Promoting CanCon in the age of new media

Canadian broadcasting policy has long pursued the belief that content produced by and for Canadians holds cultural value for its domestic audiences, in addition to economic significance for Canada's media industries. As the capabilities of wireless and mobile technologies have developed to allow consumption of content traditionally broadcast on television, stakeholders have questioned how to ensure culturally-rich, domestically-produced content is available for Canadian audiences by such means. As industry stakeholders have debated the potential value of Canadian content in an increasingly globalized media landscape, technologies have continued to advance, and Canadians have increasingly turned to new media to be informed and entertained. With a lengthy history of media regulation, this paper will demonstrate how the Canadian government's slow, uncoordinated response to developing new media policy effectively perpetuates inhibiting tensions between cultural and economic goals. Questions that frame this enquiry include: What role does Canadian content play as a reflection of Canadian culture and support of the production industry within Canada's traditional broadcasting system? Is regulation of new media important to maintain traditional policy goals? If so, what kinds of regulation might be implemented in this new context? And to what degree does current new media policy succeed in pursuing cultural and industrial goals historically common to Canadian media regulation? In pursuing these questions, this paper will draw conclusions regarding the benefits of federal new media policy, and how the government can better advance domestic digital media production, as technologies continue to evolve.