Effects of a Decade of Satellite Television in the Canadian Arctic

Abstract

This article focuses on the longitudinal effects of Canadian network television relayed via satellite into the predominantly Eskimo community of Frobisher Bay. Comparisons are made among Euro-Canadian and Eskimo adolescents residing in Frobisher Bay, and Eskimo adolescents from isolated, more traditional settlements scattered throughout the region. Data collected in 1974 on a range of information levels and social-psychological postures are compared with those generated by two comparable survey instruments administered in 1980 and 1983. The data analysis revealed that many of the striking novelty effects on "television-town" Eskimo adolescents observed during 1974 were largely dissipated by 1980, a condition that remained essentially stable throughout 1983. The results are discussed within the context of the recently created Inuit Broadcasting Corporation and its potential counterweight role in tempering the negative psychological effects associated with modernization through culturally relevant television programming.