What has happened in the months after the announcement of the diagnosis reflects how important the Tragically Hip are to Canada. It was amazing to see how Canada rallied around Gord Downie and the band. They announced a summer (final) tour, and tickets did not last long. For weeks it seemed that everyone wanted to talk about the Tragically Hip. The way Canadian news stations presented stories on the Tragically Hip's final tour relate to the agenda-setting effect highlighted in the textbook. The agenda-setting effect is "The ability of the mass media to transfer the salience of items and their attributes from the news agenda to the public." (Sullivan, 2013, 70). Whether it was Global news covering stories from shows across the tour, CTV covering news from ticket sales, or CBC broadcasting the Kingston concert live and advertisement free. It was evident that the Tragically Hip were being framed as a popular Canadian interest. And rightfully so in my opinion! Even the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network has a "Tragically Hip archive" section on their website. This shows how diverse the Tragically Hip's audience is since Canadian Aboriginal's values are traditionally different from the majority of Canadian society and are more collectivistic.
The rest of this blog will be focusing on the Kingston concert. One takeaway from the concert was the lack of advertisements. This is significant when looking at Dallas Smythe's idea of the audience commodity. This is when viewers "become a new product that media corporations (can) sell to advertisers" (Sullivan, 2013, 81). CBC's broadcast aired commercial free because they believed it was the right thing to do. Does this mean that the audience was not viewed as a commodity for advertisers? Possibly, but that does not eliminate the idea of audiences being a commodity in other ways. For instance, they could still be viewed as a commodity for merchandisers. There are always trinkets, clothing, or memorabilia available for people to buy at concerts. However, the main point of emphasis in regard to the transfer of money between advertiser and consumer during the event was when the CBC selflessly encouraged their audience to donate to the Gord Downie Foundation for Brain Cancer Research. The audience could be viewed as a "commodity" in that sense, but it is promoting a very good cause that will aid a significant amount of people in the future. (The shirt says "brain cancer awareness")Another noteworthy part of the Hip's final concert was when Gord Downie referenced how Canada has treated their Aboriginal population.
"He cares about the people way up north that we were trained our entire lives to ignore. Trained our entire lives to hear not a word of what's goin' on up there, and what's goin' on up there ain't good."
-Gord Downie
This powerful statement from Gord Downie references the spiral of silence that has been going on in Canada for almost a century. Spiral of Silence Theory "claims that individuals naturally fear social isolation and will therefore monitor the political views expressed in the media and repress their own opinions if they are in the minority." (Sullivan, 2013, 71). For decades now it has been socially acceptable to state how unfair Canada has treated their Aboriginal population, but not much progress has been made in fixing the situation. It has come to the point where people do not express these ideologies as frequently as they should be if they want things to change. Media coverage on Canada's Aboriginal population on our news networks is uncommon and it often does not display their cultural values. If you want to gain a better perspective on Aboriginal cultures and values, you should watch the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network. However, this is not mainstream media, and it appears that the ideology of "Aboriginals have been unfairly treated by Canada" has either been suppressed or become unpopular. This is evident when you look at the dominant discourses of our society. This example also relates to the agenda-setting effect. Canadian news networks have come under fire for the lack of coverage on Aboriginal stories. A small sample from "Buried Voices, Media Coverage of Aboriginal Issues in Ontario" displays that there were 3,338 Aboriginal stories and 725,827 total stories in Ontario media from 2012-2013. (Pierro, R, Barrera, J, Blackstock, C, Harding, R, McCue, D, & Metatawabin, M. 2013).
Further reading: http://www.jhr.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Buried_Voices.pdf
The Hip's Kingston concert was viewed/listened by 11.7 million people according to the CBC. In lecture, we talked about why we should quantify an audience. One reason is numbers are easy to understand. It is clear that the impact the Tragically Hip have/had on Canadians is significant due to the amount of people tuning in to their final performance. However, numbers do not tell us why those individuals chose to tune in to the concert. Uses and Gratifications Theory studies why people chose certain media to fulfill their needs. U&G Theory acknowledges that "Audience members actively choose media channels and content to suit their own needs at a particular moment." (Sullivan, 2013, 113). When it comes to the Hip's concert in Kingston, there are numerous reasons why audiences chose to view/listen to the concert. For instance, as previously stated, The Tragically Hip are one of "Canada's bands", and Canadians are proud to say that. Citizens may have tuned in merely to pay respect to the band and acknowledge that they are important to Canada. My dad fell into that category. Also, a more shared need from viewers was the need to hear them perform live one more time. Whether it was watching them on TV, listening through the radio, or streaming it via CBC, it is clear that the live performance had a significant impact on many people in different ways. The multitude of ways to interact with the content relate to the concept of "Modality-based Gratifications" brought up in "Uses and Grats 2.0: New Gratifications for New Media". The authors state that "Modality refers to the different methods of presentation (e.g., audio or pictures) of media content, appealing to different aspects of the human perceptual system (e.g., hearing, seeing)." (Sundar, S & Limperos, A. 2013). This is interesting when looking at how many ways audiences could view or listen to the concert. I personally listened to the concert in the car via the radio, and watched it on TV when there was a television available. I felt more in tune with the music in the car because that was all I could focus on, but I felt more connected with The Tragically Hip when I watched the concert live on TV.
Finally, I would like to talk about why I tuned in to The Tragically Hip's Kingston concert. To be honest, if you asked me a week before the concert what my favourite Hip song was, I would not be able to answer you. I knew absolutely nothing about the band, but I knew how important they were to Canada's culture based on people reacted to the news about Gord Downie. The concert was important to me because I felt that I should learn more about the band considering how important they are to Canada. I definitely fell victim to the bandwagon effect, but I wanted to be part of the Hip's audience at least once so I could witness why they are so special. I definitely satisfied my need for learning more about the Hip, and throughout the show I recognized songs that I had heard when I was a kid, but I never knew the Tragically Hip sang them. Their lyrics spoke about Canada and Canadian issues (past and present). Whether it was Wheat King's message about the wrongful conviction of David Milgaard, or the tale of Bill Barilko. It was easy to see just how much the country influenced their music, and in return, how much The Tragically Hip influenced Canada.
Take it away Gord!
References:
Sundar, S. & Limperos, A. (2013). "Uses and Grats 2.0: News Gratifications for New Media." Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. 57(4), 504-525
Sullivan, J. (2013). Media Audiences: Effects, users, institutions and power. Sage Publications Inc., New York, NY.
Pierro, R, Barrera, J, Blackstock, C, Harding, R, McCue, D, & Metatawabin, M. 2013 Buried Voices, Media Coverage of Aboriginal Issues in Ontario".
From: http://www.jhr.ca/en/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Buried_Voices.pdf
