The U.S. news perspective is so dominant, but when you travel, you get to see the way others approach news. And I got a chance to see an unofficial focus group on how Canada covered a news story on my most recent trip to Windsor.
We were in a fast food restaurant with TVs late at night. The CBC news channel, CBC News Network (formerly CBC NewsWorld), was showing a documentary on "The Passionate Eye" entitled "Bangkok Girl." The reporter was following a young Thai woman who spoke about her life selling her body for sex.
This was an in-depth 30-minute look at one topic — a stark contrast from U.S. TV news standards — on a topic that the U.S. media would hardly touch. But the difference also was seen in what they showed.
At one point in the program, she performs a teasing dance in front of the camera. During the teasing dance, she lifted her shirt, exposing her breasts.
If a U.S. TV news report would have reached this point, and it's not likely it ever would, there would be pixelation or a black bar across the breasts. Instead, on the CBC News Network, we saw the image uncensored.
One young man was pointing out to his friends that the TV was showing a pair of breasts. Imagine, you are sitting in a restaurant late at night, probably out drinking, and you see a pair of breasts — in a news story.
His friends weren't as enthusiastic as he was. But his shock and disbelief illuminated the differences in perception to the same things. In the U.S., we will show violence but nudity is more troublesome. The Janet Jackson incident was broadcast in Canada, and no one flipped out there.
Even the Sally Field incident at the Emmys that Fox censored (and CTV didn't) — no, there wasn't nudity — but there was mild profanity and an anti-war message. In "the land of the free," that wasn't acceptable.
The topless nudity was in the context of a news story airing after midnight on basic cable. But in the United States, too many people would freak out or decisions get made assuming people would freak out. In Canada, people don't freak out as easily.
I happened to run into the same group the next morning, and he was still talking about what he saw on television the night before. I can only imagine he'll be telling that story back home lots of times.
There was a news context to airing the story as is. Reality doesn't change if you aren't exposed to it. We talk so much about freedoms, but as a news consuming audience, the U.S. is one of the most scared countries in the world. We're not North Korea or China, but we are nowhere near the rest of the Western world. Canada is closer to us than most of that world, and even Canada has a more "free" way of looking at what makes news around the world.
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