Speeches and Interviews

May 9, 2003

Speech by Sylvain Lafrance on Cultural Diversity at the European Broadcasting Union Conference

Speech on cultural diversity by Sylvain Lafrance, Vice-president, French Radio and New Media, presented at the European Broadcasting Union conference in Valencia, Spain.

First of all, I would like to thank the EBU and RNE organizers for allowing me the opportunity today to address an audience of radio-lovers.

Especially because, in the Canadian universe at any rate, radio is something we discuss very little. Television, as a subject, can still stir up passion, and the Internet sparks a fair amount of debate, but radio tends, more or less, to be taken for granted—a victim, no doubt, of its own success. Today, for example, 98% of Canadians will listen to a radio station, and yet media commentators will afford it only minimal space in their pages.

We underestimate the impact of this medium. Radio, now more than ever, is a powerful tool for the creation of regional identity, for the forming of popular opinion, for the elaboration of musical tastes. Quite simply, radio touches on almost every aspect of the daily lives of our citizenry.

In fact, when the subject of radio comes up at an American conference, there are generally only two topics: technology and commercial revenues. Perhaps this is not surprising on a continent where the marketplace is largely dominated by private radio. Nevertheless, within this realm, Canada is clearly different from its neighbour to the south, in having a long-established public broadcaster, mandated by its parliament to provide "a broad spectrum of programming which informs, enlightens and entertains."

I am, indeed, delighted that the organizers of this gathering have decided to address the topic of content. Content is exactly where public radio distinguishes itself. It is what justifies our existence, what makes us relevant. Content is the central reason for our success—yesterday's, today's, tomorrow's.

I would like to share with you, today, three different avenues of thought. Firstly, I will address the vital importance, for public media, of creating content which is resolutely distinctive, and based on the needs of citizens rather than those of consumers.

Then, I will address the importance of endowing our media with strong personalities and coherent sets of values, in a world where content is sometimes regarded as akin to an industrial product, such as electronic data, which can be shifted from one platform to another.

And, lastly, I will stubbornly try to persuade you that the time has come for public radio services to no longer be limited by their national borders. In fact, I am convinced that the big international alliances should be strengthened, for the greater benefit of citizens who might share, beyond their own borders, a common language, a common culture, or perhaps a common system of values, and that must now grow beyond the limitations of their own nations' borders.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

But first allow me to introduce the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Inspired at its inception in 1936 by European models, particularly the BBC, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation broadcasts in both of the country's two official languages—English and French. It was created with the very idea of cultural protection in mind. In view of the close proximity of the United States, Canadians felt a need to endow themselves with a strong broadcaster capable of presenting and defending the country's distinctive character.

Thus, today, we provide Canadians, through a large radio and television network as well as the Internet, services which have known quite a lot of success. In addition, we provide more specific services to aboriginal clients in the north, and services in a variety of languages via Radio Canada International.

On the French radio side, which I head, we operate two large national networks: Première Chaîne, a large decentralized generalist network, and La Chaîne culturelle, a network that handles the arts, culture and music. We are also responsible for the production and programming of Radio Canada International, a service we are in the process of gradually integrating, in terms of production, with our domestic services. On top of that, we launched, two years ago, Bande-à-part, a multimedia project aimed at promoting new music genres, and targeted at the youth market. Our networks and our new media offer, altogether, a broad range of diverse programming where our citizens, whatever their ages or interests, may find themselves.

Public radio content

This brings me to the more specific question of content, and to our own strategy in that matter. Three years ago an action plan was implemented for our radio services. It focuses on three major concerns.

Firstly, openness to the world. A way to let Canadians know about global events in an age when ignorance and lack of understanding between peoples can lead to great upheaval. This objective is all the more important because changes to Canada's social fabric are wrought by, among others, strong immigration forces. To understand the world today is also to understand the family that lives next door.

The second major area of concern, strong regional roots. Canada is an immense country, and a country of regions. Public radio must, while presenting what is distinctive about each different region, bind Canadians together, and provide an exchange of ideas about political, economic, social and cultural realities.

The third major concern, the development of talent. The Canadian broadcasting system has always been intimately linked to the development of Canadian talent in the areas of music and song or, briefly put, artistic expression, and we are determined to remain active in this area in ways that are distinct from the rest of the industry, but meaningful for artists.

Focusing on these three concerns has yielded very positive results. Canadian public radio today enjoys the best listenership figures in its history, due to its distinctive character, and to a very high level of legitimacy in the eyes of Canadians.

If this strategy has proven successful, it is worth noting that it is first and foremost a success in the matter of content. We present Canadians with content that interests them, which is resolutely distinct from what is offered by the private sector, and which is based on a clear vision of the role and nature of public service. This content is also strongly distinguishable, as much in form as in essence, from what can be found in the other media, television or Internet.

This content is founded on three important pillars:

• Civic values
• Democracy
• Cultural diversity

To consider the first—civic values. The radio business, it needs not be explained, does business with consumers. In the case of private radio, the product is the audience that it sells to its advertisers. A bit simplistic, you say? Some commercial radio does offer interesting content that is not necessarily superficial. But the approach remains nevertheless essentially commercial, which is not in itself a flaw but simply a description of its basis in an economic model.

Content which is founded on civic values, like that which public radio provides, is not determined solely by what citizens wish to know, but, also, in part, by what they should know. At its root, this assertion may seem paternalistic, but, all the same, it results from another clear distinction between public service radio and the private sector; our content is not the product of a survey or of a need expressed by any popular majority.

It results also from a consideration of what may serve the public good. Naturally, this involves a question of balance, and our radio stations cannot totally ignore peoples' preferences. But, in this regard, the public broadcaster must seek a measure of balance.

Secondly, this content, which consists largely of information and allows room for important public debate, ends up supporting fundamental democratic values. Access to high-quality information, free of commercial, political or partisan pressures, is an essential element of a healthy democracy. Citizens should be able to rely on their public broadcaster to enhance the democratic aspects of their lives. And the democracy, for its part, should enable them to participate in how the democracy evolves.

Thirdly, the public broadcaster should reflect its nation's various cultures. It should open a door to a better understanding of different cultures. Radio, in this way, can become a formidable tool for social cohesion and understanding between peoples, regions and ethnic groups, not only nationally but also globally.

Why it matters for media to have personality

I would like, now, to spend a few minutes on another fundamental factor in relation to content. The future success of our networks does not depend on their capacity to increase the quantity of content offered to listeners. It depends, rather, on our networks' ability to endow themselves with specific personalities, to continue to offer a product that is clearly public, and clearly geared to quality.

The obsession with technology, which guides some of our choices occasionally, takes us toward a slippery slope. Content becomes treated like something industrial. Actually, I should have redefined the word " content " in the context of this conference since I have a positive aversion to approaches which treat content as a mere mass of electronic data that can be swapped, through the magic of computers, from one medium to another, independent of broadcasting context.

There is the old saying "Content is king." Allow me to declare that in the post-convergence era, "Context is everything." Content, particularly in radio, is also emotion, communication, and the context of a broadcaster in relation to an audience.

The dominant discourse touting convergence, which witnessed the birth and occasional demise of some important enterprises, was weak in being based purely on technological or industrial reasoning, and led to the erection of media empires that were fragile. Forgotten was the fact that the future of the media is tied first and foremost to its capacity to create useful content, unique content, to distinguish itself by the quality of what it offers more than by technical quality or industrial performance.

Technology today allows us to redistribute content, to cut and paste it, to trade it. Sometimes, that is just what we want, but we should do it sparingly. Radio, before anything else, is simply one person talking to another.

What will matter for the future does not reside in the capacity to swap everything, to industrialize everything, to transform everything. It resides in the capacity to "communicate", to put in context, to present a clear and distinct personality.

Because radio is also a place—a bistro—a theatre—an agora—a place that anyone can enter and leave having had the experience of human contact and having grown a little from it. To turn on one's radio is a social gesture, a civic gesture. One turns on a radio the way one opens a window onto his street, onto his community, onto his city, onto his country, onto the world. Whether one is aware of it or not, the choice of a radio over a CD player is a choice in favour of communication.

To treat content like a transformable product, which is recyclable and industrial, is to deny certain basic principles of human communication. Radio is a simple medium, which technology and industry are forever trying to complicate.

The future of public service radio, in regard to content, does not lie solely on the choice or orientation of themes pertaining to the needs of an audience but, above all, on the ability of public radio to resist the temptation towards "everything under the sun" in favour of communication on a human scale.

The battle for cultural diversity

The public broadcaster's content, therefore, should distinguish itself from that offered by the private sector, and that of the media in general. It should also distinguish itself by being a reflection of a culture—of the specific culture of a group, a region, a state, or even some larger collectivity.

This brings me to a subject that is particularly near to my heart, the subject of cultural diversity or, to put it otherwise, the fight for the respect of cultures and identities on a planet on its way toward globalisation.

Here, the Canadian example is particularly interesting. Whether, for example, you take the case of Quebecers defending their French identity in the North-American sea of English, or that of defending Canadian culture in the face of an imposing American neighbour, Canadians are well aware of what is at stake in protecting culture against larger groups.

Even within Canada's own borders, respect for the Francophone identity, or that of the indigenous peoples, as well as those of new Canadians being welcomed from all parts of the globe, exposes plenty of problems of identity shock and the pressing need to rethink communication and cultural stakes.

Spain can also be a path maker where the challenges of cultural diversity to be met in the century ahead are concerned. Firstly, its place as the symbolic heartland of the world's Spanish-speaking community allows it to commingle with a number of different cultures that share a common language. Spanish-speaking peoples, like French-speaking peoples, constitute one of the world's important linguistic groups that have to confront, somehow, Anglo-Saxon dominance. Also, as a member of the European Union, Spain is being called upon constantly to redefine its identity as it works with a growing number of languages and cultures toward common goals, whether they be economic, social or cultural. And, lastly, within their own borders, the Spanish must deal with a richness and diversity of cultural and linguistic groups cohabiting a common territory in an endlessly shifting balance.

In his latest work, "L'autre mondialisation" ("The Other Globalisation"), Dominique Wolton dealt with the concept of cultural cohabitation. He asserts, "information and communication have become the major political stakes in this other globalisation, the value of which is incalculable."

It is therefore urgent to rethink communication by stimulating diversity and in opening new windows onto each other's realities. Here is a tremendous public service project, because one of the risks of globalisation truly is of levelling, negating national and other specific cultures.

Here is a territory where radio, that formidable tool for the creation of identity, can play a fundamental role. This is especially true for public service radio, whose job it is to defend the interests of the citizen confronted by omnipresent economic and commercial interests.

The importance of creating large-scale alliances

This brings me to the last topic of consideration I wish to touch on—understanding the importance of creating large-scale international alliances between players in the public service. Let me explain.

Radio was always a tool for bringing people closer together. It still is. But, today, being closer together is not just a notion of physical distance. It is also a question of values, of interests, of what we hold in common. We are close to people with whom we share a language, a religion, a life-style. In a way, these points of commonality allow us to transcend geographical borders and present us with opportunities to share, which we hope to, and must, encourage. We must present the rest of the world with our values and our choices.

The American cultural industry is an enormous success economically, but we cannot let it occupy the entire imaginative and creative realm. We need to oppose it with alternative ways of seeing, of thinking, of creating. And to do that, we have to occasionally get outside of our own national territories. We have to accelerate exchanges between citizens who share languages, cultures, values. At the same time, we have to create bridges between these languages, these cultures, these values—to participate in the cohesion of the world.

Here, Francophone public radio offers a persuasive example. We have recently given new breath of life to our exchanges and our collaborations, allowing the citizens of our respective countries to share their values and their interests. But, now, we have to go even further. We have to increase these exchanges, to include Francophone countries of the southern hemisphere in many of our projects, to create bridges, to allow regional or national cultures to share while maintaining their own identities.

Here is a fantastic project for the new century that has just begun. And public service radio is, without a doubt, the best tool for the job.

I said it earlier when I cited Dominique Wolton, the great challenge of globalisation for individual citizens is to learn to cohabit the world with a multitude of cultures and values that differ from one's own. The best way to realize this ambitious goal, from the public service radio point of view, is to forge alliances, to work together. Our radios share the same values, the same commitments to our citizens, the same professional practices. Our radios could constitute, more than ever, an open door onto the world for all of our citizens. An unbelievable tool for the defence of identity and specific culture. A formidable weapon against cultural domination and the elimination of differences.

At this time, the EBU constitutes an exceptional forum for exchange. More and more, we should favour the sharing of words, of sounds, of the music of our respective cultures. And specific individual cultures could emerge and grow in this new environment. Europe should, in this regard, no doubt confront its own specific internal challenges. As for the Americas, they should also think deeply about these problems in their own way.

But allow me, as a Canadian, to remind you that the struggle to safeguard culture is a daily one, which needs to rely on every tool at its disposal, on all its alliances, and all the goodwill it can gather. To defend Canadian or Francophone culture on the immense American continent requires a lot of creativity and a lot of energy. Believe me, we are well placed to understand what is at stake in society. In my view, Canada is a front-line post in this battle, which will be the one for the biggest stakes in the century ahead.

What content for public broadcasters? Voices that speak about ourselves, about our dreams, our hopes, what we have in common, as well as what makes us special. We should communicate whatever it takes today to participate in the cohesion of the world, whatever it is we should share so that globalisation, new modern communication techniques and formidable technological communication tools help us create a better world, guided by fully-responsible citizens.

We face the challenge of finding a new balance that allows our radios to present regional and national realities, to reflect the specific cultures within our own borders, but also to open a larger window onto the cultural differences that enrich the world.

It is truly in the interest of our citizens and is, therefore, a fitting and ambitious, as well as exciting ongoing project for public service radio.

It is undeniable that a new form of society is taking shape before our eyes, a so-called information society where a critical balance needs to be implemented between diversity and globalisation. Public broadcasters should work together jointly, in solidarity, to install the foundations of this new society. More than an objective for content, here is an ambitious social project, the project for our own society.