How Canadians Communicate IV How Canadians Communicate IV Media and Politics Edited by David Taras and Christopher Waddell Copyright © David Taras and Christopher Waddell Published by AU Press, Athabasca University , – Street, Edmonton, AB TJ S ISBN ---- (print) ---- (PDF) ---- (epub) Interior design by Sergiy Kozakov Printed and bound in Canada by Marquis Book Printers Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Media and politics / edited by David Taras and Christopher Waddell. (How Canadians communicate ; ) Includes bibliographical references and index. Issued also in electronic formats. ISBN ---- . Mass media Political aspects Canada. . Social media Political aspects Canada. . Communication in politics Canada. . Canada Politics and government. I. Taras, David, - II. Waddell, Christopher Robb III. Series: How Canadians communicate ; P..CM . C-- We acknowledge the nancial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CFB) for our publishing activities. Assistance provided by the Government of Alberta, Alberta Multimedia Development Fund. is publication is licensed under a Creative Commons License, Attribution– Noncommercial–No Derivative Works . Canada: see www.creativecommons.org. e text may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes, provided that credit is given to the original author. To obtain permission for uses beyond those outlined in the Creative Commons license, please contact AU Press, Athabasca University, at aupress@athabascau.ca. Contents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements ix e Past and Future of Political Communication in Canada: An Introduction 1 part I The Changing World of Media and Politics 1 e Uncertain Future of the News 29 2 On the Verge of Total Dysfunction: Government, Media, and Communications 45 3 Blogs and Politics 55 4 e 2011 Federal Election and the Transformation of Canadian Media and Politics 71 5 Berry’d Alive: e Media, Technology, and the Death of Political Coverage 109 6 Political Communication and the “Permanent Campaign” 129 7 Are Negative Ads Positive? Political Advertising and the Permanent Campaign 149 8 E-ttack Politics: Negativity, the Internet, and Canadian Political Parties 169 9 Myths Communicated by Two Alberta Dynasties 189 10 rowing the Baby Out with the Bathwater: Canadian Forces News Media Relations and Operational Security 213 part II Citizens and Politics in Everyday Life 11 Exceptional Canadians: Biography in the Public Sphere 233 12 O-Road Democracy: e Politics of Land, Water, and Community in Alberta 259 13 Two Solitudes, Two Québecs, and the Cinema In-Between 281 14 Verbal Smackdown: Charles Adler and Canadian Talk Radio 295 15 Contemporary Canadian Aboriginal Art: Storyworking in the Public Sphere 317 16 Intimate Strangers: e Formal Distance Between Music and Politics in Canada 349 Final oughts: How Will Canadians Communicate About Politics and the Media in 2015? 369 Contributors 379 Index 383 Illustrations Tables 1.1 Regular readers of a daily newspaper, 2009 33 1.2 Regular readers of Montréal daily newspapers (Monday to Friday) 34 1.3 Advertising revenues by medium 36 3.1 Blog readers versus non-blog readers 60 3.2 Reasons given for reading political blogs 62 3.3 Blog readers’ familiarity with ideological blogs 63 5.1 Voter turnout in Ontario communities, 1979–2000 114 6.1 Canadian national political campaigns, 2000–2009 137 6.2 Total contributions from corporations, associations, and trade unions 142 6.3 Financial impact of proposed $5,000 limit, 2000–2003 143 6.4 Quarterly allowances paid to political parties, 2004–7 143 7.1 Political party election advertising expenses, 2004–11 158 7.2 Political party advertising in non-election years 160 Figures 1.1 Total daily newspaper paid circulation in Canada, 1950–2008 32 15.1 Norval Morrisseau, Observations of the Astral World (c. 1994) 322 15.2 Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, I Have a Vision at Some Day All Indigenous People Will Have Freedom and Self-Government (1989) 326 15.3 Heather Shillinglaw, Little Savage (2009) 330 15.4 Bill Reid, e Spirit of Haida Gwaii (1991) 336 ix Acknowledgements is book is the result of a collaborative eort between Athabasca University and the Alberta Global Forum, now based at Mount Royal University. We are particularly grateful to Frits Pannekoek, president of Athabasca University. Without his insights, guidance, and commitment, this book would not have been possible. e book and the conference that gave life to it received gen- erous support from a grant awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. We are deeply appreciative. We are also grate- ful to Gina Grosenick, who did a magnicent job of helping to organize the conference, and to Peter Zuurbier, whose assistance in collecting the indi- vidual essays and preparing the nal manuscript was indispensable. Walter Hildebrandt, the director of Athabasca University Press, was extremely sup- portive and as always brought impressive ideas and good judgment. ose who worked on the volume for AU Press, Pamela MacFarland Holway, Joyce Hildebrand, Megan Hall, and Sergiy Kozakov, were all rst rate. Everett Wilson helped with the original poster design for the conference and pro- vided ideas for the book cover. Christopher Waddell would like to thank the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University for giving him a wonderful vantage point over the past decade from which to watch the evolution of Canadian media, politics, and public policy. He is also grateful to his wife, Anne Waddell, and their children, Matthew and Kerry, for giving him the time to do that and to his mother, Lyn Cook Waddell, whose life as an author has had a tremendous inuence on his own work. Chris adds a special thanks to Frits Pannekoek and Gina Grosenick for everything that they have done to make the conference and this volume possible. x Acknowledgements David Taras would like to thank Chris Waddell and Frits Pannekoek for being such insightful and inspiring colleagues, Dean Marc Chikinda and Provost Robin Fisher of Mount Royal University for their faith and vision, and Greg Forrest and Jeanette Nicholls of the Alberta Global Forum for their leadership. Gina Grosenick was magnicent, as always. Claire Cummings provided excellent assistance for the on a whole series of fronts, which included helping to organize the conference. David would also like to thank his wife, Joan, for her support and understanding. [...]... politics and communication through a much different and more expansive lens than was the case with the 1980 Erindale conference While much of this volume deals with media and politics in the conventional sense—examining such topics as the interplay among journalists and politicians, the future of news, and the effectiveness of negative campaigning in both online and TV advertising—we also look at politics. .. art, political biographies, and the off-road politics of rural protest are also part of politics notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Politics and the Media: An Examination of the Issues Raised by the Quebec Referendum and the 1979 and 1980 Federal Elections (Toronto: Reader’s Digest Foundation of Canada and Erindale College, University of Toronto, 1981) Peter Dahlgren, Media and Political Engagement... be a “more effective link in the process of governance” and that they feel “no real attachment to or support for current institutions.” Any pride in having a broader “civic mandate” has been lost in the drive to entertain audiences: when politics is covered, for instance, stories are invariably about conflict and scandal, failures and fiascos Compromise—the life’s breath of effective politics is treated... negativity that many see also has a positive side: issues are discussed and exchanges take place Finkel and Bergen believe that governments still have an extraordinary capacity to set the media agenda and, under the right conditions, to suppress debate and controversy The contrast between this section and the one that follows couldn’t be greater The next section is about creative engagement, activity, and. .. and gas wells, and giant feedlots, Epp argues that a culture of “negotiating and acting together” has taken hold The “off-road politics of Alberta, just as much, perhaps, as the off-road politics of the Web, has produced conflicts that are typically “eruptive and short-lived” and “may generate no more than an inchoate proto -politics. ” But it is politics nonetheless—meaningful, authentic, and practical... to be failing in other societies, such as France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, are succeeding in Canada; and arts and culture are burgeoning The How Canadians Communicate Politically” conference, organized by Athabasca University and the Alberta Global Forum (then based at the University of Calgary and now at Mount Royal University), brought together distinguished scholars from across Canada with... circular The public’s cynicism and disinterest feeds back into and justifies media narratives that view politics with suspicion—which prompts political leaders to avoid clashes with the media and therefore serious engagement with the public Some observers hoped that web-based media would bring greater interaction and debate If anything, according to Alboim, web-based media may have accelerated the... not the absence of politics but the naked aggression with which ideas and passions are promoted It’s also hard to argue that the media has turned its back on politics when both national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, regional giants such as the Toronto Star and La Presse, and chains such as Postmedia take strong editorial positions, often openly displaying their politics on their... based on Ottawa insider politics Through BlackBerrys and other smart phones, as well as social media such as Twitter, reporters and party operatives trade information and gossip, discuss party strategies, and constantly react to each other But as Waddell concludes: “Instead of using technology to bridge the communications gap between voters in their communities and the media, the media has used it to... first section on the changing world of media and politics are disconnection, dysfunction, and crisis Sauvageau, Alboim, Small, Waddell, and Taras all believe that institutions and/ or certain practices are in need of reform and rethinking Flanagan believes that the instruments and rules of power have changed and that those best able to adapt to the new rules will survive He doesn’t make judgments about . How Canadians Communicate IV How Canadians Communicate IV Media and Politics Edited by David Taras and Christopher Waddell Copyright. Distance Between Music and Politics in Canada 349 Final oughts: How Will Canadians Communicate About Politics and the Media in 2015? 369