As Canadian As Possible

Aniko Bodroghkozy’s article “As Canadian As Possible” illustrates the way Canadian broadcasting has been somewhat drastically impacted by American broadcasting. Canada is already experiencing a national identity problem (especially with Quebec that has their own Francophone television), but American broadcasting taking over Canadian television has only added to the problem. Some Canadians are trying to stir support for only Canadian Broadcasting Corporations, but that just has not been enough. Instead Canadian media has “Americanized” their television shows, movies, etc. Canadian television is just to grey and realistic unlike the superficial, unrealistic, dream world of pop culture American television. Canadian producers are starting to “mimic the forms and conventions of American pop culture (Bodroghkozy 568). The shows that have had success in Canada are the ones like Street Legal that Americanized itself to grab more audience attention. By doing so, they added sexy woman characters, placed the show in a big city, Toronto where they could place superficiality and money into the storyline. After all, Canadian TV is said to be too realistic and who really wants to sit down after a long day of work and watch everyday realistic life when you can do that watching your own life. When we sit to watch TV many of us search for something that grabs our attention and is often completely unrealistic unless, we’re looking for the news.

Take for example this episode of The OC. The OC was my favorite television show, when I take a closer look at the show it is completely superficial and unreal; the outcomes are almost always perfectly how you want them and follow a very high class American Dream theme. After watching this episode you realize, a troublesome teenager, Ryan, has just been adopted in a high society (Newport Harbor, California) perfect family of three, where both parents are rich and working. Ryan gets to have his own part of the house, a giant pool house overlooking the pool and the view onto all of Newport and the ocean. After that, Ryan gets to make a debut at the high society Newport Ball with the girl he wants. This movie is full of superficiality, money, and an unreal “American Dream,” but that seems to be the type of media that grabs the majority of our attention and time.

One last point in this article I thought was really interesting is that, “Media Corporations are now global entities” as Bodroghkozy states (569). This is a strong point American broadcasting is not specifically trying to ruin Canadian broadcasting, but instead maximize their profits.