Time to Shift the Stereotype: Can Con is Good

It has long been my feeling that the "Canadians don't like Canadia media" myth is a convenient, self fullfilling prophesy for commercial media companies. Whether we are talking about film, television, music, literature, etc., it is much easier if Canadians don't like Canadian stuff. It is, after all, cheaper to import American media than to make original Canadian stuff.
To the extent that there is any truth to this myth it is because of the American marketing machine. The marketing budget, for example, for a major American film is frequently larger than the entire budget for a Canadian film. American companies buy ads for television, radio, print, they buy ads on streetcars and subways and any other ads they can think of.

This is then helped along by the B team. Most media companies are large conglomorates with multiple vehicles. So, the stars of the American film are frequently featured on television because the company that owns the television station also owns the film studio. Even where this is not the case it is frequently true that the company that owns the film studio buys hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising and so there is a bit of a quid pro quo - the television and radio networks, along with newspapers, magazines and others from whom the advertising is purchased feel compelled to talk up the film.
The value of free advertising gained by major American media is frequently greater than the vast amounts of paid advertising they buy.

All in all the math is pretty simple: If you are a Canadian television station, it is cheaper to buy American shows than make your own, the American shows also come with large ad revenue and stars that you can help hype.
None of this though means that Canadians prefer American content. My suspicion is that if you put new American films, television programs, music and literature along side new Canadian stuff - with no preceding advertising, reviews or other hype that Canadians would prefer the Canadian stuff, or at least it would be a tie.

So what can be done about this? Not much really. It all comes down to individuals. The CRTC is not about to ban American content, nor should they. The Canadian government does help, but they can't subsidize Canadian content to the point where it matches the budgets of the American media conglomorates. Individual Canadians have to seek out Canadian content, they have to avoid or tune out the hype around the American stuff and try to give their fellow Canadians a fair chance.

I think that if Canadians do this they will be pleasantly surprised. From my point of view anyway, despite having only 1/10th the population of the US , Canada has in the last five years produced as many really good television programs and films as the US has and has produced far more good music. The US, it seems to me is out of ideas or perhaps their best idea people are all working in advertising now. The US seems content with publishing a book that is based on a film, that was based on a broadway musical, that was based on a film, that was based on a book that was based on a television series...and/or just making a sequel to the above.

The bottom line is that if you are less than thrilled by what is being offered to you in film and television, in music and 'arts and entertainment' generally, you are going to have to ignore the advertising, turn away from the hype and start looking a little harder. There is good stuff out there, but it is not talked about much in the corporate media. At the same time you have to let the arts and entertainment reporters know that you are displeased - that they have to abandon tabloid scandal, pre-packaged interviews and reports based on advertising hype and actually do their jobs - get out and look around and see what is really happening, because in most cases they don't seem to have a clue and are completely missing the best of what is happening in arts and entertainment in Canada.