The Audience Lab Podcast launches with ‘Mediaucracy’ series about how local creators are building global audiences
The Audience Lab (opens in new window) at The Creative School, a media audience research group, has launched a critical new podcast series that explores how Canadian content has changed with new online media platforms and how governmental policies can help or hurt content creators. In its first four-part series, “Mediaucracy (external link, opens in new window) ”, Dr. Irene Berkowitz, Senior Policy Fellow of the Audience Lab and RTA Media Professor, invites local creators to discuss how they build global audiences of millions —and even billions—, and also how they navigate evolving national content policies.
Audience Lab Podcast
The Audience Lab Podcast launches 'Mediaucracy' series
On growing a global following
In the first episode, Berkowitz chats with Morghan Fortier (external link, opens in new window) , CEO of Skyship Entertainment Company which owns the massively successful Toronto-based YouTube channel and streaming media show for children ‘Super Simple Songs (external link, opens in new window) ’. The show has 35 BILLION views and counting, and is Canada’s most watched YouTube Channel. The podcast details the fascinating business dynamics of building and growing a global audience on YouTube, as well as Fortier’s leadership and advocacy on behalf of Canada's 160,000 YouTube channels as an expert witness called to testify in the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on Canada's proposed media legislation, Bill C-11, The Online Streaming Act.
The Audience Lab Podcast Mediaucracy series tackles policy issues
The first four-part series of The Audience Lab Podcast takes its name from Berkowitz’s book Mediauracy: Why Canada hasn't made global TV hits and how it can about the ‘fiery collision’ between Canada's national TV policy and the global, online era, arguing for media policies that support globality – policy that incentivize global reach and popular content. The podcast is meant to do more than just talk about the change that’s needed in the new media landscape, but also actively be part of that change.
Senior Policy Fellow Dr. Irene Berkowitz
As an award-winning screenwriter, producer, and development executive as well as a media policy expert and researcher, Berkowitz brings fascinating insights on Canada’s media content landscape and its global transformations.
The Audience Lab report on Canadian YouTube creators and consumers
In 2019, Google commissioned the Audience Lab to examine the role of YouTube in Canada’s media ecosystem with a report focusing on Canadian YouTube creators and consumers called Watchtime 2019 (opens in new window) .
As Berkowitz explains, Canada has 160,000 YouTube creators, 40,000 of them monetized, with the explosive growth of this sector occurring in an open global market competition and without any public investment.
“It's number one in the world and exports 90% of our views are outside the country,” she shares. Morghan underscored that this is also just a function of Canada’s small population compared to the world, making the point that Super Simple Songs is actually the most popular YouTube channel in Canada. “There is exceeding global demand for Canada's exuberant and diverse YouTube creators.”
Berkowitz wants us to consider whether protection or competition make new media content creators stronger.
“As YouTube has shown, at the same time as protected legacy media, the online platform has produced 30,000 jobs in a mere 15 years of existence. This is in comparison to 50,000 television jobs after like half a century,” she says. “Canadian streamers have delivered record employment to our legacy producers. This is exciting because these global streamers are a living lab showing how Canadians can step up to the plate and kill it on the global stage.”
Podcast aims to connect with potential collaborators
Audience Lab at The Creative School
In the next episode of The Audience Lab Podcast’s “Mediaucracy” series, Berkowitz invites special guest Darcy Michael, a successful TikTok creator whose stage career vanished during the pandemic. In just 15 months, Michael was able to grow his global following to 3 million. He was also called to testify at the House of Commons, clips of which can be heard in the podcast episode. “These creators are just seizing the global opportunity,” says Berkowitz.
In another episode, Berkowitz sits down with Audience Lab Director Robert Clapperton to talk more broadly about creators in new media and legacy media today.
One of the goals of the podcast is to have it connect with potential collaborators in academic research as well, not unlike the partnership between Google and the Audience Lab for the YouTube report. “The Audience Lab's outreach is aimed at both its public audience and its corporate audience in terms of collaborators and research partners across the country and the world,” explains Berkowitz.
What it means to be Canadian
In her testimony related to Bill C-11, The Online Streaming Act and new media regulation, Berkowitz affirmed her belief that Canadians are seizing the global market and sharing Canadian ideals around the world.
“Our creators are helping to strengthen our national identity by exporting our values,” asserts Berkowitz. “The US exported their national identity via Hollywood. Our creators are doing the same and impacting our values on the rest of the world.”
The diverse make-up of new media content creators is just as much a part of that Canadian national identity.
“If you look at the YouTube research, Canadians on YouTube are diverse in terms of gender, in terms of ethnicity, in race, in ability, in language,” says Berkowitz. “This is important when you consider that Netflix has said that demand for foreign language content is leaping a hundred percent.”
In the end, Berkowitz understands that Candians love being global citizens with access to the entire world. She hopes the new podcast will be part of the change that helps to support new media content creators, and both producers and consumers.
The Audience Lab Podcast is available wherever you stream your podcasts:
Amazon Music: https://lnkd.in/gyCWecfZ (external link)
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/gStC3JCw (external link)
About The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University
The Creative School is a dynamic faculty at Toronto Metropolitan University making a difference in new, unexplored ways. Comprised of Canada’s top professional schools and transdisciplinary hubs in media, communication, design and cultural industries, The Creative School offers students an unparalleled global experience in the heart of downtown Toronto.