publicbroadcasting.ca Turns 1,000 (posts that is)

This is the 1000th blog post on this site. This particular blog started sometime after the site was launched but publicbroadcasting.ca itself will be 3 years old in mid August. So, this seemed like a good time to pause and reflect on why the site exists.

Not so long ago large media companies were the kings of North America. They drove popular culture in one direction or another. That is not true anymore. In television, for example, a program with a half million viewers (roughly 1 person in 60) is considered successful. A program with a million viewers (roughly 1 in 30) is considered a hit, and a program that draws 1 in 10 Canadians is considered a pop culture phenomenon. No other media (film, radio, literature, music, etc) pulls in anything close to the numbers that television does.

To say this has caused consternation amoung media outlets would be an understatement. It has caused convulsions and rabid fits amoung media outlets. For years they have made programs dumber and cheaper, have sacrificed credibility and have largely abandoned the public service functions that used to be an understood part of their broadcasting licenses. All of this in an effort to become a little more profitable, a little more popular. All of this has failed and the audience continues to trickle away. Now they are trying to enforce their position using vehicles such as traffic shaping and Bill C-61. They are, in other words, trying to achieve through force what they haven't been able to achieve otherwise.

It has never been more true that mass media is largely about money. Quality, originality and creativity frequently go by the wayside in favor of greater profits. Your chances of success, even your chance of getting noticed at all in this environment largely depend on the profitability of what you propose and/or the amount of advertising money you have to throw around rather than the quality of your work or your ideas.

American media frequently has large amounts of ad money to spend and it is far cheaper for Canadian media companies to import American products than to produce their own. This means that more and more Canadian artists and producers are shut out of the game altogether. Publicbroadcasting.ca came into being as a response to this.

This site is here to draw attention to (exclusively) Canadian artists and content producers and to Canada centric news and information. It is here to represent a variety of voices; voices that are driven by passion and ideas rather than a simple monetary equation. Everyone, no doubt, needs to make a living but if the sole reason you are in arts and media is to make money the odds of your producing anything of lasting quality are slim to none.

Publicbroadcasting.ca accepts no donations, and no advertising. The opinions expressed here are honest and topics covered here are based on quality not profitability.

I have always hoped to have more voices represented here. I truly appreciate those people who contribute, even occasionally, to the site. Sadly few people ever volunteer to write for the site and the majority of those who do never contribute at all. Whether this is out of some kind of stage fright or because it doesn't pay I have no idea but that is the reality.

After 1000 posts and almost 3 years I believe that this site is better today than it ever was. I also believe, given that it has operated with few hands and no budget, it has accomplished quite alot. By the end of this summer more changes will come to the site but as always these changes will make the site deeper, broader, more inclusive and useful. Because it is not driven by advertising nothing is ever done to the site for the sole purpose of making it more popular or accessible to people who are content with Brittany Spears, celebrity gossip and the latest pointless televised talent show.

I hope those of you who read the site have enjoyed it as much as I have. I hope that more of you will decide to contribute your thoughts and ideas and above all I hope that you continue to enjoy it going forward.