Tessa's Return

During the lockout Tessa Sproule ran a blog titled simply I've Been Locked Out. It's gone now but it primarily recapped the best of that days blogs from everyone else. So, you posted and then the next morning you went to find out if 'Tessa liked me today'. She was the ultimate judge of what was worth reading that day and she was usually right.

Anyway, Tessa is on maternity leave now, but she resurfaced on Teamakers today, with just a comment: (In it's entirety)

Tessa said...
Anonymous #3 (if that's your REAL name) … You've nailed the real issue – that as a public broadcaster, the CBC is "no longer part of the national discussion."

While some may argue that's not always the case (the fifth estate's story on lotteries being the most recent example), it's true that much of CBC's programming isn't top of mind for the majority of Canadians.

But what do we do when our "national discussion" is not just dominated – but let's admit *consumed* by ideas, images and news from the U.S.?

Public broadcasting in this country was created to provide a space where Canadians would find news, ideas, culture… stories of their own, amid the din of American voices (which comprised of only a couple of channels way-back-when, imagine that!).

Sadly, when it comes to supply-and-demand, the numbers show that Canadian-produced television suffers miserably …

Spoken like a real 1980s television exec.

"Supply-and-demand" is soooooooo two and a half decades ago.

While we all engross ourselves in the latest ratings, we fail to recognize how the distrubution system upon which our entire industry is built is crumbling beneath. We can bemoan the number of eyeballs drawn to the lastest shiny icon on the stage, but fail to see the world of opportunity opening up outside our arrogant theatre.

Looking for the "national discussion?" It's not happening inside your television, or on your radio, or on the web. It's happening in 15 million homes, in 30+ million individual heads.

It used to be that you could broadcast one idea to many. Today, we live in a state of the hyper-individual, where the 'many' have shattered into a gazillion fragments, able to find what they want, where they want, and when they want.

If there is to be a "national discussion" in such a labyrinth, the CBC is the logical place to host it.

Unfortunately we've been preoccupied with the shiny stuff on the stage of late.

But I still think it's too early to say this place is fucked.

Halelujah Sister! As soon as your son can spare some of your time, get on back in there. The CEEB needs you! By the way, Tessa's new blog on mommydom is here.