This book explores tensions surrounding news media coverage of Indigenous environmental justice issues, identifying them as a fruitful lens through which to examine the political economy of journalism, American history, human rights, and contemporary U.S. politics. The book begins by evaluating contemporary American journalism through the lens of "deep media", focusing especially on the relationship between the drive for profit, professional journalism, and coverage of environmental justice issues. It then presents the results of a framing analysis of the Standing Rock movement (#NODAPL) coverage by news outlets in the USA and Canada. These findings are complemented by interviews with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose members provided their perspectives on the media and the pipeline. The discussion expands by considering the findings in light of current U.S. politics, including a Trump presidency that employs "law and order" rhetoric regarding people of color and that often subjects environmental issues to an economic "cost-benefit" analysis. The book concludes by considering the role of social media in the era of "Big Oil" and growing Indigenous resistance and power. Examining the complex interplay between social media, traditional journalism, and environmental justice issues, Journalism, Politics, and the Dakota Access Pipeline: Standing Rock and the Framing of Injustice will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental communication, critical political economy, and journalism studies more broadly.

Framed is a wake-up call for those who think that race does not matter in Canada. Combining an empirical analysis of print media with in-depth interviews of elected officials, former candidates, political staffers, and journalists, this book uncovers the connections between race, media coverage, and politics in Canada. As Erin Tolley reveals, overt racism rarely occurs in the pages of Canadian newspapers, but assumptions about race and diversity often influence media coverage. Consequently, as reporters go about selecting which political issues and events to cover, who to quote, and how to frame stories to make them resonate with the public, they give visible minorities less prominent and more negative media coverage than their white counterparts. Visible minority politicians are also more likely to be portrayed as products of their socio-demographic backgrounds, as uninterested in pressing policy issues, and as less electorally viable. The resulting news coverage, Tolley argues, does much to weaken Canada’s commitment to a robust, inclusive democracy.

WINNER OF: Frantz Fanon Outstanding Book from the Caribbean Philosophical Association Canadian Political Science Association’s C.B. MacPherson Prize Studies in Political Economy Book Prize Over the past forty years, recognition has become the dominant mode of negotiation and decolonization between the nation-state and Indigenous nations in North America. The term “recognition” shapes debates over Indigenous cultural distinctiveness, Indigenous rights to land and self-government, and Indigenous peoples’ right to benefit from the development of their lands and resources. In a work of critically engaged political theory, Glen Sean Coulthard challenges recognition as a method of organizing difference and identity in liberal politics, questioning the assumption that contemporary difference and past histories of destructive colonialism between the state and Indigenous peoples can be reconciled through a process of acknowledgment. Beyond this, Coulthard examines an alternative politics—one that seeks to revalue, reconstruct, and redeploy Indigenous cultural practices based on self-recognition rather than on seeking appreciation from the very agents of colonialism. Coulthard demonstrates how a “place-based” modification of Karl Marx’s theory of “primitive accumulation” throws light on Indigenous–state relations in settler-colonial contexts and how Frantz Fanon’s critique of colonial recognition shows that this relationship reproduces itself over time. This framework strengthens his exploration of the ways that the politics of recognition has come to serve the interests of settler-colonial power. In addressing the core tenets of Indigenous resistance movements, like Red Power and Idle No More, Coulthard offers fresh insights into the politics of active decolonization.

Framing Borders addresses a fundamental disjuncture between scholastic portrayals of settler colonialism and what actually takes place in Akwesasne Territory, the largest Indigenous cross-border community in Canada. Whereas most existing portrayals of Indigenous nationalism emphasize border crossing as a site of conflict between officers and Indigenous nationalists, in this book Ian Kalman observes a much more diverse range of interactions, from conflict to banality to joking and camaraderie. Framing Borders explores how border crossing represents a conversation where different actors "frame" themselves, the law, and the space that they occupy in diverse ways. Written in accessible, lively prose, Kalman addresses what goes on when border officers and Akwesasne residents meet, and what these exchanges tell us about the relationship between Indigenous actors and public servants in Canada. This book provides an ethnographic examination of the experiences of the border by Mohawk community members, the history of local border enforcement, and the paradoxes, self-contradictions, and confusions that underlie the border and its enforcement.

While Canada is known for its official commitment to diversity, a close look at our media reveals that though they frequently promote superficial representations of difference, they actually play a pivotal role in producing and reproducing the values, structures, and priorities of a predominantly “straight,” white, male society. The Media Gaze exposes how newscasters, advertisers, filmmakers, and television programmers attempt to co-opt audiences into believing that media depictions entail neither prejudice nor perspective. In truth, the experiences of those who fall outside of the media’s preferred populations are actively ignored or misrepresented. In this timely audit of the Canadian mainstream media, sociologist Augie Fleras draws on compelling case studies to explore the societal implications of the industry’s hidden bias. He also examines alternative forms of media and media literacy to present readers with tools to challenge the dominant agenda.

Debating how Canada compares, both regionally and in relation to other countries, is a national pastime. This book examines how political scientists apply diverse comparative strategies to better understand Canadian political life. Using a variety of methods, the contributors use comparison to examine topics as diverse as Indigenous rights, Canadian voting behaviour, activist movements, climate policy, and immigrant retention. While the theoretical perspectives and kinds of questions asked vary greatly, as a whole they demonstrate how the “art of comparing” is an important strategy for understanding Canadian identity politics, political mobilization, political institutions, and public policy. Ultimately, this book establishes how adopting a more systematic comparative outlook is essential – not only to revitalize the study of Canadian politics but also to achieve a more nuanced understanding of Canada as a whole.

Indigenous peoples are vastly overrepresented in the Canadian criminal justice system. The Canadian government has framed this disproportionate victimization and criminalization as being an "Indian problem." In The Colonial Problem, Lisa Monchalin challenges the myth of the "Indian problem" and encourages readers to view the crimes and injustices affecting Indigenous peoples from a more culturally aware position. She analyzes the consequences of assimilation policies, dishonoured treaty agreements, manipulative legislation, and systematic racism, arguing that the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples in the Canadian criminal justice system is not an Indian problem but a colonial one.

Canada’s political landscape has changed, but scholars are still grappling with the profound alterations brought about by the internet and social media. What’s Trending in Canadian Politics? examines political communication and democratic governance in a digital age. Exploring the effects of conventional and emerging political communication practices in Canada, contributors investigate topics such as the uses of digital media for political communication, grassroots-driven protest, public behaviour prediction, and relationships between members of civil society and the political establishment. This interdisciplinary volume lays robust theoretical and methodological foundations for the study of transformative trends in political communication and in the relationship between political actors, institutions, and democracy. Original and timely, What’s Trending in Canadian Politics? sheds light on digital innovations while providing a broader perspective on the online and offline dynamics of contemporary Canadian political engagement.

This book examines the discourse around the intricate economic, political, and ideological struggles underlying Canadian fuel extractivism. Focusing on the two contending discourse coalitions formed by supporters and opponents of British Columbia’s liquefied natural gas (LNC) industry, the book explores the ongoing debates around the issue. The book’s in-depth investigation of the BC LNG controversy identifies progressive extractivism as an increasingly popular policy/discursive paradigm adopted by fossil fuel advocates to legitimize unconventional fossil fuels in an era of intensifying climate crisis. It also highlights the importance of debunking the misleading “jobs versus the environment” dichotomy in mobilizing public opposition to carbon-intensive economic growth. This deeply nuanced look at energy discourse in public policy will have resonance for scholars and students working in the areas of environmental communication, rhetoric, discourse analysis, public policy, and climate change rhetoric.