One Nation Under Google

McGill is hosting a lecture called One Nation Under Google on March 14th.

Darin Barney, professor of communication studies, McGill University, and Canada Research Chair in Technology and Citizenship, will present a keynote on citizenship in the technological republic, contesting the common notion that technology necessarily leads to enhanced freedom and improved civic engagement.

It seems like it would be quite pertinent to this class.

WeMedia conference

There's an awsome conference called WeMedia taking place right now. Watch the live feed.

Comment Etiquette

With rise of citizen journalism, CyberJournalist.net has released a set of rules to consider when commenting on a blog/news story. Neat.

Re-fragmented: More cinema mash-ups

Bruce McDonald recently put forth a project that seems somewhat similar in principle to Brett Gaylor'sThe Pirate Movie, yet also completely different.

He released all the raw footage from his latest film, The Tracey Fragments online under a creative commons license, and then turned it into a contest, to see who could re-edit the movie best.

While I didn't care for the film all that much, I think it's a good publicity move on his part. It shows how he's catering to the changing scope of media accessibility. Interestingly enough, the movie also has its own blog.

As Geist reports, the CRTC is reviewing their framework with regards to domestic content, due to the availability of media online. Now, he says, the competition isn't only content from the States, but instead the "unregulated global stage."

And at the same time, original Canadian content can be made available on that scale.
Again, the internet is creating this incredible platform of more or less equal opportunity, where the actual content matters most.
As Chris Anderson puts it,

Although there may be near infinite selection of all media, there is still a scarcity of human attention and hours in the day. Our disposable income is limited. On some level, it's still a fixed-pie game. Offer a couch potato a million TV shows and they may end up watching no more television than they did before; just different television, better suited to them.

In another article, Anderson goes on to explain how Blockbuster movies are "losing their power". While the future of music has been the concern sine the late '90s, I think now it's the future of film that's interesting, especially with the influx of online movie streaming sites.

Shutting down Napster did nothing to stop the onslaught of on-line media, and if there's an answer as to how corporations can stay afloat, I think the solution to be successful in it all is to learn to adapt, as MacDonald and Gaylor have.

Hopefully all this gives way to more innovative ideas getting out there, as well as more exposure to the little guys.

I'm still geekily waiting for someone to caption the Korean sitcom, Kimchi Cheese Smile in English for me...

Alive in Baghdad: Video Podcast

Here's a great video podcast - Alive in Baghdad.


Family Tells of Harrowing Kidnap
Short description:

Alive in Baghdad was formed to counter the sound-bite driven, 'Live From' news model. Through the work of a team of Americans and Iraqi correspondents on the ground, Alive in Baghdad shows the occupation through the voices of Iraqis. Alive in Baghdad brings testimonies from individual Iraqis, footage of daily life in Iraq, and short news segments from Iraq to you.

Rules or no rules, can we compete?

Cancon regulations have already severely crippled artistic aspirations of representing Canada on any platform outside the country, let alone to the average Canadian (if such a creature exists). The Canadian television viewer, to the degree that he or she may fit into an ad demographic, either has an affinity for small town antics or middle-school melodrama. That is, if you believe the people that program home grown viewing between 7 and 8 PM weeknights at the Canadian Television Network.

Now, I have an excuse to watch: it just happens to be the only channel the little TV in my kitchen catches. I mention Corner Gas and Degrassi here because they are, by CTV standards, home grown hits. Factor in the number of people stranded watching this stuff while chopping onions, like me. Who is your audience, really? And I should point out – I turn it off when Corner Gas comes on. Other than that, teenagers talking about sex is going to get ratings pretty much anywhere. No big secret why Degrassi gets to be syndicated in the U.S.. After 9 PM, we're watching American fare - the advertising dollar gets interesting here.

Michael Geist posits that a shift from regulation and cheap U.S. imports toward free global competition “should dramatically alter Canadian content production from one mandated by government regulation to one mandated by market survival.” I’d like to believe this, but whether we deregulate or not, the problem from a creative standpoint remains the same. There is certainly a wealth of Canadian talent and know-how ready to compete. There are uniquely Canadian stories to tell - 36 million or so, at a guess. Should a writer, director or producer feel compelled to tell them if they aren’t interesting to a wider audience? If Canada can’t be made interesting with a gun to its head, how is it going to compete for entertainment dollars anywhere?

Thoughts on the CRTC as it relates to the CBC

The tale of misfortune that is the history of Canadian broadcast regulation and public broadcasting has always been, for me, one centered around a failure to commit.

The problem with broadcasting regulation in Canada is that policies have never reflected a full commitment to our public broadcaster; the CBC.
This is also the reason the the BBC in the U.K. is one the premier news agency in the world while the CBC is barely watched by Canadians.

The BBC's funding model is fundamentally different than the CBC in that it uses a television license to fund itself rather than simple government handouts. In short the television license is a levy placed on anyone in the country who purchases and operates television receiver. This hard line approach supplied the BBC with the funds to excel as a public broadcaster without the restrictions to hamper its development.

Geist touches on this in his model of regulation based on scarcity. Because of this model Canada is playing "catch up" with American giants who had the regulatory freedom to do their own thing, rather than produce purely Canadian content. Canadian broadcaster have never had the economic freedom to take a chance on producing original content.

On the regulatory reform side of things, the CRTC has and continues to be too cautious with implementing changes to its framework. The internet is just one example of how broadcast regulation must be flexible to adapt to changes in the market, or be done away with completely. Things have already changed by the time the CRTC has gone through its lengthy commissions, review of recommendations and implementation process.

Marc Raboy is the Beaverbrook Chair in Ethics, Media and Communications at McGill university and recently commented on the lack of transparency and democratization of the CRTC's hearings.

CNN kills blogger

just kidding.
more fuel for the fires of debate, though.
CNN fires employee for blogging.

Has the time for deregulation really come?

I find myself asking this question, because I think there is a fine line between a totally free media market and a regulated one that insures a certain cultural and national content.

“Canadian broadcast regulation was designed for a world of scarcity where broadcast spectrum and consumer choice was limited,” Michael Geist rightly claims in his article Canadian Broadcasting Policy For a World of Abundance. There is no doubt that the regulatory framework for broadcasting services need to be re-considered, the question is with which perception of culture this re-consideration should take place.

Cultural production can either be seen as a commercial enterprise, where the profitability is the most important or as expressions of ideas and images that help a culture to imagine itself and to articulate its priorities. If excluded by the so-called ‘realities’ of the marketplace, certain forms of cultural expression can be marginalized, even silenced. (Lorimer, Gasher, and Skinner - Mass Communication in Canada, page 201-202)

Even though The Long Tail helps preventing this problem of marginalizing cultural expression, I think it is important also to recognize that broadcasters have a responsibility of encouraging cultural content, in this case content made by and for Canadians rather than content made by and for US citizens.

If the broadcasters only look upon cultural production as a commercial enterprise, then there is a need for some sort of regulation. Or else we risk that certain form of cultural expression will be silenced, as Lorimer, Gasher and Skinner predict.

Canadian Broadcast History

The Dunbar and Leblanc suggestions aren't surprising, they're the next
logical step in the evolution of the Canadian media. The history of
communications in Canada, like in the United States, is a history of
bridging the divide between two coasts. The railways came first, then
radio.
A second theme present in almost all Canadian media, one perhaps even
more important than unification, is culturally defining the nation. If
railways and radio finally linked the coasts with material and
communications then these same companies were de-facto charged with
creating common culture as well.
1971's advent of Canadian Content laws, it can be said, represent an
innate fear present if not in Canadian society, than at least in
government media bureaucracy . A fear of Americanness. Being
overshadowed by the United States has contributed positively to some
aspects of Canadian Culture. Political passivity and commitment to
social welfare immediately come to mind. Though the same lack of
identity is what led to the creation of Can Con.
I see content laws as a huge threat to culture. Owing to strict
regulations imposed by them, (30% content between 6 am and pm)
Canadians are forced to watch sub-par acts simply for the sake of it.
Artistic dillution, while difficult to quantify has definitely
occurred, how else do you explain Shania Twain (Alberta aside).
Regardless of taste it should be clear to everyone that mandated
programming means mediocre programming. Stuff that, if it won't sell
will at least limp along as relatively acceptable to the masses. Which
brings me to my first point, deregulation's time has come. Given the
state of the internet and the locations where most people consume
their media now broadcast television and radio are becoming
antiquated. Expanding Can Con laws to new mediums is impossible. Cut
them loose now and give Canadian broadcasters a chance to either play
the Americans or develop their own stuff. The real artists will float
to the top anyway

Blog Response to "Canadian Broadcasting Policy For a World of Abundance"

This article brings up several important points regarding the CRTC. Namely, the organization has been criticized by many as having somewhat outdates regulations, and the Geist article does an excellent jobs of highlighting why this is true. 

Geist gives an accurate description of the current state of the media industry:

"Today's broadcasting environment is no longer one of scarcity, but rather one of near limitless abundance as satellite, digital channels, and the Internet now provide instant access to an unprecedented array of original content."

As he contends, the regulations currently in place by the CRTC are essentially inappropriate and inefficient for the technology that governs our modern entertainment sources. Rather, all the current regulations do is hinder the ability of Canadian broadcasters to make their own schedules, as they are bound by the American schedules due to the simulcast system in place.

The point Geist makes is very logical: Canadians are no longer bound by their television schedules. Due to the Internet and podcasts (and other such technology), Canadians can essentially watch what they want when they want, and no longer have to wait for the Canadian networks to broadcast their programs. 

Because of this fact, there is little point for Canadian broadcasters to maintain such restrictive regulations. Rather, Geist makes an excellent point in saying that the CRTC should embrace the new technology available to Canadians such as the Internet and formulate new regulations that will allow Canadian companies to benefit from streaming desirable programing online.

While the CRTC has been on the receiving end of harsh criticism for having outdated regulations, the solutions discussed in Geist's article offer up interesting ideas and ways in which the CRTC can revolutionize their regulations in order to match the current technology available.

Come on, Canadians have been deprived of their Super Bowl commercials for far too many years!

Girl on Thin Ice

I decided to do my blog on the Montreal Canadiens hockey team. I provide overview and analysis after nearly every game and also cover any trade rumors or unusual incidents that occur within the Habs organization and/or the NHL. 

I am truly passionate about this hockey club and I am very excited to be able to share my love of the team with my classmates and other bloggers.

Cheers to another run for the Cup!

Megan

Check out my blog: www.girlonthinice.blogspot.com

Coping With Abundance: Canada's Potential Shift to Accessible New Media

Photo credit to Robert Scales

The Canadian economic market no longer functions in terms of scarcity. According to Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, our current market place is one of abundance. With lower production costs and higher output, the market is surging with goods awaiting for consumption.

New Media & Abundance

The Internet, DVD resales, and other new mediums, play a vital role in the creation of abundance. Currently, Canadian broadcast distribution is regulated by a strict doctrine following the scarcity model. But, according to Michael Geist, the road to Canadian media abundance is a clear one.

...[B]roadcasters must adapt by shifting from their reliance on protective regulations and inexpensive U.S. content to instead competing on the unregulated global stage with their own, original Canadian content delivered to an international audience on conventional and Internet platforms. This should dramatically alter Canadian content production from one mandated by government regulation to one mandated by market survival.

Through market survival (and abundance theory), the Canadian media would move away from conglomeracy and move forward to an accessible & democratic ideal that would actively promote independent Canadian media initiatives. This showcases our wit, art, and creativity on a global scale generating new income for our industry.

Norwegian Broadcasting Company: A Case Study

Norway recently decided to make available its popular television series Nordkalotten 365 as a torrent in order to be accessible to all who visits the site. While still in its experimental stage, the Norwegian Broadcasting Company is quite pleased with the positive reactions they have received from their Internet initiative. After being online for only 1 day, roughly 8000 people downloaded the program. Besides its innovative nature, streaming a cultural hit like Nordkalotten 365 allows for a mass audience to consume Norwegian popular culture.

Potential Problems

While I would love to see new media take over our dated conglomerate media model, I do believe an overhaul needs to be done in order to protect the assets of the creators of these media products. As we have seen in the U.S, the Writer's Guild of America is striking in order to receive their share of the prospective wealth and recognition that new media products entail. Canadian guild members must ensure that its writers, directors, and others, are given their fair share of the proverbial pie.

Obviously, the shift to a democratic Internet system won't happen overnight. But as more and more people are turning to the Internet and other alternative venues for media products, traditional companies are going to have to shift some attention to cyber-programming. Canada needs to follow Norway's lead and change its dated broadcast legislation to get its own Internet media revolution going.

Develop This!

Photo by: shashamane

A student's take on many International Development issues that often "pop" up in the news and mainstream culture. Using a Political Science background and personal involvement in Engineers Without Borders, this blog aims to deconstruct and analyze many common "international development" themes and issues. From the Always Campaign to FreeRice.com, Develop This! will dissect it all!

A Dane in Montreal

Photo by: Slack12

See your city through foreign eyes. How does Montreal presents itself to someone from the other side of the Atlantic? If you google Montreal in Danish sites only, what are the top hits? And how does poutine taste for the first time? Go to A Dane in Montreal

MY BLOG! : Healthy Taste Buds

Visit my blog for food, restaurant, health and environmental information regarding food.

Please feel free to post and comment.

gabriel

Visibility Alert: Minority Depiction & Pop Culture

Photo by Oblivious Dude

Visibility Alert is an in-depth look into the current trends of minority depiction in pop culture. How does power play in these situations and what ramifications lie in these overt depictions for the "represented" groups? More importantly, who is benefiting from these depictions, the portrayed minorities or the dominant norms?

Gossip Through Gossip

Hey Everyone!

Here's my blog
Check it out.

I've decided to gather articles that several different sources wrote about a particular star and sort of compare and contrast. Also, the title will be a tribute to "Friends", you know "The one where...", I don't know, I just wanted to put my own personality in it.

Hope you enjoy! :D

Karin Codner

Awesometown

much props due, Sashamd

Montreal has been a vice on my brain. Ville Marie, more accurately, has been a smog filled, cracked out, urine puddle of a home base. Not the usual opinion? I live in an almost-thriving nug of poverty, nestled amidst the city's swankiest dinner clubs, biggest shopping mall and cultural core. In theory. My neighbourhood is ill, and I seek the source. Social, cultural, historical and anecdotal, Awesometown is an attempt to define my surroundings.

Get Familiar

A music blog covering Montreal's club music scene Heart Attack Club, will keep you up to date. Clubs and criticism, that's what we do.

IM GONNA BLOG YOU SUCKA, NOW ON THE WEB!

Dear suckers,
My blog started out as a place to write about dive bars but has progressed into a spot for seediness in all type of places. Third rate square-dancing joints, porn theaters, and signless taverns should be expected. Im Gonna Blog You Sucka

SANAM RUNWAY

SANAM RUNWAY

I decided to do my niche blog on Indian and Pakistani haute couture fashions. My blog contains pictures of various eastern designers with my commentary underneath. Click on the picture and view the new collection of HSY, a prominent Pakistani designer and let me know what you think!

view my blog

Montreal Media Theory

Photo by Krista76
Journalists like myself often practice their trade without an understanding of the machinery behind their medium. Montreal Media Theory provides journalists and media junkies alike with a deeper understanding of the significant role media plays in defining our sense of reality.

Urban Transit Under the Microscope

Photo by: Juliebug

Jesara and I are working on a blog looking at the idiosyncrasies of living with urban transit. Most specifically, we're looking at transit in Montreal

Bits of conversations you pick up. Trying to navigate seating. The social quagmires of shoving 50-plus people into one metro car. It's all to come

TheTransitive

The Bombsheltah

Photo by: hotzeplotz

Hip hop and you. See how things you never cared about affect the world you imagine you live in. Take cover at The Bombsheltah

The underrated Blog

My blog is not up and running yet, so I figured I would link to a blog that I enjoy. The underrated blog reviews concerts, albums, mp3's and is ideal for the all around music junkie. Check out Underrated's Top 20 Albums of 2007!

The Transitive: Montreal in Transit

Photo by caribb.

I'll be collaborating with Clare on a blog about public transit in Montreal. It's called The Transitive.

I Am Fashion

For up to the minute fashion info, and previews of the fall 2008 fashion shows that took place last week in New York, check out
I Am Fashion.

Montreal Music Blog

My blog is a Montreal Music Blog covering local shows and sampling the music of artists that are coming to town. It's called Heart Attack Club

choose your words carefully

microjournalism. oh yeah.
anyone willing to put odds on this?
anomaly, sidebar attraction, or the future?
and perez hilton just endorsed clinton.
why i wasn't prepared for that, i don't know.

Should we start taking media tips from The Simpsons?

Watch Clip

In this clip from a 2008 episode, Nelson ridicules Dan Rather by saying, "Ha ha, your medium is dying." Nelson has a good point.

The Media landscape is changing and as a student studying print journalism I am worried. Newspaper and magazine revenues are continuing to decline, hey, I cancelled my subscription to The Gazette just last month. I could get everything I need online anyway.

Things are changing and the clear demise of print journalism has now begun to pervade popular culture.

In a 2004 episode of The Simpsons, Lisa Simpson attempts to challenge what she calls the "corrupt media" and starts a newspaper with the sole goal of uncovering the truth. Soon after though, all citizens of Springfield follow Lisa's lead and everyone in town has their own unique newspapers.

This new trend leads Homer to say, "See Lisa, instead of one big-shot controlling all media, now there's a thousand freaks xeroxing their worthless opinions."

The Simpsons are clearly mocking the advance of citizen journalsim, the role of reporters, and the demise of traditional Journalism as we once knew it.

Where does that leave me?

I am attempting to take cues from our transforming medium and I am beginning to prepare myself with the tools necessary for an unsure, unceratin, and dubious future in journalism.

I have begun read and appreciate blogs and I have even started my own blog devoted to one of many passions, food and fashion.

True newspaper and magazine readership is suffering, but The Simpsons weekly audience is shrinking too.

Ha ha.

The History, according to Rebecca Blood

Of Blogging, that is, from 99' to sept. 00'.
I in no way speak for her accuracy, and am curious myself as to other points of view.
Keep in mind, it's pretty honking big.

Online Revolution Doomed By Canwest?

Photo by James Morrison

Media conglomerates, such as America's Big 10, are omnipresent entities that are severely distorting audience perception and reception of news pieces. It is no wonder that many individuals are resisting "traditional" sources and embracing new media to obtain the wider spectrum of "truth".

Publish Then Select Model of Journalism

New media allows for different models of delivery as Cory Doctorow points out. He explains that audiences now are able to consume in the realm of publish then select for information inquiry as opposed to "traditional" mediums that use select then publish.

Individuals are increasingly becoming more media savvy and are beginning to realize the monopolistic nature of media ownership. Publish then select becomes a great alternative as it prompts audience participation in order to add their own knowledge and expertise to further the story. This creates a democratic process that allows a multi-faceted version of the story to emerge.
Conglomerates

Conglomerated media ownership proves to be extremely problematic as editorial censorship may be prevalent, cutting into an audience's reception of full "truth". Upon looking at Canwest's newspaper family, I was able to calculate that 5,324,636 (or 15.95% of the total Canadian population) are part of Canwest's weekly distribution. This figure does not include the areas in British Columbia where Canwest is the sole distributor of a daily/weekly newspaper. Nor does it include daily commuter papers. Throw in Canwest's broadcasting companies and an even larger segment on the population is exposed to the Asper family message.

Understanding New Media's Importance

Doctorow's publish then select is quite revolutionary as it is a model that rebels against current media conglomeration. Describing Canadian conglomeration, James Winter, of Extra!, explains that:

...five companies, including CanWest, control most media outlets. The telephone company Bell Canada owns the Globe and Mail as well as CTV, the largest private television network; it also controls Sympatico, a Web portal and high-speed Internet link. Montreal-based Quebecor owns the Sun newspaper chain, magazines, cable TV, the Canoe Internet portal, music and video stores and the private TVA network in Quebec. Torstar Corporation, publisher of Harlequin romance novels, also owns the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest circulation daily, as well as four other dailies and 69 weeklies. Rogers Communications has interests in cable, radio, television, magazines, video stores and wireless telephone.

It is no wonder why Doctorow writes that finding the "truth" is hard. I agree. After all, the most available fashion of obtaining news (television/newspaper) is inherently flawed within Canada due to conglomerates and their aversion to audience participation in the creation and maintenance of information.

I do have one concern with the new model that Doctorow proposes. I worry that audiences will consume online publish then select information in the same passive way that they have been consuming "traditional" news. This allows conglomerates to usurp a large(r) segment of the active online journalism movement. After all, audiences are accustomed to the one dimensional model where they receive information without being able to offer much feedback and may continue this online. But to do so, the publish then select revolution is doomed to failure as stories will remain only partial "truths", being no different than the censored information that conglomerates offer.

The debate lurches on...

New York Times Writer On Bogus Tapper Claim About Bill Clinton: It's The Blogosphere's Fault

yeah, i'm just leaving it at that. copied and pasted. what?

Ethnic media niche pioneers

Online Journalism Review posted an article today on how ethnic media publishers are the original niche media pioneers.

RSS Advertising

this is interesting.
we have a spy. just checked one of my regular blogs, TPM, and all of their posts now have a couple inches of space with some small banners and links. Intitiated today or yesterday, seems to backdate.
TPM has always been a pretty RSS feeder-savvy blogger, short paragraphs, always fully viewable, so i suppose this is them jumping on a bandwagon that will pick up speed. hope not. breaks up the information.
Their website posts are clean, but they use feedburner t0 power their RSS. fooey.