Scrawled in Wax

Today, Michael Geist links to responses to a proposed plan to prioritise Canadian content on the internet. Undestandably, Galacticast producer Casey McKinnon – one of Canada’s more famous online personalities – is less than thrilled with the idea, and argues that the internet is”a land of opportunity. A new world where people had the freedom to make their dreams a reality… Instead of sitting around waiting for some executive to call us to approve of a script, or going to countless auditions, we’re doing it all on our own and making our dreams come true.” She suggests that CanCon rules will destroy this spirit, instead subjecting Canadian content to the same sort of mediocrity that plagues the lineup of the CBC.

The argument is convincing – the sort where you don’t want to disagree even if you, like I, feel you should. After all, this sort of meritocratic, free-market approach appeals directly to the individualist core of North American values – McKinnon even goes so far as to praise the ‘Wild West’ mentality in her post – and it usually drives me up the wall.

But while I am normally wary of arguments that reject government interference because it ‘restricts freedom’ – they so often miss the fact that power, wealth and cultural capital are bound up in self-reproducing networks – I can’t help but get behind Geist and McKinnon on this one. Because of the relatively low cost of entry and potential for word-of-mouth, the internet is remarkably more free that other media distribution methods. As such, McKinnon’s suggestion that it should be funding and not regulation that we focus upon is spot-on: by developing Canadian online talent and destinations, one encourages the development of a new culture industry as the inevitable shift from traditional to new media accelerates. Beyond the fact that it would be impossible to mandate – how exactly would you guarantee that Candians experience 40% of CanCon online? – defining Canadian content online is a mess that no-one wants to get into, so why bother?

All that said, I don’t think we should become overly complacent or naive about the internet totally being a ‘land of freedom’. Even a cursory glance at the domination of English and Western democratic-capitalist ideals online should clear up that particular fallacy. But though I never thought I’d say it, I’m with the business-y folks on this one – leave the internet alone.