The Role of Alternative Media in the Society
Introduction
The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) serves as the first national broadcaster of the indigenous groups in the world to focus on indigenous programming. The first broadcast took place on September 1st, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. APTN issues several contents, including documentaries, news, and dramas. The network aims at reaching a diverse audience as it displays programs in indigenous languages such as French and English. The television broadcasts in approximately 11 million Canadian businesses as well as households, where a large segment of the audience resides in the remote regions of the country. Aboriginal television network primarily generates revenues that they utilize in their operations via partnerships, subscriber fees, and advertising programs. APTN emerged from the TNC (Television North Canada), which was a network that aired daily news as well as societal issues, that were mainly about the Northern populations and the Indigenous people in Canada. TVNC first broadcasted from the region of northern Labrador to Yukon.
In 1998, the chairman of TVNC, Abraham Tagalik, place forward a bid that entailed a new national network for the indigenous groups, which he hoped would transform the media stereotype regarding the indigenous groups (Tagalik, 1999). Tangalik received support from both non-indigenous and indigenous individuals, including the First Nations Assemble and a series of broadcasters. According to one anonymous supporter, the creation of APTN is a precious gift to Canada as it benefits not only the Aboriginal groups but also a significant bit of cultural mosaic within the region of Canada. On February 1st 1999, the regulators of media, CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission) issued a national broadcast license to the APTN (Baltruschat, 2004). Even though certain groups of people opposed the application APTN, a significant bit of the population supported the creation of the broadcast network, and the decision was finally held. Upon the launch of the APTN in September of 1999, the indigenous groups in the country could share media stories and ideas in their own languages from one side of the coast to another for the first time in history. Typically, the mission of the network is “sharing our people journey, celebrating our cultures, inspiring our children, and honoring the wisdom of our leaders.” Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
When the APTN began broadcasting, the significant part of the aboriginal audience was able to connect to the media. The bureau operations of APTN occur in three Northern Center Iqaluit, Yellowknife, and Whitehorse. In other parts of the country, the press operates in Ottawa, Vancouver, Halifax, Calgary, Thunder Bay, Montreal, Winnipeg, Toronto, and Edmonton. In May 2008, the network possessed more than 127 full-time employees, where the majority were indigenous people. More than 80% of the APTN content is Canadian, and it also broadcasts programs from South and Central America, New Zealand, and Australia (Chan, 2017). Close to half of the programs are aired in English while the rest of the percentage mirrors indigenous languages at 28% and French at 16% (Chan, 2017). As of 2017, the APTN network signed $2 million worth agreement with the department of Heritage in the Federal structure of Canada to produce Aboriginal Day Live.
The media plays a significant function in issuing the national public with opinions and facts to model the understanding of aboriginal identities. David Copeland, a communications scholar, asserts that the media has the power to effect transformation in government in economies, societies, and practically in every element in society. The thesis of this paper outlines them mentioned supposition alluding to the indigenous people’s story in Canada. The influence of media concerning the indigenous story does not only feature in the central institutions of Canadian society. Beverley McLachlin, the Chief Justice of Canada, emphasized that media significantly contribute to establishing the pioneering legacy of Canada; ‘… the media was used to shape a certain perception of indigenous people, and it was pretty effective and sometimes in very negative ways’ (Baltruschat, 2004). However, the chief justice questions how media should exist alluding to the fact that the colonial narrative consistently erodes “… there’s another way of looking at that — how do you use the media to get out the reality?” (Baltruschat, 2004). Within this thesis, I consider the approach of cultural studies which combines critical political economy and the non-critical liberal-pluralist economy of news to assess the way journalist decide about reporting indigenous issues within Canada. The element is basically straightforward as the national government admitted that indigenous groups are subject to subjugations that are policy-driven and have focused on reconciling past wrongdoings.
This research is inductive, where it applies both quantitative and qualitative elements. Alluding to the fact that news is a cultural yield, the primary focus on this paper resides on the way a leading mainstream media that in Canada have included and are influencing the way indigenous issues are covered in the modern world. Due to the tremendous power of the mainstream media in terms of the way all Canadian understand history, it is essential to understand the way journalists make a decision regarding the elements that they should report. The central question in the thesis of this paper asks: what role does the media play in the beginning, the continuity, and the evolution of indigenous media and people in Canada? Several mainstream media networks issue instantaneous access to vary traditions, stories, as aboriginal programs provide different insights regarding the political, cultural, and economic affairs of the people within the First Nation arena.
Crossing Boundaries and Adopting the International Niche
APTN has embraced globalization in its structures with diverse levels of intensity in its operation. Globalization in the APTN arena links to its localization through the development of its niche markets. The process is evident in its creation of mainstream media as well as the production of global elements while creating an in-depth focus on local concerns as well as documentary. The adaptation of the network on popular genres like variety shows, such as cooking and crafting, reveals the need to air globally appealing products that can be sold even in the market of international television. The programs aired at APTN enable viewers to experience a sense of cultural hybridist in practice, adaptation of concepts and ideas, as well as cultural transformations. For instance, one of the episodes of “The Creative Native,” which an APTN show on arts and crafts, features the creation of Christmas ornaments, which focus on combining Aboriginal headdress techniques with the holiday concept of non-natives. Moreover, cooking shoes like “Cooking with the Wolfman” mirror recipes and foods of traditional essence and combines it with the existing world cuisines from France and Italy.
APTN practices
APTN primarily focuses on multilingual programming. Some of the programs it airs in traditional languages include Lakota, Cree, and Inuktitut, which provide a remarkable opportunity for more than 58 indigenous languages to be heard on the television. The television interviews community leaders and leaders from indigenous backgrounds under critical topics regarding environmental issues, natural resources, and land claims. Moreover, it airs children programs that help in educating indigenous children for their linguistic traditions. According to (Chan, 2017), the media APTN media serves as a powerful tool that assists their indigenous people in their healing process and bring understanding about their culture as they tell their stories. APTN acts as a catalyst dot changing the lives of marginalized groups in society. The television network promotes cross-cultural bridges towards the non-native communities by enabling the exposure of the indigenous issues to the viewers. Even though, their practice may not proceed to the “indigenization” of the public sphere of Australia, a platform where non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal converse with one another through media coverage, produces within Canada are increasingly becoming interests in working as one.
Partnerships with aboriginals and non-indigenous produce form a new opportunity for the two groups to share experiences and promote harmony (Tagalik, 1999). A significant number of partners by the aboriginals assert that they have trusted and respected the knowledge and uniqueness of aboriginals. Aboriginal producers documents ancient indigenous rights as well as cultures to produce a vital record that depicts Canada’s native life. The media network also focuses on cultural appropriations of artworks, weaving, and crafts by non-natives. Through the mainstream media, the aboriginals can portray their exoticization, which is an essential element for filmmakers who aspire to adapt and popularize the cultural values and histories of indigenous people.
Related practices in different media networks
While the APTN provides significant opportunities for aboriginals, it also embraces the operation of mainstream network. For instance, the media focuses on the acquisition and production of one-hour as well as serial documentaries, which a common practice for other systems. The television also encourages interprovincial co-production and international co-productions that are primarily governed by bilateral treaties between the state of Canada as well as other countries. Within the collaborations, the network focuses on the promotion of education regarding aboriginal language and culture, as well as increasing their revenue through exporting programs in the world and attending worldwide television markets such as NATPE and MIPCOM in the United States; with trade forums in New Zealand and Australia. APTN’s commercial networks are essential for their wellbeing since they no longer receive local incomes. Tagalik (1999) asserts that the trap lines of the television network are expanding their revenue sources in aspects like broadcasting to generate employment opportunities for the aboriginals.
The television network also imports particular films from the United States, which is also a common practice within other systems in Canada. The American programs are often easy to obtain since they exist at lower prices than the local ones. Nonetheless, since the inauguration of APTN in 1999, the network has triggered the development of programs in Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand. Due to the Canadian Television Fund’s Aboriginal Production Fund, which has existed since 1997, the budgets of the Aboriginal production increased steadily to an average of $430,000 between the year 2000 and 200- marking a 50% increase from its previous state in the past one year. The trend continued to 2002, and 2003 with it registered $470,000 and $523,000, respectively (Baltruschat, 2004). Despite the significant increase in the network’s sphere and influence, the television producers, its self, and First Nation Films face a series of challenges from competition that arise from mainstream broadcasters as well as training of television producers and new Aboriginal films to accessing production capital for expensive television drama.
Social, legal, cultural or economic resistance to the development of APTN
Stereotypes towards the Aboriginals are quite extensive, not excluding the ones which are significantly perpetuated with another journalist. The most common theme of the stereotypes connotes the group as an outcast to the social platform of the country. A Lethbridge Herald report in 1911 about an indigenous festival asserts that the level of separation that Aboriginals endure is playing a significant role in creating a significant prejudice. According to the report, “‘There in full war paint, with totem poles waving in mid-air, bedecked in gaudy feathers, and amid the merry music of jingling bells, beating drums and singing braves, the parade presented a sight that was at the same time awe-inspiring and amusing” A large of history depict that stereotypes were heavily perpetuated by Journalism which mirrored indigenous groups via Eurocentric lenses. According to Baltruschat, (2004), the lenses be partitions into stigmatization (depicted as menacing or problematic), eulogization (which represents them as primitive or savage), and debasement (which portray them as villains or comical). Such representations are similar to the ideology of the aboriginals as well as their existence within the periphery, pose a threat or an inconvenience to the national interests of Canada. In such a manner, the general perception of the news media towards the aboriginals were parallel to those of other the prevailing social institutions.
APTN is more than just space for the sociopolitical and cultural expression of indigenous peoples. As Kerstin Knopf asserts in “Aboriginal Media on the Move,” APTN also offers them a platform “from which to contest the ideological and imaginary aboriginal constructed in western media discourse” (Tagalik, 1999). However, APTN has faced obstacles that put it, like the community it covers, at a competitive disadvantage. While technological progress has meant increased national and international connectivity, it has not translated equally, according to Lorna Roth in “First Peoples Television in Canada.” She claims APTN is chronically underfunded and struggles to keep up with its mainstream counterparts, given its limited transmission capacity.44 Despite APTN’s ambitious mandate, operational challenges associated with budget constraints have meant it fails to reach many of the members of the communities it strives to cover, much less the broader public. Monika Ille, APTN’s executive director of programming and schedule, explains in a letter to the Canada Media Fund that the way funding formulas weight ratings are stratified toward large broadcasters: “Numeris does not measure Aboriginal audiences or rural or northern audiences (APTN’s target audience). As a result, our ratings are disproportionately lower, and we suffer the consequences in our envelopes’ calculations” (Baltruschat, 2004). As that statement demonstrates, while APTN and indigenous outlets do wield influence in the news media, it is marginal relative to that of mainstream organizations. In that way, although there were significant developments in the indigenous story during redress, it was the mainstream interpretation that continued to shape discourse.
Conclusion
Several mainstream television houses provided consistent access to different stories, culture, and traditions as aboriginal platform air very different views concerning political, cultural, and economic affairs of the non-natives. The stories that indigenous network provides are unique as they focus on a combination of both their native languages and the non-native ones. The APTN documents people as they struggle to survive in the world’s economy culturally. Their intent of co-producing across cultures is based on shared content and interests as opposed to increasing their financial base. Critical, diverse, and balance of perspectives are imposed in designing the landscape if media that is saturated with commercial productions, infotainment, and sensationalized reality-TV programs.
References
Baltruschat, D. (2004). Television and Canada’s aboriginal communities: Seeking opportunities through traditional storytelling and digital technologies. Canadian Journal of Communication, 29(1), 47-59. Retrieved from http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/219616252?accountid=14771
Chan, M. (2017). Media use and the social identity model of collective action: Examining the roles of online alternative news and social media news. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 94(3), 663-681. doi:http://dx.doi.org.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/10.1177/1077699016638837
Tagalik, A. (1999). APTN explained: Cable companies across the country are asking why they must carry the aboriginal people’s television network. Its chairman speaks. Cablecast, 11(4), 44. Retrieved from http://myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/docview/200028478?accountid=14771