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.