Anne of Green Gables. For such a small nation Canada has produced a wealth of artists, musicians, authors, comedians, athletes, television shows and film. If you're blind to it, then that's a shame but Canada has culture and it's a lot deeper and more complicated than you seem to realize.