On Location

Film and television production are important components of the Canadian economy. In Vancouver, popular American television series like The X-Files and Canadian series like Da Vinci's Inquest have boosted the city's profile as a centre for international and domestic productions. Serra Tinic's On Location is the first empirical analysis of regional Canadian television producers in the context of developing global media markets. Tinic observes that global television production in Vancouver has been a contradictory process that has, on one level, led to the homogenization of culturally specific storylines, while simultaneously facilitating the development of new avenues for international ventures. The author explains how federal and regional network considerations, funding guidelines, and partnerships with international coproducers affect the capacity of Canadian television producers to negotiate culturally specific storylines in the development process. She further interrogates the concepts of globalization, culture, and national identity, and their relationship to broadcasting from the perspectives of members of the television industry themselves, highlighting the extent to which industry practices in Vancouver epitomize current trends in global television production. On Location fills a major gap in contemporary media and cultural studies debates that question the connections between the politics of place, culture, and commerce within the larger context of cultural globalization.

Serra Tinic is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alberta.