More Chatter about Canada's Brand and Media's Role

By: Sam Ford, PepperDigital

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the recording of the 53rd edition of Steve Cody and Ted Birkhan’s Peppercom podcast, taped in the prestigious RepChatter studio located on the second floor of The Schwarzenbach Buildings in Manhattan.  Mind you, this was my first time in a podcast studio audience, so I was hesitant to jump into Steve and Ted's discussion with MECA's Esther Buchsbaum about Canada’s branding in the U.S. and abroad.

Toward the end of the discussion, Steve made a reference to John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group, questioning whether Esther knew him or not.  Esther emphasized they do get U.S. television in Canada.

Her comment brought to mind a significant point about Canada's national identity, though: the importance of Canadian-produced media.  Many countries have concerns about balancing home-produced media alongside imported shows from abroad, often from the U.S.  So, while The McLaughlin Group might be well-known in Canada, what does Canada produce that is popular both within Canada but likewise in the U.S. and elsewhere?

My mind immediately went to two programs I've heard quite a bit about of late: Degrassi and Little Mosque on the Prairie.

I've seen references to the various Degrassi shows for some time, including references from friends who enjoyed the teen drama, as well as releases of season boxed sets on DVD.  The show was popularized in the U.S. after being picked up by MTV Networks' The N, as well as in syndication.  I ended up learning a fair amount about the program, and its popularity with U.S. college students, through the course on soap operas I taught at MIT this spring.  Turns out, U.S. young adults—including Katharine Chu and Claxton Everett from my class—have been watching Degrassi for awhile. (See Katharine's blog post about the show here.)

Meanwhile, I learned about Little Mosque from MIT Convergence Culture Consortium Consulting Researcher Aswin Punathambekar, who wrote about the show on his BollySpace 2.0 blog here and here.

As Canadian media such as these two shows continue to gain notoriety south of the border and across the globe, one has to think there are definite benefits to the Canadian brand, differentiating the Canadian experience and Canadian society through distinctly Canadian television shows.  As the U.S., Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Britain, and India (among many others) have proven, the exporting of media products can not only be lucrative but also beneficial for gaining and maintaining a country’s cultural reputation worldwide.

For more on India’s soft power, for instance, see this post from Parmesh Shahani from awhile back.  Also, see my more recent exchange with Parmesh about conflicting views about Indian professional wrestler The Great Khali in the WWE.

And for more about Canada’s use of media to cultivate its brand, see the CBC's The Greatest Canadian list, with the top ten here and the rest of the top 100 here.  (By the way, Bret Hart is number 39.)

Comments

[MattP]

Does Canadian law still require that nation's media to broadcast a certain amount of homegrown content? And, with all due respect, you are forgetting the two greatest Canadian media imports of all time:

1. Bob and Doug McKenzie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_and_Doug_McKenzie
2. Trailer Park Boys
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trailer_park_boys

[Sam Ford]

I'm quite certain it does. And, yes, as you point out, my list of a couple of recent Canadian phenomena does not mean to imply comprehensiveness. Canadian producers have created a range of good shows; I just wonder how more might be done to brand them as particularly Canadian products, in the way Mexican telenovelas, Bollywood, BBC programming, etc., has been.