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The influence of American TV on our culture
The influence of American TV on our culture
The influence of American TV on our culture
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Canadian television has long been an underappreciated and underestimated culture medium, which has yet to make an impact on the Canadian cultural identity. It’s not that Canadian’s disregard television as a means of entertainment; but rather that many Canadian’s have ignored the domestic content on their television screens. This can be attributed to Canadian television’s “reputation for being both cheap, and cheap looking.” (Houpt, 2014); as the industry has often created dramas and reality television, which unsuccessfully mimic the American counterpart that viewers are already watching (Tinic, 2010). Original local programming has yet to be as impactful in Canadian culture as it is in the cultures of other nations, such as the United States …show more content…
This is to say, that without either a political-economic landscape that allows the television industry to grow and flourish, an audience to view particular television programming, or high quality content that audience’s desire, television as a industry will be in imbalance and that will cause the business’ prosperity to decline and not fulfill its full potential. It is similar to Harold Innis’ (1949) theory of space/time bias. Innis believed that past civilizations either had a bias for knowledge over space or knowledge over time. He stated that both a bias for time and space was necessary for a civilization’s survival, but that when an empire's bias for both space and time were trust into imbalance, that this was when the civilization would collapse. With relevance to the Canadian television industry, like space and time, without its infrastructure, audience, and content in balance and in alignment, the industry will always be weakened and it will never become the strong cultural communication medium it could potentially be. Once there is a disproportion between television’s infrastructure, content, and audience, the industry can’t survive without the aid of federal governance (Tinic, …show more content…
Canadian television viewers were formerly very passive consumers (Miller, 2010), whom, without government intervention and regulations, would see that Canadian television programming would move to a United States based market. "There has been over half a century of battling what is perceived as “an ideological misrecognition whereby Canadians mistake American television for what they really like while simultaneously neglecting the Canadian television that they ought to like” (Miller, 2010, p.39). Miller’s media studies II (2010) sees audiences gain more power and awareness, but it wasn’t until that audiences’ recent shift towards aligning with Miller’s media studies III category, that set a landscape that is ready to see Canadian television truly flourish. This can be seen through recent polling, done by the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Canadian Film and Television Production Association (CFTPA),, the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) (2008), “that not only is it important to Canadians to have access to Canadian programming that distinguishes itself from foreign programs, (but) they also want to be able to choose programming that reflects national
This essay will discuss how national attitudes towards the working-class and the impoverished are represented in American Television. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend that television shows are not solely designed to entertain consumers but also contain a hidden agenda whose task is to protect certain ideological perspectives and therefore constant framing strategies take place. The paper will commence the analysis by discussing how males and females are represented in the television show Friday Night Lights, secondly it will look at the
...cate American entertainment films. But what was the cost to the development of Canada's supposed "cultural identity" and the perogative of the Canadian filmmaker to make a film without mimicking Classic Hollywood style and theme? Toward the mid-1980s, following the demise of the Capital Cost Allowance tax shelter in 1982, the "success" of a Canadian film was determined less by its forecast box office potential. The trend in the late 1970s and the early 1980s towards what Ted Magder calls the "If you can't beat `em join `em" (Magder, 169) relationship with the commercial Hollywood production infrastructure, was met in the mid-1980s by an equally vehement movement, which maintained that the infiltration of American culture and the adoption of their economic or "big-business" approach was precisely the problem with the Canadian film industry, and hence Canadian films.
If we look at the early history of Australian television, virtually all program material until 1963 was of foreign origin, of which eighty three percent were American and the rest British (Cited in an article by Cunningham Stuart, “History, Contexts, Politics, Policy”). Philip Bell discusses in his article that even in the first two decades of television ‘American programs and formats dominated commercial channels’ (Cited in an article by Bell Phillip, ‘Television’). So Americanization of Australian television is not just a recent development. This problem has been there right from the beginning, with American shows like Leave it to Beaver and I love Lucy dominating the TV screens of Australian households. Many are concerned with this issue, a good example is shown in an article written by David Dale, readers were asked if they were shocked by the revelation that all the most popular dramas and comedies on Australian television were made in America, and whether they thought TV stations should be forced to show more stories from other countries, including Australia.
Canada holds the same beliefs about pubic broadcasting as Lowe & Jauert (2005). As a nation that is not only democratic but multicultural and diverse, media influence plays a major role in bringing together and shaping the Canadian society. Howev...
The media has been a part of the daily life of the American people for the longest time, because of this fact, the media influences the decisions and views of how people should live. One big part of the media that tends to start to develop a sense of how the day-to-day American should live is Disney. Since kids are the main source of Disney’s billion dollar industry children have become an important dimension of the social theory (Giroux 1999: 65). “Within this context, television emerges as a consumer-oriented medium that reflects advertisers’ desire to reach a young, upscale, and primarily White audience” (Goodale1999; Henderson and Baldasty 2003: 100). As a result other races and ethnic groups other than white Americans are often put aside when it comes to the social media view of how Americans should live.
The Australian television and media have become americanised through the influence of American media and television programs in Australia.
Taras examines the commitments and values of CBC with the Canadian government and the citizens. He looked at a particular case of when CBC clashed with the government, and how CBC struggled to keep their TV programs running (Taras, pp.4-5). Next he talked about how the media industry is being taken controlled by powerful corporation and claims that PSB have the responsibility to protect the minorities (Taras, p.6). Subsequently, Taras discussed the ups and downs CBC had gone through until this day. Lastly, Taras explores the complex and intimate relationship between public broadcasters and the government; how they take advantage of each other to accomplish their goals. Ultimately, Taras believes that PSB will continue to have an impact in society despite living in a generation of digital media.
One of the positives of the globalization of pop culture is that it helps promote Canadian culture to the rest of the world. TV shows, movies, Youtube videos and all these other different forms of media can be used to showcase our Canadian values around the world. Many Canadian TV shows depict the typical lifestyle of Canadians. These implementations allow for us to recognize our own identity and on the other hand also educate others who may not be familiar with our values to see how our lifestyles are.This strengthens our identity as a country because it allows others to recognize our distinct and unique culture. Some may argue however, that the globalization of pop culture weakens our Canadian identity because so many outside influences from other countries can lead to acculturation and a loss of our own unique identity. Nevertheless, this in fact is actually a positive, as one of our core values as a Canadian society is multiculturalism. By accepting values of other nations and incorporating it into our own collective Canadian identity, we are practicing one of our most fundamental values as Canadians. Globalization has also been advanced with popularization of the internet. In today's world, many Canadian internet icons such as IISuperwomanII gained popularity primarily through the internet. Globalization allowed for these stars to expand their fan bases outside their own country and reach out larger audiences
Many people might have a diverse opinion on the extend of the American cultural influence on Canada, but the truth is, these two countries share a long common border, they use frequently the same language, they watch the same movies, listen to the same music and collaborate on other numerous levels, including economic and political activity. In this paper, I would like to show the extent of the influence on Canadian popular culture that comes from the United States. For my analysis I have chosen four segments of popular culture: television, printed media, music and films. In these are the main sectors where we can see the biggest evidence of this phenomenon. In the first part I would like to shortly introduce the history of this issue. The second part is the analysis of the four sectors.
Miller, P. J. (2014, January 13). What is Canadian About Canadian Media? Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
So although some might think that Canadian content in media is in danger it really is not. Another issue that arises is culture proximity. “Cultural Proximity is the desire for cultural products as similar as possible to one’s own language, culture, history, and values” (Straubhaar and LaRose 2001, 522). Not only that, but Canadians tent do be exposed to a lot of content from the television and the radio. Depending on the age...
One of the greatest exports of American culture is American media. American media is one of the most widely distributed and consumed cultural forms from the United States. This means that not only do Americans consume large quantities of their own media, but many other countries in the world consume American media, too. People in other countries will not interpret or understand the media in precisely the same ways that Americans will and do, nonetheless, many aspects of American culture and American reality are communicated to numerous viewers as part of the content in the media. The media is an important tool in the discussion of race, class, and gender in America. It takes a savvy viewer to discriminate between and understand what media accurately represents reality, what media does not, or which aspects of experience are fictionalized, and which elements ...
Vande Berg, L.R., Wenner, L.A., & Gronbeck, B. E. (1998). Critical Approaches to Television. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
“A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” argues that the application of film and literary genre theory do not fully translate when analyzing television, because of “the specific industry and audience practices unique to television, or for the mixture of fictional and nonfictional programming that constitutes the lineup on nearly every TV channel. 2” The goal of media genre studies, Mittell asserts, is to understand how media is arranged within the contexts of production and reception, and how media work to create our vision of the world.
Nightingale, V & Dwyer, T 2006 ‘The audience politics of ‘enhanced’ television formats’, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics, vol. 2, no.1, pp. 25-42