Case Study in the Political Economy of the Mass Media

Political Economy of the Mass Media

An Analysis of a Case Study

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Introduction

The sale of Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture distribution arm otherwise also known as the MPD to Goldman Sachs has brought many comments from famous Canadian directors and actors who believe it is unfair for the biggest picture distribution to be allotted in the hands of a foreign firm . The aforementioned dilemma ignites a big problem to the Canadian Movie industry as the foreign firms will be interested

in distributing movies of their own rather than promoting Canadian movies in their own country ADDIN EN .CITE Chiasson1995336Lloyd E ChiassonThe Press in Times of Crisis 1995New YorkGreenwood Press (Chiasson . This situation is similar to a scenario wherein the Canadian film producers will have to beg for the distributors in their own country to run their movies , which is undoubtedly unfair Furthermore , the federal government 's 1988 film distribution policy allows only 30 percent of ownership to the foreign distributors . With such , we have Goldman Sachs who currently goes for 51 partnership giving the essential position to the foreign firm as Goldman Sachs is United States of America based

Analysis

With further deliberation on the issue above , it is obvious that the Canadian film industry will have to undergo a massive depletion of profits raised in movies hence having the government abstain from doing anything to impede the foreign distributors from buying a major proportion of the film distributing companies . The largest known film distributor in the region , Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture has been noted to have an average range of 51 ownership from Goldman Sachs and there have been claims stating that it has already been sold to the American-based buyer -- quite a huge loss indeed for the certain company , for that instance

The government policy was actually responsible for the rise in the Canadian film popularity which highlighted only 30 percent ownership to foreign distributors . Based on this government policy , the film makers were able to mark an identity of their own . However , things began to change recently and the consequence of the change was obvious when the largest Canadian film distributor was found to be on sale for foreign take-over . With powerful existing film studios such as Fox Paramount and Disney , there had been no scope or space for the foreign distributors to look out for Canada . The identity of Canadian films today is in point of fact based on the Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture distribution company which had been potent to even buy films abroad to be able to run such films in their country . The main aim of this distribution company was , however , to promote the Canadian cinema and this took two decades for the Canadians to have their rightful place in the industry ADDIN EN .CITE MacDonaldGayle MacDonaldCrisis Time for Canadian FilmSaturday apos s Globe and MailSaturday apos s Globe and Mail2007A ugust 9 2007http /www .thegl obeandmail .com /servlet /story /RTGAM .walliance0623 /BNStory /Entert ainment...