I will argue that Canada should continue to develop some regulations to protect its cultural industries. It is extremely important for a nation to promote and preserve its own culture
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hipeople102 (student)
The history of Canada In Canadian history it is quite evident we are influenced heavily by the much stronger nations around us. Therefore our own content in Canada is sometimes overshadowed by other cultures, specifically with regards to the United States who have a big influence on our cultural industries. Pierre Trudeau expressed the feeling Canadians have with this co-existence, "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly or temperate the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt." Some may argue that Canada should not continue to develop regulations to protect its cultural industries. However, I will argue that Canada should continue to develop some regulations to protect its cultural industries. It is extremely important for a nation to promote and preserve its own culture because if we don’t preserve our culture now the people of Canada won’t have a sense of nationalism or won’t feel like they belong to something. Cultures important in a country because it helps to bring a nation together because it gives something to people in a country to relate to. We need it especially in Canada because of Canada’s relative population to the rest of the world we are an easy target for cultural penetration from foreign countries. There have been countless rules and regulations imposed on everything, from issues such as foreign takeovers of Canadian publishers to minimum standard of Canadian content on the radio. Therefore, despite the protections, we need to further foster and protect at least some semblance of the original identity. The concept of continentalism, which is the sharing of a continent between more then one nation, may be very detrimental to our ongoing struggle to broadcasting our culture but we need to take a stand. (Hiller 237). The biggest factor in continuing to develop regulations to protect Canada’s cultural industries is globalization (Pg.289) and the cultural nationalism in Canada that wants protection for Canadian content (Hiller 305). 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. ...
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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% of all English-language programming available on Canadian television screens, the vast majority of it American.” (2004) (Couture 2). These statistics put in perspective how dependant Canada is on other cultures content. If we continue to allow this much cultural penetration by our neighbor our own Canadian culture will be left unheard of. Although, it is sometimes beneficial even for Canada to have American influence in their country economically, in the long run the unique Canadian identity might be in question. In the 16th annual Maclean’s year-end poll (published Dec. 20, 1999), some Canadians were interviewed and the results were,“84% said American media such as TV, magazines and films are having an impact on making us more like Americans.” If collectively we believe we are becoming more Americanized we most likely will in the long run. Therefore because we share a continent with such an influential neighbor, the government should continue to regulate and protect its cultural industries. The belief that we are dependent on the United States to survive in the world’s economy it is not completely correct. Slowly Canada has imposed some regulations, which have allowed some of our Canadian content to be exposed not only domestically but also internationally. A relevant example would be the pop culture industry, where not only have a lot of Canadian artists emerged as some of the best but are continuing to have success because of the support from Canadians. In Canada we have seen some success due to our efforts in protecting our cultural industries, the major music business establishments-including music publishers and record labels- have changed from being entirely dominated by the United States in North America to Canada being in the top 5 in comparison with the United States in 2007 (see fig.1). Globalization is a phenomenon that also threatens Canada’s cultural industries because this allows international influence by other cultures. Globalization is “increased access to all parts of the world for whatever purposes” (Hiller 68). This concept is relevant to my argument of Canada having to prioritizing to regulate and protect Canadian culture because now more then ever with the World Wide Web helping to connect the world, Canadian culture is beginning to be more diffused with other cultures. Studies show “The widespread use of new media, new technologies and the Internet is making the culture market more complex, fragmented and more difficult to regulate.” (Statistics Canada 2000). Therefore, although it is very hard for the Canadian government to regulate cultural penetration from foreign sources some type of exclusiveness must be enforced otherwise if Canada waits too long well be left to chase the fast growing world, which is almost impossible with the new technological advances. Canadian culture such as the pop culture industry is benefitting somewhat from globalization because it allows for more exposure but because Canada is a part of the internationalization process in Canada people are also exposed to other cultures, specifically by the United States, who in the past were regulated easily by the 1991 Broadcasting Act but, now because of the World Wide Web becoming more popular, it is extremely hard to regulate what Canadians choose to listen to and what they continue to be influenced by. Canada has made efforts with the broadcast and telecommunications regulator, the Canadian Radio-Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which “is bound to respect a Direction from the federal government governing the circumstances under which foreign nationals can be involved in the Canadian broadcasting system” (Couture 9). With this regulator we are making an effort to making Canadian cultural industries the benefiters of Canadians. This effort is enough to ensure that Canadians know that at least Canada isn’t allowing itself to be influenced by others and it will take a stand. It gives more Canadian artists in the pop culture industry opportunities to be discovered and it allows more Canadian uniqueness, which is ultimately what we need. Globalization has been beneficial in opening the eyes of the Canadian government through technology and interdependency of all the different countries. Foreign direct investment can also be regulated by Canada’s government to ensure the well being of Canadian culture. For example, Hiller gave the example where “Ericsson of Sweden brought their technology to Montreal and set up a plant hiring 800 Canadian engineers.” Canadian government can disallow this kind of investment by foreign cultures because they are only doing it for their own benefit not for Canada. Thus, they might be helping Canada economically but culturally foreign investors do not care and therefore they are influencing us this should not be allowed by the Canadian government because they need to impose some regulations otherwise the Canadian identity is becoming less unique. Cultural nationalism refers to the defense and assistance of all forms of the Canadian culture. Therefore if the Canadian government continues to support Canadian content Canadians feel like they have the support of their government and will continue to develop new ideas contributing to the unique Canadian culture. Again, in the pop culture industry we have seen many Canadian artists thrive, like Justin Bieber and Drake, because of support from the Canadian government with the regulation by the CRTC who impose the 35% of Canadian artists on Canadian radios. This gave these artists exposure to Canadian listeners and an opportunity they would not get if the CRTC did not exist. Cultural nationalists in Canada have been very bold about what they want Canada to do in order to protect its cultural industries some even want the exclusion of some foreign cultural products which can be controversial, but according to Hiller, “at its root is the belief that the intelligentsia and the artistic community provide an invaluable service in the articulation of the nation Identity” (Hiller 305). So, to protect the Canadian culture or even the Canadian identity the government has to continue to regulate their cultural industries because it is evident In the pop culture industry in specific that its very effective in the upbringing of Canadian talent which is prevalent on the airwaves of other countries playing Canadian content and also The Juno Awards where Canadian artists are winning awards. This success is the product of the awareness shown by the Canadian government in protecting its product. If the government does not regulate the cultural industry in Canada the strong Canadian cultural nationalism in Canada will have no unique identity but instead be influenced by others specifically the United States who will be benefitting from the Canadians who support their culture because they do not have a unique culture of their own. It is the Canadian government’s responsibility to listen to its cultural nationalists and respond accordingly because otherwise Canadian culture will die off because simply Canada can not compete with such powerful nations in Europe and to the south the United States because of our relatively smaller population and because Canadians are easily influenced by other nations’ cultural industries because they have more power and money to make their industries seem more appealing. Thus, in order for our cultural industries to thrive we need to make our own industries appealing to our own people and in the long term hopefully it can be influential and appeal to a broader audience. This can only be possible if we forget about other foreign industries and how they help our economy and focus on how we can fix our own cultural industries by making them feel safe against foreign competition like we have done with CBC for example. CBC represents Canadian identity and people can be proud of it because its homegrown media. Canada should continue to impose regulations on foreign cultural industries because simply if Canada does not we will be overshadowed by the much more influential nations without cost. With a fast growing interest in the Internet we have to be strict with these regulations as well because if we do not our future generations will not have the same opportunities, as the older generations did and that would be because of the fact that we could not sustain our own cultural industry when we did have one, opportunities such as being exposed to the market outside of Canada because we will have lost that privilege only because we were careless with our regulations now. The government might have some conflict because of trade agreements such as, the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA), or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) but it is the government’s responsibility to continue to maintain the unique Canadian identity Canada has developed through its various cultural industries.