I've been thinking about the right way to articulate this, and I'm not sure I've gotten it the exact right way I want to say this, so bear with me for a moment here.
Having been exposed to Canada for much of my life through their media, having paid closer attention to Canadian affairs over the last seven years or so based on the Canadian nationality of my partner, and considering I will be moving to Canada later this year, in addition to being an American, I feel like I have an emerging unique perspective on the two countries, although I know it will continue to evolve once I've moved there.
My initial perspective, currently, is that Canadian media devotes so much time to American news is that it serves the purpose of having Canadians feel that there's very little wrong with their country. In fact, some days watching Canadian news, I think that the media thinks that the worst thing going on is "outrage" that restaurants aren't printing nutritional content in their menus. If the news ever turns for the worse, such as some occasional gun violence in Toronto, for instance, the shift almost immediately goes to the U.S. and guns. In other words, the U.S. serves an interesting place in Canadian culture as a kind of antagonist; here's a place that has guns, greed, racism, Republicans, evil corporations, and religious fanatics, not to mention having 10x the population of Canada, an exponentially larger economy, and, in many sectors, has affected a considerable "brain drain" of Canadian talent to the U.S.
Basically, I question whether all this coverage of the U.S., in Canadian media, has the effect of telling Canadians to "shut up and be happy with what you've got" or suffer at the specter of becoming "the 51st state." In other words, just as the U.S. media bullies Americans into complacency by telling us we need to be frightened of everything from foreigners to sex offenders to the bird flu to our own shadows, the Canadian media orchestrates Canadian complacency by disproportionate attention to foreign affairs, thus sweeping most of their domestic problems under the rug.
And I do see quite a few problems to be addressed on the horizon. For one, I do notice how very concentrated and non-competitive certain economic sectors of Canada are, especially in terms of media/telecom and financials. Not only does it make things more expensive, but there's also going to be fewer options for the consumer and fewer opportunities for growth, thus fewer opportunities for employment. There's a myriad of issues related to the "brain drain," of course, but I was shocked to discover how limited in size so many Masters/Ph.D programs were in Canada, in comparison to the U.S. I often think that the U.S. has long utilized its educational system as a driver of future economic growth, often by sucking international talent abroad through them. Unless Canada rectifies this issue with Canadian higher education by expanding them considerably to not only attract more foreign students, but also retain Canadian students who get rejected, because there isn't enough room, then I think that the "brain drain" isn't going to go away anytime soon.
Anyway, I say this less to beat up on Canada here (if I didn't love it, I wouldn't be moving there), and more to say that Canadians are not immune to the kind of systemic dysfunctionality that the U.S. has. We all have our problems, and while all the cameras and attention worldwide are pointing at our presidential election, I question sometimes whether it is less about educating people about the U.S. and more about putting the spotlight away from domestic issues that would make politicians squirm otherwise. Considering that Canadian media is dominated by government (CBC, CRTC, the myriad of tax credits provided for all domestic content), CTV (CTV, A-Channel, The Globe and Mail, and 35 radio stations nationwide), Rogers (telephony, cable TV, internet, cell phones, CityTV, OMNI, Sportsnet, 70 consumer and business publications), Canwest (Global, Canwest News Service, Alliance Atlantis, not to mention its historical ties to both the Liberal Party and Israel's Likud), and Bell (telephony, internet, cable TV, satellite TV, cell phones, a 15% stake in CTV), perhaps one has to ask whether what they report--or omit--is in the public's interest or in the interest of their own self-preservation.
Just food for thought.
Thanks for posting your perspective, it was really interesting to read and consider. This post will be getting into the "various reasons" I mentioned last night, but was too tired to examine.
I can see how you might have come to those conclusions regarding Canadian news reporting having seen a fairly small snapshot of it in recent years, and also viewing it from the perspective of suspicion and cynicism you probably have with your national media. It's possible that Canadian media may have devolved to the point that you're arguing, but it's been so gradual that I've not noticed it. I think though that you have to take an historical perspective to tease out the answer, and a large part of it comes from our national identity, or lack thereof (although I don't think the latter is really as true in recent years).
Consider Canada for a moment, a large landmass with approximately a tenth of the population that the US has, a relatively new nation. In comparison, the US is like this behemoth, one that is always threatens to suck us in culturally, not in a literal sense, although that looms to a certain extent, too. This especially holds true considering that the vast majority of our population, unlike yours, lives very close to the US border.
I was a young child in the 70's, and I think I was somewhat precocious regarding pop culture, but I remember a lot of it fairly clearly. I recall growing up that there always seemed to be this sense of inferiority and America-envy regarding many things, media and entertainment included. We didn't have the variety of Canadian television broadcasters that we do now. Certainly, the same can be said for you guys, you've vastly increased as well, but when the numbers are shrunk down proportionally, you still had a lot more than we did. We essentially relied on the US for entertainment. In the area of music, I can remember a handful of homegrown Canadian artists, but that's about it. Of course, that's what led to the development of the much maligned Can-Con rules by the CRTC in the early 70's (I can't remember that specifically, but I do remember what we had at the time, and what the ensuing decade or so was like). From that time on, our music scene has flourished, and despite the criticism that Can-Con receives, I can't help but think it created positive change. Would the industry have developed on its own without the help of government rules? Probably, but I think it would have taken a lot longer. My digression aside, my point is essentially that in the area of media and entertainment, you guys were the giants we relied on until the government intervened, and forced Canadians to be exposed to Canadian entertainment.
In television, and in news broadcasting specifically, in the 70's (the dark ages, before the advent of remote controls, when you had to get up and physically change the dial on the tv) when we watched American television, I suppose some people would have gotten their main exposure to American network news by turning on the channel to view whatever was on after the news finished, not necessarily out of a specific interest in US news. I'm sure many others though, specifically sought out Canadian networks to view their news on.
As for the sheer amount of American coverage on Canadian-based news networks, I have a feeling it's partly to do with the vast size of your nation, in terms of population, thus, the amount of news generated, as well as the great impact that America has on world events overall, along with our close proximity to you. As I alluded to earlier, you may be right, there *may* be an element of "look at them, we don't have it so bad, do we? Now sit down and shut up" implied in much of the US news we receive, but I don't think that's the main motivation. I freely admit that since the Iraq war, there has probably been a certain smugness involved in some of the news about the US that originates from Canada. Sort of "how the mighty have fallen - remember when we used to envy them?" However bitchy a reaction that might be, I think that reflects more on our (mostly former) sense of inferiority regarding the US. Unlike you though, I've never gotten the impression that our news broadcasts air American news to the exclusion of Canadian news. To me, it's always been more of an "in addition to" scenario. I also think that our news broadcasts tend to be more straight-on, factual reporting, without much editorializing.
The main reason I think that Canadian events aren't reported so much on American network news, with the exception of brief mentions in border town affiliates, is mostly because of American-centricism. I don't really use that term in an insulting sense. The fact is, your nation is so large in comparison, so complex, that you don't need filler for your news broadcasts. Couple that with the trend in American news to analyze every minute detail ad nauseum, and there isn't much room for other nations to be covered in any depth.
One final thought before I have to sign off - maybe it's not that Canada spends a disproportionate amount of time covering American and other international news and events, but that America spends a disproportionate amount of time *not* covering them? During bouts of insomnia in recent months, I've had to opportunity to watch on a City-TV news channel late night broadcasts of European-based news programs from countries like France and Germany. They seem to be more equivalent to our news, in that they cover a lot of international news.
Thanks again for the discussion, it's a topic that fascinates me.
I hope it doesn't get lost in the transition to a new thread.
