1 Television in Canada In this work, we are going to analyze the article that refers to the television in Canada.

We are about to discuss the main argument of the author and the ways they apply to present it in the article. What did the author do in order to persuade the reader and were their arguments convincing? We are going to look into different types of evidence presented in the article and build our own evaluation around them. We will also outline our own position as to the main argument of the Television in Canada and support our statement. By studying the article, it becomes obvious that the main argument of the author is that television in Canada should not be identified with that of the US, although they tend to have a lot in common. The author makes us understand that with the increasing demands for the products, the viewers tend to accept what is the most popular, and that is obviously the US television. However, the important question to be discussed is what are the Canadian values and what should be referred to as the Canadian television at all. The author supports the statement that although the Canadian television stands in the minority compared with the US one, it still has its particular features and value. And this statement is supported by drawing the main events in the history of the Canadian television, which becomes the skeleton of the overall argument. We can see the numerous evidence of Canadian television being absorbed by the US mass culture and being neglected as such. However, what is important in the article is that the author does not try to encourage the readers to stand against the American but rather present the statement that it plays an essential role in broadening the horizons of knowledge and culture and gives everyone the right to decide the content for themselves according to their values: We would never protect Canadian writers by banning non-Canadian books. Nor would we protect Canadian films by banning films from other countries. We may, therefore, do more harm than good by restricting access to outside television, because

2 it narrows the range of knowledge and impoverishes culture, it grants to a minority the right to decide for the majority, and it allows the protected industry to be complacent (p. 185). The sub arguments of the article are concerned with such issues as convergence in Canadian TV, fragmentation and personalization of the media, which are all presented with different subheadings and given particular attention. We can see how the appearance of the digital media drew the viewers closer to television and therefore the question arises whether it is a positive and negative notion, as well as the fragmentation of the audience it caused. The author presents the pros and cons of the digital media and uses various quotations and statistic data to support the evidence. For example, when dealing with the question of accessibility of the media, the author uses the extracted quote from the commercial of Bell Express Vu: Fast access to the latest CBC news from Canada and around the world. Its all on your TV. You choose what stories to read scroll through news with your remote. You are in control (p. 191). Challenging the evidence of the overflow in digital media and its threat to the Canadian culture, the authors use statistics to strengthen their view that the fragmentation of the audience caused by the digital media is not going to decrease in the near future: The percentage of viewing time devoted to specialty channels rose from 14 percent in 1990 to 19 percent in 1995, to 22 percent in 1998 (p. 189). When facing different aspects of the digital media the authors also use the research and survey data to cover their argument. The survey indicates that people actually spend more time in front of TV when it is required to watch some particular problem, which caused the problem of overflow (p. 191). Our opinion is that although Canadian television undoubtedly has its own peculiarities and values, it cannot compete with that of the US. As it has been fairly stated in the article, the Canadian television is accused of being too American with the endless flow of reality

3 shows, such as Canadian Idol, The Apprentice, Star Academie etc. Moreover, it is pointless to limit the access to this Americanized TV-shows, because they indicate exactly what people choose to watch. We should not also restrict the Canadian television from merging with the American, because without a strong competitor, it will not be able to grow and develop on the international area, which has also been mentioned by the authors. However, I cannot but agree that despite the fact that Canadian television is for minority, we agree with the author that it has its own value that should not be neglected as well. Canadian television makes a contribution to that of the US, as we can identify a lot of Canadian elements in the American TV. We must also say that Canadian television not only as a digital mass media but also as an information hub (p. 190). Digital media might have lead to fragmentation of the audience and increased the hours spend in front of TV but is also brought the advantages that we could not leave out. For example, with the increase of digital media, the viewer received the opportunity to choose the content of television, and this better reveals their values, interests and demands. It turns out to be very important for further sophistication and development of the Canadian television, which, in turn, should preserve the earlier concept of being a valuable instrument on national unity, of education, and of entertainment (p. 181).

4 References Attallab, P. and Foster, D. Television in Canada, 2006.