BORDERS OF PRODUCTION RESEARCHA Response to Elana Levine

Serra Tinic

ARGUMENTS

Extends Elana Levine’s work considering why Degrassi: The Next Generation is emblematic

How researchers “situatedness” influences the types of questions and assumptions that are brought to the fieldwork.

The imperative of conceptualizing similar case studies of American TV productions and it’s “national identity”

DEGRASSI: THE NEXT GENERATION A symbol of the cultural & industrial issues that characterize the national and global aspirations of Canadian Television

HISTORY OF DEGRASSI Publically funded as an

experimental, educational TV series

Degrassi is an actual street in Toronto; nonprofessional actors auditioned for roles

When sold to American PBS, it had to be edited because it was considered too controversial for the US broadcast market

The series talks directly to its young audience by exploring complex circumstances from their point of view

SOCIOCULTURE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CANADA & AMERICA

“Liberalism is our storytelling” –Executive Producer, Linda Schuyler

A Canadian Cliché Allows for a greater

range of social discourse across media platforms

“A teen soap that’s a hit with adults…it may be the most provocative show on television.” – The Wall Street Journal

“Addictive…sprawling, relevant, entertaining.” – Entertainment Weekly

“What separates the show from other teen programming is its outright determination to deal with shocking topics with no sugarcoating.” – abcnews.com

“It manages to confront the issues and to raise the questions…without trying to answer them, and above all, without preaching.” – Globe and Mail

What is “Sayable” What they’re saying about D:TNG

Canada & America are so much alike, yet different Canada’s “in-between-ness” has

enabled the country to become world leader in international co-production treaties

How to understand how Canadian TV incorporates global markets & domestic cultural themes Canadian productions with

universal themes speak the ‘lingua’ of a TV grammar that is more European than American

D:TNG thrives on being able to speak to youth audiences across borders

“In-between-ness”

“Sensibility” rather than “Identity”

Approximately 50 film/TV co-production treaties in effect in 53

countries, NOT including the United States.

Degrassi: The Next Generation has aired in more than 70 countries around

the world including the premiere partners: VIASAT, ANTENA 3, MTV,

CANAL+, NICKELODEON, TEEN NICK,, and LAPTV

RESEARCHERS “SITUATEDNESS”

Agrees with Levine that the researchers own location within the experience of these cultural formations generates different questions. The significance of the cultural experiences of

place Recurring theme of “Canadian Sensibility” in

storytelling In favor of remaining within the gray areas of

sociocultural issues

A sense of cultural uncertainty is translated in production practices

MEDIATION ROLE

Characterizes Canadian television production Produces recognizable Hollywood genres but

speaks to a broader range of social, political, and cultural discources

Suggest that asking the creative teams different questions would generate complete answers: “How was Kids of Degrassi St made possible in the

first instance?” How did narrative and storylines evolve or change in

the quest for international sales throughout the franchise history up to the contemporary moment of D:TNG?”

What might this tell us about cultural specificity in the translation process between different television structures and market considerations?”

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HOLLYWOOD AND AN AMERICAN “NATIONAL IDENTITY”

Global unvoiced assumption that American TV narrates a united & consistent national identity American “Heartland” Myth

About the American Midwest as an idealized “middle” or “populist mass” to represent the broader national identity

Suggests that production research should continue in the path of deconstructing American TV’s depiction of an uncontested “national identity”

QUESTIONS What is a better approach to

addressing the role of Canadian identity in the program’s creation? Levine’s straight forward route or Tinic,

who dug deeper? Do you agree with the American

“Heartland” myth? If so, what films or TV series support this

myth? Are there any American TV series

aimed at young adults that use “liberalism as storytelling”? ABC Family, Noggin, PBS, etc

How do you think the ‘liberal’ regulation on media productions in Canada affects young audiences? Should American media productions be

this way?