vga256Feb 24

i have a weird idea that i'd like some input on from fellow canadians specifically about mastodon/the fediverse. boosts very much appreciated!

i grew up in the 80s and 90s canada. there were rules about the % and types of "canadian content" broadcasted on tv/radio.

partly because of that, and federal-provincial funding credits, i got to grew up with canadian-produced tv series like the Beachcombers, The Friendly Giant, Mr. Dressup, The Raccoons, North of 60, The Elephant Show, Degrassi Jr/Sr High. it's a big list, and i'm sure you remember a lot more. some of it was great. some of it sucked. but all of it was very weird and canadian.

there was nothing i was fiercely prouder of than being canadian, because it was all around me.

and the in the 2000s some of that changed. cancon weakened. american productions got a huge foothold here, and suddenly we became inundated with american pop tv and music. i watched teens/adults become infatuated with US pop lifestyle, mostly because - i think! - we just didn't produce anything worth watching or listening to. even cbc.ca is 50% american headlines now, and it's painful

here's where mastodon comes in. i'm seeing that process happen again on masto. canadians posting endlessly about american politics and pop culture. i just checked the live feed of the largest masto instance in canada, and it was 100% american news opinions.

what i don't see - and please correct me if i'm wrong - is a cancon-oriented masto instance or fedi presence. one that *specifically* is organized around boosting/organizing/frontpaging canadian stories with canadian people in them.

i want to talk about our utterly unwatchable modern canadian tv series. or just how lame cbc radio 1's pop culture interviews are. or how heartbroken i was to see the team canada women's team lose a nailbiter.

i love that the fediverse was built around internationalism, but i've watched two generations of kids grow up with weak ties to their local weirdo canuck culture. they deserve a place where canadian stuff is front-and-centre, even if it sucks and we know it. i want to know the local news in coal harbour and fort st john and churchill.

what would that look like on the fediverse? would it be a masto instance? or something else?

feel free to reply here, or just write something up and tag with #canadaverse

#canada #fedizen #canadaverse #yeg #alberta #bc #saskatchewan #manitoba #yukon #nunavut #quebec #novascotia #ontario #newbrunswick #newfoundland #nwt

Show threadMagnesium

@vga256 I've always thought of cancon laws as a form of censorship, whereas the bursaries and government grants for the Arts as the actual Kickstarter to Canadian originated content.

Now that we're on the Internet, the censorship side is harder to enforce ( and i'd argue shouldn't be), but we're not doing enough with grants and enabling the reach of good content to create the feedback loop that this is viable in the competitive world of attention grabbing content.

Feb 24 at 1:17pmWeb
Show threadvga256Feb 24

@magnesium for sure. but keep in mind that granting systems are equally censoring - they're totally selective based on their own rules about content too. i've worked through granting systems in the arts and sciences here, and their goals are to promote whatever cultural/political focus they're currently built around.

that being said: i absolutely appreciate that someone cared enough to actually build meaningful rules about what is canadian and what isn't. i'd rather be arguing with another canadian about what counts as canadian-enough-content, than promoting american libertarianism as some kind of cyber utopia.

the current fediverse absolutely favours populism and trendy american content, just due to a pure numbers game. that's a recipe for losing your culture if you're anyone but american.

#canadaverse

Show threadAcroamatis 🇨🇦Feb 24

@magnesium @vga256

I always thought of it less as censorship (it's not as if networks were forbidden to air any specific content, they were just required to have a percentage of cancon) and more media protectionism.

And look at the Wheat Board or the Dairy Council - it's been a strategy that's paid off for Canadians in the past.

Show threadvga256Feb 24
@acroamatis great points. the CWB and CDC both have their detractors of course, but they did exactly what they were supposed to do for farmers.