As I sit on my bed, attempting to cram for my exam tomorrow on cultural industries in Canada, my mind is spiralling into thoughts on why the critiques I am reading over are not accessible points of conversation in the world around me. Maybe they are, but I personally have found that critical consumption-although popular, is not nearly truly understood and acted upon.
Creative industries have a growing cultural significance on people that is malleable and individuated, from person to person. These industries are social network markets that combine creative innovation with financial gain. Creativity as a process of innovation exists as the fragrance of individual freedom- WE ARE ALL BORN WITH THE RIGHT TO FREEDOM OF CULTURAL EXPRESSION. The combination of art and commerce has a significant impact on Canadian cities and provinces. As a largely growing proportion of the GDP in Canada, creative industries provide many jobs as well as services to its inhabitants.
Canada’s Media industries are currently highly concentrated and often linked to American revenue, slow changes are making its way for more authentic content. Despite considerable gains in recent decades, the media still embody an institutionalized Eurocentric bias that privileges the White vantage. However, the significant amount of ethnic media outlets in Canada provide spaces for groups to tell their own stories, free from the cultural mediation of mainstream media. It is a legally supported approach towards institutional inclusion since the creative industry has economic and social implications. Canadian companies along with the government have been recently more likely to respect the spirit of Canada’s laws and more importantly, responsive to distinct Canadian needs. The world wide web acts as an altruistic, virtual networks that resembles what is considered “real” life. New media information and communication technologies have been pervasive in the lives of young men and women. Society requires humanity to stay critically engaged, informed and connected now more then ever.
We live in a world accustomed to the mainstream institutional designs are often highly hegemonic & representative of whiteness. There is systemic representational bias around the media coverage of racialized and gendered minorities. This in turn has caused an otherness of minorities against the white-o-centric visual representations in mainstream media that audiences consider as “we”. In Canada, we have the Ethnic Broadcasting Policy that incites criteria for over the air radio and tv shows. There is a largely untapped demographic of ethnic minorities, as we can see looking around this classroom and campus. Ethnic media in Canada is a direct response to Eurocentrism; newly implemented incentives, policies and funding for such programs have been instrumental to Minority Groups. It includes specialty channels which can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel that has programs focused on a single genre, subject or targeted demographic. Some of them include Punjab Times, OMNI Channel which have online presence as well. So, ethnic television programs help to inform and enlighten new and racialized Canadians with tangible services and social networking. An example I wanted to mention is Tamil Vision International (a channel abbreviated as TVI) which is a Canadian Tamil language specialty channel, based in Toronto, Ontario. In 2012, the CRTC approved TVI to convert their license as a specialty third language service. Their programming includes local and international news, films, soap operas, game shows, local community events, kid shows, comedy and much more. It was originally owned by the Diversity Media Group who also owned and operated CMR Diversity FM-a radio station. The channel, station, online platforms and special events in Toronto help many Tamil families. They provided them with stepping stones in becoming accustomed to a new environment and finding a community within it as immigrants. Specialty TV can be really instrumental for minority groups, especially immigrants.
In this day and age, access to new media services has become more essential to livelihood in modern societies. Television and the internet has embedded itself in high-impact areas such as healthcare, education and government services. Although the web exists in a virtual, boundless, idea of a space-it depends greatly on existing infrastructures to deliver and provide digital services. The infrastructural investment that sustains developments on the Web in Canada and around the world is both public and private investment that is currently market driven. Unfortunately, technology and access to the internet is still an infrastructure that is not easily accessible regardless of where one is. The Internet has become a mass information utility, enabling individuals to explore endless horizons of insight and enlightenment. A multitude of skills and electronic networks offered via the internet, can encourage the formation and sustenance of schools, communities and homes. In today’s competitive global state, the internet serves purpose as an invaluable source of information and communication technology (ICTs). This modern era must work further into intersections of cultures, values, and practices instead of asserting dominance over marginalized populations.
The digitalization of the 21st century has had an immense impact on modern societies across North America and yet, inequalities continue to exist. The Internet has become a fully integrated part of most western communities however the access and usage of ICTs among minorities continues to be limited by persisting colonial forms. Although accessibility has increased in recent years, being marginalized by locality and ethnicity has dispirited, isolated and disengaged countless minority groups. There are existing digital divides within Canada and more so around the world. New media continues to be closely linked to an already thriving society with dispensable incomes as more profitable sectors of investment. Government and industry stake holders overlook the multidimensional characteristics of the consumers they so clearly depend on. If I've learned anything from my three years at SFU, it's that new media can be used as a tool for connectivity, democratization, and equitable cultural exchange for many minorities. However, it is essential that present systems be revisited and rebuilt to ensure that the voice of the marginalized is not silenced by Western discourse.
