Introduction
Globalization has become the main historical feature of the generation we are. It has brought many opportunities for further development and many challenges to overcome, as well. Globalization is the key factor to change modern culture industries and Canada is one of those countries to face this. It is extremely expanded and enhanced due to modern technological inventions. Global economical relations are the ones to bring up firstly. Trade is not the only one sphere to benefit from within globalization; mass media industry of Canada is being strongly influenced and Americanized. Evidently, the cross-cultural effect has been now understated. People learn new cultures as migration rates increased greatly. This is one of those turning points in the history of humanity when civilization gradually overcomes geographical barriers and faces new social and economical reality – the global one. Hence, hot debates are taking place within social and economic sciences about advantages and challenges that globalization has brought along. This paper will unveil current representation of cultural industries in Canada and how the framed debates can be easily challenged by presenting arguments against globalization policies.
Canadians, however, see the globalization a little differently than the rest of the world living on the other continents. They consider globalization to be a fancy word for Americanization. As any other political stream, it has its own advantages and shortcomings. Americanization has largely invaded lives of many people throughout the globe. Evidently, Canada has become one of those countries that America puts its investments in through huge companies; the US expands its market. This happens to be a great challenge for Canada to resist American deluge, whereas the US has put a strict restriction on foreign television ownership – 20% only. Moreover, the cabinet of Clinton was castigating China and Canada for ignoring the copyright of the US. Canada, however, has its own culture that is desperately trying to fit into the frames of globalization.
Globalization: Magazine Feedback
Globalization or internationalization happens to be a burning topic for the debates all over Canadian press. One of the reasons is that globalization touches upon many spheres of people’s lives, including cultural and manufacturing industries. Globalization has become too strong to resist American pop culture, magazines, movies, etc. There are more than half of American magazines on the news boards in the streets. Moreover, American actors seem to overthrow native Canadian ones according to the popularity rates. As such, Derek Abma posted his wonderfully unveiling article at Canada.com stating the size of the problems globalization caused for the manufacturing and media cultures. Not only have the Canadian citizens been involved in American communication media, now the population of major urban areas of Canada has significantly dropped. The Statistics Canada says: “the greater areas of Windsor and Thunder Bay in Ontario were the ones among Canada’s 33 census metropolitan areas that saw fewer people living there in 2011 than in 2006” (Abma, 2012). In search of better work opportunities, Canadians are doomed to move to other places and, hence, the population decreases disregarding the newborns every month. The article states that globalization is the one to blame and it had killed the manufacturing sector. The gas stations are closing together with little convenience stores which makes citizens move elsewhere in search of better life and prospects. This is how magazines and newspapers of Canada outline the problem of globalization. They see it as nothing but a disastrous and damaging issue for the society of Canada that gradually loses its cultural power across the country because of American invasion.
Application of Course Reading Ideas
It is important to outline the way globalization was described theoretically by Ira Wagman and Ezra Winton in their article Canadian Cultural Policy in the Age of Media Abundance: Old Challenges, New Technologies. The foremost three questions they pose in order to resolve the cultural issue are why do me make policies, how are they implemented, and if they are successful. In the scope of the reasons why we establish cultural policies, it has to be mentioned that Canada is a multicultural country that spreads up across the continent which needs unity and one cohesive list of rules to follow. Therefore, geographical reasons, economic ones, and social issues are the cause to keep up to cultural policies (Wagman, 2010). Moreover, the modern technologies make the belief of technological nationalism work better. Globalization, however, relies on the same exact technological progress. Therefore, it can be assumed that Canadian technological nationalization is a helping point to globalization, although it is believed that technological nationalization is a great job that government does. Moreover, the debates over globalization are framed in the scope of cultural identity loss, whereas globalization bears much more serious consequences for Canada and other countries all over the globe. The cultural policies are aimed at creating a certain Canadian spirit and, furthermore, making cultural industries create jobs and money. However, globalization is aimed at equalizing the cultures and economies. The main challenge developed countries are facing at the moment – within globalization integration – is the disaggregate development of the low-income countries. The reason for that is the need to help underdeveloped countries since they are unable to survive by themselves. They need support and facilitation in globalization participation via international assistance (Eitzen, 2011). Hence, disaggregate development is the only right way towards global prosperity. All countries of the world need to get their collective actions, the developed ones in particular. This is what the US does, they help Canada develop though not individually but according to America’s plan. The US government does not lend money for cultural development rather it invests it to gather the crops later. This consequently leads to the term of foreign ownership. Once globalization achieves its expanded influence on a country, the economic and cultural industries experience this impact thoroughly. Manufactures and big companies undergo mergence into more serious ones in case they are profitable for the absorbing company. This majorly happens once the foreign ownership exceeds half of the major power over an industry. Hence, it is very hard to maintain cultural identity and claim the cultural policies to be useful. Globalization is a process of equalizing the economy and, hence, keeping cultural identity of Canada is close to impossible because culture is the next step after mergence of the capitals.
Framed Theory Challenged
The chosen case – globalization – challenges frameworks given in the scope of mere technological and geographical impact on Canada. Globalization is a much more farsighted and influential process than people can possibly think of it. Cultural issues have always been a great topic for the debates especially in such multicultural country as Canada. The twenty first century brought many changes into the technological usage habits, although there one thing that will remain unchained forever – a desire of a human to fight for the territory and power. The richer countries take over the less advanced ones for the sake of resources and money. In this fight the cultural issues are involved, as well. Not only petroleum and other resources are being shared during globalization, the cultural items such as arts are being globalized. It is not fully understandable yet if this is harmful or beneficial for the country that experiences globalization – Americanization, but it is clear that globalization of one particular culture is possible through arts. Here, we can observe foreign ownership issues as an ultimate score of globalization. Moreover, people are moving to other sites in order to find better lives and salaries. Poor economies lead to labor issues related to convergence. People are forced to look for other ways to provide for the families and it turns out that globalization has already played its part and people are heading to the prosperous countries praised by mass media within the globalization process. Mass media is a great cultural industry that has been forming the attitudes of people towards particular issues. Not only has it broadcasted foreign news, movies, and music, mass media is also wonderful mean to put people together in such a diverse country as Canada whose technological nationalism is a very strong belief.
Conclusion
The cultural industries represent a great power that maintains Canada’s cultural unity. Nowadays, however, the greatest challenge of cultural industries’ work has become globalization. Canadian cultural industries undergo great challenges caused by labor issues, foreign ownerships, and two-sided issue of technological nationalism. Therefore, as it has been framed that cultural policies of Canada experience influence of media abundance, it is held back that all the old challenges of culture are enhanced by furious invasion of globalization.
References
- Abma, D. (2012). Census: Windsor, Thunder Bay, Ont., Only Major Areas Where Population Dropped. Web.
- Eitzen, D.S. (2011). Globalization: The Transformation of Social Worlds. Beverly: Wadsworth Publishing.
- Wagman, I., & Winton E. (2010). Canadian Cultural Policy in the Age of Media Abundance: Old Challenges, New Technologies. Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication, 3 (1), 61-77.