Summary Assignment - Essay Example

Cultural policy can be hard to define and is often overlooked by many people. Canada is a unique case because the country covers a wide variety of cultures and languages. It is for this reason that creating a cultural policy becomes difficult. What is perceived as cultural policy to some may not resonate with others. However, there is a real need to preserve Canadian culture yet allow it to flourish all by itself. This is where things get difficult—how much culture should be protected, what should be protected, and for which group of people should culture be protected?

There are many reasons why the government feels a need to preserve Canadian culture: geographic, economic, social, and nationalistic. I feel that these reasons have value and must be considered if Canada is to keep its culture intact. Because of Canada’s distinct geographic location, regular Canadians can be influenced by American lines of thought, which intrude on Canadian culture. The Canadian government has the right to feel concerned about how its culture is shaped. The norm used to be that Canadians would follow multimedia from Americans—radio and television.

1 It is important though that the Canadian government takes on the opinions of its people to better understand how to implement productive cultural policies. Historically this has been done through Royal Commissions to better understand the demands of the public.2 These Royal Commissions made recommendations to the government on how to regulate radio broadcasting, arts and sciences, television broadcasting, and newspapers. I think that it is important to maintain a strong Canadian influence in the national media, but outsiders’ thoughts and opinions must be heard to present a balanced view.

The government has found the right balance through policy instruments. The Broadcasting Act states that a certain amount of material that broadcasters publish has to be considered “Canadian.”3 Canada’s cultural policies have proved successful in the past, but times are changing. Digitization has brought about its own set of challenges.4 The rise of the Internet and new media devices has opened up Canadians to a wide range of cultural influences. The Canadian government needs to be cautious though when restricting the use of media delivery systems.

The growing trend of the Canadian population is to accept these new media devices. It is up to policymakers to know their audience to determine the right cultural policies. Canada needs to be open to more than one cultural policy because of the diverse nature of its population.