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| Buphagus africanus africanus |
The symbiotic relationship between the oxpecker (Buphagus africanus africanus) and the hooved host is known as mutualism. The birds have a steady supply of food and the host benefits from the removal of parasites from its body. The tiny oxpecker is tolerated because of this win/win relationship.
In my career as a magazine photographer in Vancouver beginning around 1977 and ending a few years ago when magazines and newspapers in Canada all but died I understood that these publications were like the African rhinoceros.
People bought magazines and newspapers not only for the news they contained but also for their cultural content. In Vancouver we could read about dance, theatre, film and music in our dailies and in the (alas! now gone) Georgia Straight.
I now understand that this was a form of symbiosis. Now with little media coverage of cultural institutions it is my guess that these institutions are hurting and not only because of Covid.
As endangered as all the above is the profession (once ubiquitous and powerful) of the publicist.
Social media, TV and radio is what is left in our Vancouver. I have noticed that the media like the CBC does not seem to understand its power. I placed this old blog into Twitter in which Nini Baird explains that densification in Vancouver is caused by the remoteness of access in the interior to transportation. My tweet was seen by 75 people. I further placed it into the CBC Vancouver & Vancouver Sun sites and viewers were no more that 3 or 4.
Would our Vancouver Sun gain lost readership with more cultural content?
Before the pandemic the audiences in theatre, music and dance were aged like yours truly. How can youth become interested?
Perhaps our media and our cultural institutions should ask a little bird for help
