First DemocracticMedia.ca post

I was asked awhile back to contribute occasionally to democracticmedia.ca and after a great deal of thought I've finally added my first post - which reads alot like this:

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"There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute or common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."
-Robert Heinlein, 1939

I've been promising for awhile to start contributing to democraticmedia.ca. But, I think that I have a different take on media than most. Deep down I do believe that it would be a good thing if we could force a more diverse media, a Canadian owned media that relied heavily on Canadian programming and had substantially increased public service requirements. These though were largely the unsuccessful fights of a generation ago.

Media is changing rapidly but where it's going is clear. The "convergence" that people have talked about for a decade is happening. More and more every year print media happens on the internet, radio happens on the internet, television happens on the internet and it is not just a few big players. The proliferation of blogs, podcasts, social media and 'user generated content' caused Time Magazine to name 'you' as the person of the year for 2006. Just last week a dangerous, anti-consumer, anti-privacy, copyright bill that large US media companies tried to force on Canada was defeated by the power of the internet.

Additionally, devices like Tivo, the DVR and once again the internet will make watching commercials optional, which means in most cases the traditional television or radio ad will become a thing of the past. At the very least, in the near term, ads will start to lose their value which means declining revenues for broadcasters. Personally I see the current round of media consolidation as an attempt to 'circle the wagons' in the face of declining power, declining revenue and a market that is becoming more fragmented by the hour.

Jello Biafra once said "Don't hat the media, become the media". The reality is that, for the moment, we are the media. Ordinary individuals have more power than they have ever had before. While it is not yet available to everyone, hundreds of millions of people the world over have the power to publish their ideas, their thoughts and their opinions in text, audio or video via the internet. Imagine the implications if Gutenberg's printing press or the power of film or television and radio broadcasting had fallen into the hands of hundreds of millions instead of a few monied individuals.

Given all of this I think it's better to look at where media is headed and try tp put in place a future proofed system that works for all Canadians rather than looking looking at media as it was and trying to go backward.

As I see them, the key issues are:

1. Maintaining a level playing field. In other words net neutrality. If you are unfamiliar with the term, briefly: Without net neutrality some companies, say CTV for example, could buy better access which would mean that internet users who clicked on the CTV site would get priority (faster and easier access) than users who clicked on, for example, democraticmedia.ca. A lack of net neturality could also mean that an internet service provider such as Bell or Rogers could superimpose their ads on your site - like it or not.

2. Fair copyright reform: Reform that respects and rewards artists without punishing consumers, that has reasonable provisions for fair use, educational use and parody, that protects the privacy of consumers and that prevents the kind of endless and unfair lawsuits we've seen in the United States. The alternative, of course, to winning this kind of reform would be a heavier reliance on Creative Commons over traditional copyright. This would mean being forced to ignore content that uses a standard copyright, a huge loss for 'traditional' media, but the audience would be fine.

3. A strong Federal and Provincial to public service broadcasting, including a reformed CBC, provincial public service broadcasters, and campus and community broadcasters.

4. Finally a system that recognizes the importance of arts and culture in society and strives to make it more attractive to consumers and more rewarding (including financially rewarding) to artists.

If all of this were accomplished it wouldn't do anything about media consolidation but it wouldn't matter very much. A system that incorporated all four of the above points would be a system driven by ideas and audience response to those ideas; a system where anyone, anywhere armed with only their ideas and a computer could become part of 'the media' and while they might not have the resources of a CityChumCTVRogersBellGlobeMedia Inc., in the new world of the internet resources only help you to a certain degree, beyond that it's back down to ideas and how well they resonate with the audience and that, to me, is democratic media.

I'm sure I'll post again in the future, but for a first shot I thought some introductions were in order. Normally I can be found at publicbroadcasting.ca or on facebook.