My goddaughter delighted me the other day by telling me about her 18-month-old son’s reaction when he goes to the library. He utters oh! and ahs! in front of each book.
For the moment, this little guy is “pure”. He doesn’t watch TV (except for the credits of Master key) and he doesn’t know about the existence of computers and smartphones. But in 18 years, when he is struck by these technologies and their stunning content, will he still be amazed by a book?
This question haunts me. Over the past few months, I have witnessed a host of repeated signals that all say the same thing: our culture is in danger, we must act.
Not a day goes by without the mainstream media talking about the disinterest of people, especially young people, in their own culture in favor of shows, music or films that feed them the American tools they use. have in their hands.
Last week, the Center for Research in Public Law (CRDP) and the University of Montreal held a very enriching symposium entitled Cultural sovereignty and digital giants. Crossed perspectives, Canada, France, Belgium, Quebec. I attended a few panels in person and virtually.
All the guests, Quebecers and Europeans, sounded the same cry of alarm: we must join forces to face the GAFAM steamroller. We must not be afraid to put forward measures to protect our cultural identity and our cultural industries (music, cinema, television, literature).
The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, set the tone by saying that she was downright “obsessed” by the voracity of the digital giants. It is thanks to this obsession that she has made giant strides in two laws, that on continuous online broadcasting (C-11) and that on online communication platforms (C-18).
For his part, the Minister of Culture and Communications of Quebec, Mathieu Lacombe, advocates alliances with other French-speaking countries. This is actually what he went to do in Paris a few days ago during the Book Festival.
At the heart of this strategy is discoverability, a word you’re going to hear a lot in the coming months. Our books, our television shows or our films, when they are in their own environments, have every chance of meeting you.
The problem is when we lose control of their environment. They are then drowned in a sea of American products which offer extraordinary competition. And to ensure that you remain a prisoner of this culture which is not ours, algorithms act as a rudder.
The best example of this scheme is the growing rise of connected television which was recently discussed on the show Investigation. By purchasing this type of device, users do not need to subscribe to a cable service which would give them access to live TV, and therefore to programs produced here.
Instead, they find themselves faced with a choice of applications where those of the digital giants, Netflix, Amazon and Disney+ are prominently placed. This is how we succeeded in eliminating general channels like Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec, TVA and Noovo.
At the moment, there are no regulations preventing these companies from doing this. These giants are in the CRTC’s blind spot, the report said.
This connected TV, a real “personal data vacuum cleaner”, is a windfall for these companies which monetize your profile and your habits. In short, we lock you in a golden cage and force you to feed your kidnapper handsomely.
Meanwhile, the industry that supports our creators is slowly dying. As for our cultural identity, it slowly fades a little more every day. And after that, we are surprised to learn that there is a decline in French in our country.
So, when I hear about measures and laws, I say yes. We must act on all fronts. Provincial, national and international. But above all, let’s do it in a concerted way. These laws won’t solve everything, that’s for sure. But we must give ourselves the means to fight against this beast which is suffocating us.
This monster is foreign. But there are worse people than him. And it is the lack of loyalty of certain people like us. Each time I broached this subject, I received comments from Quebecers of total desolation. For them, there is nothing more to do. We have to give up. We must accept to live with this reality.
It’s too late, they tell me.
It is not the renunciation that disappoints me in what I read, but the contempt that emanates from it.
I return to the books which are my great-nephew’s first contact with culture. In the documentary Read to live, by Claudia Larochelle, which has been available since Tuesday on the Savoir Média website, it is about reading and the beauty of language. But also reasons that sometimes lead us to detach ourselves from it.
The entertainment offered by the platforms and applications of the giants takes us away from literature. Time spent watching videos of drunk women falling into a bush or an influencer doling out life advice from a void is time less reading words that have value.
The French author Daniel Pennac demonstrates a healthy optimism when he talks about the link that human beings can establish again with reading after having abandoned it.
“Even if it lodges deep in the unconscious, after a certain age, the enchantment never leaves us. And it is relatively easy to reconcile adolescents with this primary passion. Reading made us happy. How did she make us happy? »
This is the answer we need to find.
Consult the list of CRDP meetings
Watch the documentary Read to live
reference: www.lapresse.ca