Homegrown stereotyping: the shaping of Canadian consciousness through television broadcasting

Abstract

Z geografickeho hlediska je Kanada zemi rozlehlou a klimaticky rozmanitou, s pomeme ridkym osidlenim soustredenym u jizni hranice se Spojenymi staty americk;'mi. Avsak z kultume-antropologickeho hlediska se jedna 0 zemi narodnostne pestrou, 0 mozaiku kultur a identit, 0 zemi neustale se menici a vyvijejici. Soucasne je Kanada zemi velmi mladou a jeji promenliva tvar formovami prilivy imigrantu a bojem 0 vymezeni vlastni identity (at' jiz vliCi materske Anglii Ci noveji vlici Spojenym statum) zustava dodnes pro vetSinu lidi tajemstvim, zahadou, neuchopiteln;'m a neprobadan;'m teritoriem. Tato prace Je zamerena na problematiku kanadske narodni identity a jeji vymezovani se pomoci stereotypu v mediich. lako pfikladova studie byl pouzit serial Smer Jih, kter;' hraje vYznamnou roli pri vytvareni kanadskeho povedomi a formovani nove kultumi identity, a kter;' zaroveii nepfimo napomaha kultumi osvete a vytvareni lepsiho a plnohodnotnejsiho vztahu Kanady a Spojenych statu americkych. K lepsimu porozumeni kanadskych stereotypu objevujicich se v serialu slouzi teoreticky uvod prace, v nemz je nastineno pozadi historickYch udalosti, ktere Kanadu formovaly, obecna problematika kanadske televizni tvorby, jeji regulace kanadskou vladou a problemy, kter;'m cell v dnesni dobe. Snahou prace bylo popsat, analyzovat a...

To define Canada and the Canadian nation is no easy task. From a historical perspective, Canada is a very young country: until 1949 there was no Canadian citizenship, the Canadian flag appeared as late as 1965, and it wasn't until 1967 that the Canadian national anthem could be heard. Although Canada would thereafter finally seem to have been able to establish its distinct identity in opposition to its mother country, Canadian patriotism has continued to be problematic. Despite years of efforts to form a pan-Canadian identity - characterized especially by Pierre Trudeau's attempts to institute federal bilingualism and a pan-Canadian identity rooted in liberal individualism - the existence of a self-conscious Canadian nation remains questionable. Within the Canadian Anglophone population there seems to be no unified notion of a panCanadian nation and thus no innate nationalism. Furthermore, for the rest of the world, Canada remains a mystery, an "Unknown Country."] Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven, assessed the situation as follows: "after 1919 most creative people, whether in painting, writing or music, began to have a guilty feeling that Canada was as yet unwritten, unpainted, unsung [ ... ],,2 Indeed, efforts were made to "capture" Canada in paintings, photography, in poetry and prose, in...