Page - 160 - in Media – Migration – Integration - European and North American Perspectives

Augie Fleras | Ethnic and Aboriginal Media in Canada 160 between the ‘here’ and the ‘there’ by way of the ‘inbetween’. Ethnic media also serve as a bridging device for facilitating integration into society at large while securing a reassuring bond of community, identity, and culture (Open Society Institute 2005). In that, ethnic media represent instruments of cultural preservation as well as agents of incorporation, their status as pockets of insularity as pathways to integration cannot be underestimated. No more so than in Canada where the popularity of ethnic and aboriginal media may well constitute the quintessential expression of Canada’s inclusive multiculturalism. 4. Aboriginal and Ethnic Media in Canada: Pockets of Insularity as Pathways to Integration Canada has long campaigned to promote and preserve its cultural diversity in the face of globalization, trade liberalization, and border-busting technology. Support for the principle of cultural diversity is formulated in three ways: first through the promotion of ethnic or third language broadcasting within the framework of Canadian broadcasting system (Lincoln et al. 2005); second, through the mainstreaming of private and public media; and third, by acknowledging the legitimacy of ethnic and aboriginal newspapers/presses. Yet success secures neither clarity nor consensus. Although ethnic and aboriginal have enjoyed a long history in Canada, there is no agreement over magnitude and impact. Numbers fluctuate as new publications arise as quickly as they disappear because of costs, competition, and intimidation. Even the expression ethnic and aboriginal media is problematic because of internal diversity. Does ethnic refer to new Canadians or Canadian-born? To visibilized minorities or white European ethnics? To aboriginal people with status or without status? Despite these uncertainties and confusion, aboriginal and ethnic media can be divided into three main categories: Aboriginal and ethnic print, aboriginal and ethnic broadcasting, and mainstreaming of public and private media. First, however, a brief overview of Canada’s mediascape. 4.1 Canada’s Mediascape Canada is widely regarded as a media rich society whose impressive achieve- ments are particularly striking despite a daunting geographic, demographic diversity, and historical obstacles (Attalah and Shade 2006). In articulating the objectives of the broadcast system, the Broadcasting Act establishes several priorities for Canadian broadcasting, including an emphasis on Canadian- owned and controlled media, responsiveness to the needs of all Canadians, and