CanCon and Cultural Protectionism

[Valka D'Ur]

I just looked this up and cannot understand why anyone would want to watch it, but to each their own I suppose...

It falls into the categories of "mental junk food" and "guilty pleasures". There's a group of us over on TrekBBS who are fans of Big Brother, Survivor, and The Amazing Race. We've been following and discussing these shows for years.

Well, that was originally in a conversation with Arwon, and even though the thread is about Canada what I was saying was related to Australia. Since 90% of Canadians live within broadcast range of US stations only the advent of cable allows for any control in Canada at all. Much different circumstances.

I was asking for clarification, not an argument.

Every time issues like this come up in our news, there are always people who say, "just put up an antenna and rake in the American channels for free". What they don't get is that some of us don't want an all-American diet of TV, and there are plenty of Canadians who don't live close to the border.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I was asking for clarification, not an argument.

I know. I was hoping to clarify, not argue.

 

[rah]

they just say, "go to cbs.com to see the rest of it" and don't give a damn that Canadians can't do that.

Don't worry, most of us in the US aren't going to it anyway.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Every time issues like this come up in our news, there are always people who say, "just put up an antenna and rake in the American channels for free". What they don't get is that some of us don't want an all-American diet of TV, and there are plenty of Canadians who don't live close to the border.

And there's sometimes landlords who don't allow antennas.

EDIT: Or maybe I'm thinking of satellites? I can't remember which is which.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

And there's sometimes landlords who don't allow antennas.

EDIT: Or maybe I'm thinking of satellites? I can't remember which is which.

A lot of landlords pull this but in the US there are regulations that prevent them from banning antennas and satellite dishes in most cases. It's considered a national security issue - people have to access to information one way or another for emergency alerts and with only a few exceptions, the landlords can't stop you from putting up antennas or dishes. But most people don't know this and our country doesn't enforce the few pro-consumer laws we have in many cases so landlords will forbid stuff like this even when that's illegal. I don't know whether Canada is the same or not.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

That's interesting.

Here in Canada, landlords aren't allowed to limit ISPs, but ours does. So I sent a letter to the CRTC asking what I should do. That was two years ago.

 

[Synobun]

The CRTC is garbage. You're better off contacting the tenancy board (although it looks like NS doesn't have one, so whichever department is in charge of residency). But they will probably not be helpful either unless you convince your mom to formally complain.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I think there's a "residential tenancy program," but I'm not sure if they'd help.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

And there's sometimes landlords who don't allow antennas.

EDIT: Or maybe I'm thinking of satellites? I can't remember which is which.

Both, I should think. It would depend on whether you're renting a detached house, rowhouse, duplex, fourplex, or apartment.

Satellite dishes aren't allowed where I live. It would detract from the "aesthetics". People are allowed to keep firetraps like barbecues and planters on the balconies (just the thing to set a building on fire if a stray spark from someone's discarded cigarette got into it), but not allowed to have laundry or dishes on them.

A lot of landlords pull this but in the US there are regulations that prevent them from banning antennas and satellite dishes in most cases. It's considered a national security issue - people have to access to information one way or another for emergency alerts and with only a few exceptions, the landlords can't stop you from putting up antennas or dishes. But most people don't know this and our country doesn't enforce the few pro-consumer laws we have in many cases so landlords will forbid stuff like this even when that's illegal. I don't know whether Canada is the same or not.

Emergency alerts are sent in various ways, depending on the type of emergency. I get Environment Canada alerts on the Weather Network (I have that website pinned, and it flashes when an emergency alert is in effect). So far I've never had a real alert on TV, although they do emergency broadcast tests sometimes. And thank goodness I don't have a cell phone so I don't get woken up at some ridiculous hour for an Amber Alert for some kid hundreds of miles away; those alerts aren't sent to landlines.

That's interesting.

Here in Canada, landlords aren't allowed to limit ISPs, but ours does. So I sent a letter to the CRTC asking what I should do. That was two years ago.

The CRTC is useless. What you might consider trying is Go Public. They get results when nobody else does.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

And thank goodness I don't have a cell phone so I don't get woken up at some ridiculous hour for an Amber Alert for some kid hundreds of miles away; those alerts aren't sent to landlines.

What's especially bad about this is that for some reason they send every alert as presidential level. Presidential level is supposed to be for super bad things like nuclear bombs. All it does it make people cranky and make them more likely to ignore alerts in the future (or even actively look for ways to disable it).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

What's especially bad about this is that for some reason they send every alert as presidential level. Presidential level is supposed to be for super bad things like nuclear bombs. All it does it make people cranky and make them more likely to ignore alerts in the future (or even actively look for ways to disable it).

There have been several articles on CBC.ca in the past few months about this. I've been downvoted considerably for saying that I honestly would not be happy to be awakened at 3 am because some kid in Edmonton or Calgary or even farther away had gone missing. Unless said kid turned up on my balcony or at my door, I wouldn't be inclined to tolerate losing any sleep whatsoever about it.

But of course people who receive such alerts are obviously supposed to jump out of bed and head to the nearest 7-11 in case the kidnapper and kid are there, getting snacks for their getaway, even though the missing kid lives hundreds of miles away. Some of the commenters would insist, "Do you realize how far people can travel in a few hours?"

By that "logic" they should send those damn alerts to the entire world, considering how far planes travel nowadays.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I don't even know why CBC even bothers with a comment section anymore. It's always a bit of a trash pit.

 

[EnglishEdward]

The question is, whether that is enough. Economics of scale is massive in the media business, because production costs stay virtually the same, no matter whether 10 thousand or 10 million people watch it. So a huge domestic market enables so much potential for undercutting against local productions in other countries.

I agree.

And diminishing local productions decreases diversity of thought.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I don't even know why CBC even bothers with a comment section anymore. It's always a bit of a trash pit.

As mentioned, their "moderators" don't follow the guidelines. They're outsourced to who-knows-where... they don't even work for CBC and sometimes I think they're not even Canadian, given the bizarre things they disable. Some people think it's bots doing the moderating and are given a list of keywords to watch for and disable any post that uses those words. Therefore, these people have taken to deliberately misspelling some words, to get around possible bot censors. However, that doesn't explain why identical posts can be pinked in the morning, reposted a few hours later, and it will be accepted. There are open comments about waiting for the "shift change" or just for a different moderator. Unfortunately, no matter who or what is moderating, they do nothing about the spam comments (identical ones posted a dozen times or more).

But I do think "Go Public" might be an option, since you can't be the only one with this issue.

 

[AmazonQueen]

One of my friends couldn't have satellite because he lived in a conservation area. A lot of things that wouldn't normally require planning permission like installing a satellite dish or UPVC windows were forbidden. What was so special about this area of between the wars suburbia I'm not sure. Looked much like many other outer London residential areas.

 

[Tee Kay]

Is a culture that needs protecting really worth protecting?

I think the diversity of expression of the human experience is worth something. And I don't think a hands-off approach by governments is necessarily good for improving that diversity of expression, just as a hands-off approach by governments is not necessarily good to foster any fairly competitive marketplace.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

One of my friends couldn't have satellite because he lived in a conservation area. A lot of things that wouldn't normally require planning permission like installing a satellite dish or UPVC windows were forbidden. What was so special about this area of between the wars suburbia I'm not sure. Looked much like many other outer London residential areas.

Must have been a radio-quiet zone where they try and keep broad-spectrum radio tampered so they can do observations of deep space and/or enemy broadcasts. There's similar zones like this in the US including a rather large one in West Virginia where a lot of nutters who are afraid of electromagnetic radiation have decided to live. (The brother in Better Call Saul is a person who is like that, for reference.)

 

[Valka D'Ur]

One of my friends couldn't have satellite because he lived in a conservation area. A lot of things that wouldn't normally require planning permission like installing a satellite dish or UPVC windows were forbidden. What was so special about this area of between the wars suburbia I'm not sure. Looked much like many other outer London residential areas.

There could have been a particular species of bird that they wanted to protect. I've seen instances of where a particular area was declared protected because it was one of the last habitats of a specific plant.

 

[Lohrenswald]

Does your country have some kind of cultural protectionism? How do you feel about it? Does it work?

Not as far as I know

If it doesn't have cultural protectionism, do you wish it did?

Yea

Do you think content in your country is being crushed by the US/Anglo-Americans/EU/Westerners/China/[insert hegemonic force of globalization and homogenization]?

I think it's stupid to believe otherwise

 

[AmazonQueen]

There could have been a particular species of bird that they wanted to protect. I've seen instances of where a particular area was declared protected because it was one of the last habitats of a specific plant.

This was a London suburb. Conservation orders are issued by the local council usually because an area contains buildings of historical interest which I think would.ve been hard to argue was the case in the area my friend lived in.
A rare species habitat would probably be a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).