Media Policy and Globalization - Blogs Unpad

94 MEDIA POLICY AND GLOBALIZATION
defining everything from the appropriateness of technological standards
to the terms of service provision (Canada 1997). The era of digital technology
became the defining policy factor that directed policy discourse,
object and objectives for both sides of the Atlantic. The 1990s witnessed
the reorganization of the jurisdiction of the institutions designing policy
for broadcasting and telecommunications. The previous authority for
communications, the Department of Communications and Culture, became
Industry Canada, responsible among others for policy-making for
Telecommunications and the Information Society. Another authority, the
Department of Canadian Heritage was put in charge of issues relating to
content, broadcasting and culture. This sharp segregation of what used to
be a more integrated institutional approach to communications and media
comes in contrast to the claims that technological development drives
policy. In this case, previous claims about the determining power of technological
convergence raise the question whether the jurisdiction over
communications would be more efficient had it ‘converged’ to address
the technological realities of the new media. Indeed, this is one of the
main recommendations of the report on cultural heritage commissioned
by the House of Commons and completed in 2003. According to the
1,000 page report, the recommendations, deriving from a wide consultation
with community media and advocacy groups, media organizations
and civil society organizations as well as academics and other consultants,
stress that decisions about content should be made by a centralized
body. Furthermore, it is recommended that the public service broadcaster,
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), is guaranteed long-term
funding with a clear plan for the transition to digital made available.
The CBC has not been helped by state policies and debates that emphasize
as a measuring standard of success the popularity of content and the
proportion of audience share in comparison to commercial media. Moreover,
the Canadian PSB in general has not been supported in its aims of
universality and catering for minorities due to the fragmentation of policy.
Again, as a remedial procedure, the report recommends the treatment of
the broadcasting system as a single system with further recommendations
for the creation of appropriate mechanisms and independent bodies that
can promote the development of local programming and regional broadcasting
policy (Canada 2003). 9 Canada, as does the EU, has a wide array
of institutions and policies supporting cultural and media production,
such as the National Film Board and the Council of the Arts, while it also
has a dedicated regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications
Commission (CRTC). However, despite its positive image
in international circles, the Canadian state has allowed further disintegration
of its ‘social contract’ with citizens, through the gradual slippage of