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This paper is in response to calls for individually based, time-series analyses of Internet usage data in Canada. Drawing from the 1997-2001 Household Internet Use Surveys (HIUS) and the 2000 General Social Survey, previous research (by this author) has demonstrated that the HIUS can in fact be disaggregated, after which, they reveal a statistically significant gender gap in Canada. Cross-tab analysis has showed that the access gap between men and women grew between 1997 and 2002, and logistic regression analyses revealed that men were more than 50% more likely than women to access the Internet from home on a daily basis. This paper represents a continuation and expansion of the previous research, and will use the recently released 2002 and 2003 HIUS data to create a seven-year long time-series analysis of Internet usage in Canada, comparing men and women with location and frequency of access. Furthermore, it will create an individually based examination of online Information seeking practices of Canadian men and women. Finally, the paper will include a critique of the HIUS survey design and corresponding reports, and suggest that they have been ultimately inadequate for accurately determining how Canadian women have been using the Internet, in particular with respect to measurement beyond mere "access". ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper traces relationships between the Government of Canada and civil society organizations in moving forward the development of the UNESCO Cultural Diversity Convention, which was approved at the UNESCO General Assembly of October 2005. The Convention addresses key issue sin communication and culture, focusing on the promotion of national and sub-national spheres for communication and cultural exchange, as well as the promotion of human rights and the international exchange of ideas. Have the policies and proposals to promote cultural diversity changed as the forum for discussion of the issue has moved from the International Network on Cultural Policy to UNESCO? Have the roles of civil society groups, international organizations changed over this time. In what ways has the Government of CanadaÂ’s input and role changed with this shift? In what ways has the input of civil society groups, especially that of the Canadian-based International Network for Cultural Diversity, and the Coalition for Cultural Diversity, changed in the last three years? The paper compares a number of proposals, draft texts for the convention, and critiques of draft texts to illustrate approaches to a number of the key issues at stake in the formation of this convention. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian content plays a crucial role in the structure and vitality of the Canadian broadcasting system. However, there appears to be a schism between the cultural and social goals laid out for Canadian content in the 1991 Broadcasting Act and the largely industrial designs spelled out in Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regulation. Where the Act calls for Canadian content to aid in supporting national identity and cultural sovereignty, CRTC regulation regards it as a fiscal resource for an economically viable production sector. This paper will examine these apparent contradictions and analyze the manner in which the Commission has endeavored to bridge the gap between these seemingly disparate goals for Canadian content. The CRTC has introduced a series of policies pertaining to specific categories of programming that are designed to increase the availability of Canadian content in popular genres of programming during peak viewing hours. This analysis shows that, while CRTC Canadian content regulations fall short of addressing the cultural mandates for the definition of Canadian content directly, they do aspire to fulfill them through the creation of a quota-oriented content framework. Furthermore, this paper argues that these regulations have balanced the varying and sometimes incompatible demands that the Act places on Canadian content and the Canadian broadcasting system as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States government wishes to have a universally available high-speed Internet infrastructure by 2007. However, there exist many competing ideas about how this rollout might best be achieved. This paper deals specifically with two of these: the market versus the open access approach. Market proponents argue that the government should take a hands-off approach to regulation and let the marketplace determine how broadband deployment should occur. Open access proponents maintain the government should use regulation to assure that the broadband infrastructure remains true to the end-to-end architecture upon which the Internet was built. This debate is particularly heated when it concerns Internet provided over the cable broadband platform. This paper explores the U.S. government’s problem in more detail, and then takes a closer look at Canadian cable broadband policy. It is determined that Canada’s hybrid approach to cable broadband regulation has both allowed for the deployment of broadband infrastructure while also assuring that competing high-speed retial-level providers maintain a presence in the market. Further, given the legislation governing telecommunications in both the United States in Canada, an argument is made for the fungibility (or transferability) of Canadian policy to the United States’ problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The issue of how to preserve and promote cultural diversity in Mexico, The United States and Canada has been central in policy debates and regulations within each country. How should governments proceed then to promote and maintain cultural diversity in a region closely integrated not just through economic trade but through the mass media? This paper reviews the current international debate on communication policies related to the promotion of cultural diversity through television. It starts with a discussion about what constitutes diversity in television, and follows with a review about the real impact of former media policies in the achievement of diversity. Using the concepts of source diversity, content diversity and exposure diversity, the paper analyzes the communication policies adopted or proposed in Mexico and compares them with current policies in Canada and the US. The paper concludes that current commercial strategies and goals both at the national and international level do not stimulate cultural diversity in media contents. It questions the utility of policies designed to regulate competition and ownership in the media with the objective of maximizing the number of outlets and emphasizing audience choice between these outlets. Instead, proposals which advocate a more mixed system of mass media with different mandates and different modes of financing are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines multi-site videoconferencing in Northern Ontario as a public sphere. The theory of the public highlights the political effect of multi-site videoconferencing and how the technology contributes to the well-being of the community. To analyze the political effects of videoconferencing, the paper describes a case of the community use of multi-site videoconferencing based on video analysis and semi-structured interviews. The case occurred in 2007 and connected a number of First Nation communities across Canada for simultaneous audio-visual exchange. K-Net Services in Ontario hosted the meeting to gauge the feasibility of public meetings through videoconferencing and to document an example of community uses of the technology. K-Net Services works to develop their videoconferencing infrastructure as a public space. Our findings suggest K-Net's activities have developed a media institution best understood as a counter-public sphere for their service region. The case meeting shows a potential new opportunity to further integrate videoconferencing into community development. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian teen series Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High are among Canada's most popular cultural exports. Heretofore, fans, producers, and cultural critics have focused on the series' "authenticity," to the detriment of a serious engagement with the political economic context into which the shows intervened, effectively dehistoricizing its claims. This paper asks what the "authenticity" of Degrassi enables through an examination of Degrassi Talks, six episodes that are more or less a combination between a public service announcement and an after-school special produced by the creators of Degrassi on a commission from the Canadian Department of Health and Well-Being. 1992, the year of the Degrassi Talks specials, is part of a moment of crisis in Canadian government, a period marking the beginning of Canada's official neoliberalization. In its role as an official state communique, Degrassi Talks deploys tropes of authenticity in the service of neoliberal decision-making strategies; this paper outlines the contours of what neoliberal citizenship means and how it is constructed in this context. These specials, though they lay a claim to increased authenticity by "letting teens speak for themselves," reproduce many neoliberal notions about self-esteem and discipline, although they do acknowledge an excess that neoliberalism can disdain, but not contain. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada has a high level of broadband use (Zamaria & Fletcher, 2007). Canadian youth in particular are heavy users of information communication technology, and statistics gathered by the Media Awareness Network show that their use of communication tools is increasing (Media Awareness Network, 2005b). This paper reports on student perceptions of broadband visual communication technology in the context of two "Diet and Body Image" Virtual Classroom sessions held April and November, 2007. On each occasion these two sessions connected more than five hundred students in schools distributed across Canada through the use of videoconferencing as well as the BVCam - a video recording service based on the H.323 protocol for videoconferencing on IP networks (Authors, 2008a). While the students in this study regarded video and videoconferencing as important tools for communication and learning they also mentioned several barriers to the use of broadband visual communication in the classroom. The biggest challenge identified in this study was the students' perceptions of video and videoconferencing. Preconceived notions of broadband technology affected the way in which students envisioned and used the technology in the Virtual Classroom. This paper explores the student's responses to videoconferencing and video and suggests ways in which broadband tools can more effectively meet the pedagogical objectives of the Virtual Classroom. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maintaining a tight relationship between the state and broadcasting institutions formed the basis of media policy and regulation in most countries during the twentieth century. In the 1990s the emergence of digital technology and ensuing economic, political and cultural trends put both not only the effectiveness but the idea of national broadcasting into question. The paper examines policy shifts in two countries, Canada and Finland, where broadcasting has historically been seen as an essential instrument in unifying a fragmented society. The paper traces the evolution of national broadcasting and its founding principles from the 1920s and 30s to the late 90s when both countries sought to implement new digital policies to strengthen the existing broadcasting system. The central question is how the founding principles of national broadcasting shaped the formation of new policies intended to address the opportunities and threats encountered in the global digital communications phase. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an analysis of the cultural identity construction and the contestations of cultural conflict among migrant families. Using participant observation and focus group discussions, an exploration of the role of mass-mediated content in simulating cultural locales and borderlands is forged. Through narrative analysis, the process of acculturation among these families is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I conduct a cultural discourse analysis of the communication within and surrounding the Canadian political satire, Talking to Americans. My data is derived from over six years of episodes and seven depth interviews with Candians living in the U.S. and Americans living in Canada. Drawing largely from the works of Donal Carbaugh and Gerry Philipsen, I apply the concepts of terms for talk, dueling structures, and critical voice to my data. I argue that the categories for organizing the discourse and the terms for talk provided by my interviewees give new life to Talking to Americans as not only a popular political satire but also as a metonyn for Canadian humor and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the development a new, subscriber- and advertiser-supported gay cable channel by Viacom subsidiaries, MTV and Showtime. It considers why the channel was shelved when first proposed in 1994, and what cultural, technological, and marketing developments make such a prospect viable in 2002. While gay cable offers many advantages over both mainstream media outlets and gay and lesbian media, channel executives nevertheless face remaining challenges, including finding distributors, advertisers, and subscribers, and developing content sufficiently diverse to appeal to a broad spectrum of the GLBT audience. And while many ideological battles have been fought in media, it is unwise to overinvest in a commercially-funded system for significant legal and cultural civil rights gains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stunt girls have been understood traditionally as being part of the rise of sensationalism within newspapers at the end of the nineteenth century. This paper, instead, considers the stunt girl as a subject position involving a set of practices and ways of writing that risk traditional understandings of femininity and journalism. The risks these women took in transgressing these lines turned their public personas into spectacles, while simultaneously rendering them vulnerable to misunderstanding, scolding and scandals. Using articulation and feminist theory, it seeks to redress conventional approaches that devalue women?s contributions by maintaining divisions between ?hard? and ?soft? news forms by considering the ?whole newspaper? as it was understood and used by readers. The stunt girl wowed her readers with her journalistic exploits that traversed the world and spoke to the changing role of women within the public spaces of late Victorian society. She helped to popularize a new set of journalistic principles that survive today, including personal journalism, investigative practices, and an ongoing dialogue about what the concept of ?newsworthiness? meant to women readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Business method patents are a special class of patents that allow companies to assert ownership over technologies and the ways in which those technologies are put to use. This paper presents a case study of Amazon's 13-year attempt to patent its "1-Click" business method in Canada. Looking at examples and learning from the U.S (where Amazon was awarded a patent in 1998), I argue that business method patents act as quiet quests for control over information and cultural practices. Business method patents highlight how certain actors use moments of technological change to secure economic and cultural advantages through law and regulation. I suggest that reforms to Canada's digital economy strategy need to consider the limits of business method patents in fostering innovation. The Amazon case presents an opportune moment to reflect upon what is at stake during the digitization of culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For some time, Canadian practices and experiences in the field of media literacy have been considered exemplary in comparison with developments in other national jurisdictions. At the same time, it would be a mistake to suggest that there is a single, coherent program or approach to media education in Canada. In this paper, we examine the difficulties this eclecticism has created and also note major institutional and ideological divisions which have undermined attempts to develop a coherent strategy for media education in Canada. In response to this situation, we examine how successful attempts to develop critical youth media production practices in informal, community-based learning environments offer important lessons that can inform how media literacy is developed in formal, school-based learning environments across the country. Given the long history of media literacy in Canada, we contend that this study of national practices and concerns can provide an important lens from which to envision the development of future media education initiatives in jurisdictions around the world. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines some of the primary challenges of situating a multicultural policy framework within the transnational sphere. If multiculturalism gives expression, at least partially, to a politics of recognition which animates identity (Taylor 1994), it becomes important to examine the incipient shortcomings of this policy framework within transnationalism. As a nation-building tool, multiculturalism situates ethnic and racial minorities in relation to a dominant national identity, and subsequently shapes the parameters of cultural inclusion and recognition within a given society. In Canada, for example, official multiculturalism is emblematic of a discourse that is bound up with a celebration of cultural heritage and tradition. While the legacy of multiculturalism endures, there are new questions being asked about its posture and viability in the face of transnationalism. Specifically, I ask the following questions: What are the limits of Canadian multiculturalism in transnationalism, and is this an out-dated policy framework amidst today's globalized and transnational world? I advance this argument through an analysis of three key dimensions that I maintain constitute and characterize the dominant features of transnationalism: the institutionalization of global capitalism; the transformation of the public sphere; and the diasporization of new publics. These dimensions provide an interaction that influences multiculturalism and the struggle for recognition. At the core of this analysis lies the understanding that while multiculturalism has its own corresponding policy embodiment within Canada, its respective policy impacts stretch beyond borders into the transnational sphere. A critique of the actual policy itself would constitute a very different intervention. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The representation and participation of First Nations women in online videos is the focus for this research paper. Online videos are videos available for viewing on the internet. First Nations is a term commonly used in Canada when referring to Indigenous peoples of this land who are not Inuit or Métis. Mainstream media without input from First Nations people contains very limited or one-sided information with many inaccuracies or misrepresentations. As a means of creating awareness of their realities, First Nations people have produced various types of alternate media such as newspapers, radio, and television. With the increasing availability of information and communication technologies, First Nations people are also increasing their use of these technologies in their communities. One technology they have been using is online videos on the internet. With the rise in websites for video sharing on the internet and the easy access to resources to create and upload videos on the internet, there is potential for First Nations women to make use of this type of media technology as an alternate public sphere for representing issues they can not normally address through mainstream media. A critical analysis of the representation and participation of First Nations women in online videos would provide some insight into the ways in which First Nations women are currently using new information and communication technology. It also questions and challenges the underlying mainstream assumptions regarding the representation and stereotypical portrayals of First Nations women. Finally, it explores the potential of online videos by First Nations women to represent themselves and their perspectives as a type of alternate public sphere to promote social change. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness is a complex societal problem, the solution to which depends on an accurate understanding by the public, the media, and policy-makers, in particular. This paper examines a unique experiential learning event-One Homeless Night-offered in Canada in 2005-2006 and the extent to which that event proved to be an effective way to communicate the complex nature of homelessness. The methods of research were participation by one of the researchers herself, observation, and interviews with participants. Results indicated increased understanding of the problem and increased empathy for the homeless. Based on these results, the authors recommend that similar events be designed and implemented in order to increase overall understanding of homelessness among members of the public, the media, and governmental officials. In addition, policy discussions generated by hosting such events will help institute best practices for reducing the incidence of homelessness. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To examine whether cultural differences exist in defining family, friend, relative, colleague and neighbour, non-student samples were drawn from Canada, China and India. The data generated several unexpected findings. (1) The Indians were most interdependent, followed by the Canadians and the Chinese. This result seems to contradict theories of I-C and Independent-interdependent self-construal that the Chinese culture is collectivistic and Canadian culture individualistic, and that the Chinese perceive the relational self more interdependently than Canadians (2) Females were more interdependent than males in the Indian and Canadian groups but not in the Chinese group. (3) In the Indian and Chinese groups, participantsÂ’ age was negatively correlated with closeness with friends, indicating that a personÂ’s attachment style changes over the life span. Results of past research using student samples need to be interpreted with caution. Findings of this study corroborate that culture is ever changing. To portray its intricate dynamics, new measures, developed from open-ended questions, in samples drawn from all age groups, are needed. To unpack the Chinese culture, data from rural areas and large cities within China would make meaningful comparisons ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and its media have exerted strong influence on Canada and its media. However, the salient difference of foreign policy (multilateralism – Canada, unilateralism – the U.S.) raises the question of whether major media’s coverage of each nation’s foreign policy is similar or not. If geopolitical proximity is a stronger factor than the policy difference, then media coverage of the two would be similar to each other. If this is not the case, then the difference of the two media would be evident. With content analysis and semantic network analysis of New York Times (U.S.) and Globe and Mail (Canada) on the issue of Sudan’s domestic conflict, the authors found that 1) both newspapers focus on the conflict itself and Sudan’s need of international aid, but 2) Canadian newspaper’s coverage focused more on multilateral/international help and people’s suffering from the conflict than the U.S. medium. Therefore, it may be concluded that geographical proximity exerts a limited effect on the coverage of Canadian foreign policy. Suggestions for future research are addressed. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objectives of this study were to examine patterns of resident-patient communication and the relationship between resident patterns of speech with patient satisfaction. Forty consultations, ten in each of the four gender combinations (male resident/male patient, male resident/female patient, female resident/female patient, female resident/male patient) were audio-taped and micro-analyzed using the Roter Interaction Analysis System. Several findings depart significantly from previous studies with physician-only or physician-resident-mixed samples. First, the average length of the 40 consultations was 19.5 minutes, 11.3 minutes longer than consultations in a physician-only sample drawn in the same clinic previously. Second, male residents engaged in twice as much psychosocial talk as female residents and conducted longer consultations. Third, residents asked 80% of the total questions while patients asked 20% of the questions. Previous studies with physician-only or physician-resident-mixed samples reported that physicians ask 89% to 99% of the total questions. Finally, patientsÂ’ overall satisfaction and communication satisfaction were negatively correlated with residentsÂ’ positive talk which constitutes 31% of a given residentÂ’s total utterances. In the study conducted in the same clinic with a physician-only sample, physician positive talk was 26% and physician positive talk was not correlated with patient satisfaction. Is this a signal that residents should reduce the amount of positive talk? Apparently more studies with resident- only-samples are needed to answer this and other unanswered questions in the field to offer directives to resident training. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study examined how both self-construals and communicative competence in the language of the host society contribute to the cross-cultural adaptation of international students to Canada. It was hypothesized that self-construals, and particularly the fit between the sojournerÂ’s profile and normative tendency of the host society, would predict better adaptation. Moreover, it was hypothesized that intercultural contact would also contribute to adaptation, but this link would be intercultural contact would be mediated by English language self-confidence. A multi-national group of international students originating from societies with a collectivist cultural orientation (N =81) registered at a Canadian university was compared with group of Canadian-born students (N = 135). Hierarchical regression showed that more independent international students experienced higher self-esteem and fewer sociocultural difficulties, but the discrepancy between the studentÂ’s self-construal and the mean score of the Canadian sample did not. Structural equation modeling revealed two pathways of cross-cultural adaptation in which independent self-construal predicted psychological adjustment, and language self-confidence mediated the relations between host cultural contact and psychological adjustment and socioultural difficulty. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study illuminates how identity formation is both represented as well as contested in Canadian media by investigating the Francophone and Anglophone coverage of the 30th anniversary and commemoration of Charles de Gaulle’s infamous “Vive le Quebec Libre” speech from a Montreal balcony in 1967. The speech was highly controversial within Canada and caused a rift in diplomatic relations between France and Ottawa. However, it did much to fuel Quebec’s separatist movement and helped solidify Quebec’s self-identification as a distinct society, unique from the so-called ‘rest of Canada’. Thirty years later the speech is still divisive; celebrated by French Canadians and vilified by their Anglo counterparts. In 1997 a statue was erected in de Gaulle’s honor, and the resulting media coverage reveals the continuing rift present between the two cultural groups. The vitriolic debate elucidates the symbolic role of history in media content, as well as the central myths that reinforce and construct the differing and often competing historical legacies and narratives of identity. In this case, the media are the mode of negotiation of identity, offering a glimpse into identity negotiation: Canadian citizens arguing over who they are. The media provide a way for the different cultural groups to articulate their identity as well as their relationship to one another. Coverage of historical events also brings the topic to the attention of generations who were not present at the time they originally occurred, appealing to a collective consciousness and continuing the cultural divide. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a case study of the communication strategies developed by the Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) to revive a battered tourism industry after September 11, 2001. Analysis is conducted in a blended approach applying chaos theory, stakeholder theory, and two-way symmetry as combination approaches in dealing with and explicating a large-scale crisis. Chaos theory has been applied to the 1997 Red River Valley flood in Minnesota and North Dakota (Sellnow, Seeger & Ulmer, 2002), however, there are no specific cases that explore a blended approach to crisis on a large scale—a cosmological crisis. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that pervasive industrialization of Canadian broadcast, both in the public and private spheres, has had a direct effect on the type of programming produced. Specifically, capital logic has led Canadian content producers to reproduce American-style programming. This is not limited to private sector production, but permeates public broadcast and publicly subsidized production as well. The political economy of television broadcast provides a framework for this analysis of the industrialization of Canadian mass media and its direct connection to the predetermination of programming.

The article analyzes the physicians' and patients' talk patterns in a Canadian Northern community. It examines the what variables influenced patient satisfaction and whether male and female patients were treated differently by male physicians. A representative review on the objectives of the study is presented.

To extend the avoidance theory of equivocation from quantitative lab experiments to naturally occurring instances, we analyzed the texts of six apologies that were originally offered in person by four Canadian church organizations. The decision of a church to apologize to indigenous people for past actions created a conflict in which the church would wish to avoid the negative consequences of refusing to apologize but also those of a full apology. Using the standard that a true apology includes the agent and the acts of the offense, the analysis focused on whether the church or its representatives were the grammatical subject of acts described in simple active voice (vs. passive, a noun, etc.). Four of the six never used this construction for the offences and were thus equivocal apologies. The internal evidence suggests that potential legal liability is the primary barrier to taking full responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the strong and problematic bilateral relationship between Mexico, the United States and Canada and the growing flow of films, television programs, music and news between them, there are very few examples of collaborating teams of communication researchers of the three countries documenting and analyzing these issues. One of the few examples of successful collaboration in the last 12 years is one that started in UT Austin in 1994 with a meeting of scholars, media representatives and policy makers, and that resulted in the book Mass media and free trade: NAFTA and the cultural industries, edited by McAnany and Wilkinson. Some members of the original group continued working over the years with visits to each other's campuses and with a joint graduate course on NAFTA and the mass media between the University of Quebec at Montreal, the University of Texas at Austin and the Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey taught in 2001 via videoconference with one professor at each university and graduate students in each institution interacting with their counterparts on the sessions and through e-mail. The paper discusses in particular the collaboration between professors and students of the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Tecnológico de Monterrey (México) in organizing in 2004 the follow up of the NAFTA and the mass media seminar, this time in Monterrey, Mexico, to discuss the first ten years after the signing of NAFTA and its impact on the mass media and audiences of North America. Also, the paper discusses the experience of the Monarca project between several Quebecois universities and some Mexican universities to do comparative research on the supply of audiovisual media on both countries. The paper concludes with some suggestions about how to use experiences like these as models for more international collaboration among Canadian, US and Mexican communication scholars interested in analyzing and evaluating the current media policies, flows and patterns of consumption among the three countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper approaches brown as symbolic and metaphorical identification that marks deviance in a global culture marked by security and securitization. It begins with a general description of brown and its political and cultural symbolism. This is followed by a discussion of popular representations of brown bodies by focusing on several shows dealing with brown immigrants, including (but not limited to) Alien in America in the United States and Little Mosque on the Prairie in Canada. The paper argues that the very creation of shows such as these speak to a re-introduction of brown bodies, as alien and awkward, to the North American landscape, which allows brown to be reconstructed as a recent immigrant phenomenon, which effectively wipes out their long history in the Americas. This research contends that the ensuing misunderstandings and cultural differences that are the staple of these shows contribute to the formulaic, Huntingtonian 'clash of civilizations' discourse, that pervades North American political culture and popular understandings of racial and ethnic difference. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I historicize Blanchot's parenthetical definition of the suspect - ("The suspect: any and everyone, guilty of not being able to be guilty.)" - by examining the circulation of fear and suspicion in Toronto and Montréal during the series of "national security" crises that followed 9/11. This is a paper about the U.S. only to the extent that (a) the crises under discussion are heavily influenced by U.S. events, discourses, and legal acts; and (b) the U.S. state has a vested interest and history of interference in Canadian security matters, which filter down into the everyday lives of residents in major Canadian cities in particular. This paper draws out a post-terrorism-crisis affective recircuitry that affects urban interpersonal and transpersonal relations, as well as a stratification or splintering of residents' everyday time-spaces (entitled citizens, not-quite citizens, not-yet citizens, and illegalized residents). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier this year, Nokia, one of the world's foremost wireless manufacturers, announced a deal with Rogers Communications, one of Canada's largest media conglomerates, to launch its N-Gage phone, which deploys GPS technology, real-time mapping and integrated service and gaming applications over the Rogers high speed wireless network. These Location Based Services (LBS) are a "prime example of the direction that mobility is taking" (Nokia, 2008). Bennett and Crowe (2005), in a report to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, address LBS privacy and policy implications, but note that the kind of convergence necessary to arouse concern about the surveillance potential for children, mobile workers and citizens was only just beginning. In three short years, from this report until today, with Nokia's N-Gage, Apple's iPhone, and RIM's Blackberry, the frontier of convergence of mobile technologies, tracking software, organizational systems, standards setting and public policy is upon us. At a time when proponents and critics suggest that LBS technologies are on the brink of ubiquity via integration with cell phones and other hand-held devices, not only is it crucial that academics take up this kind of data mobility, but also that there is a more general public engagement with the social, ethical, and legal dimensions of LBS. There is, in fact, a politics of mobile data.The aim of this paper is to critically engage with the convergence of mobile telephony with location-based services, in order to tease out the complexity of this relationship, and its potential for altering the telecommunications landscape in Canada. Using case studies of two of Canada's largest wireless carriers offering LBS services, Bell Canada and Rogers, I focus on the concept of "mobility" and the simultanaety of fixity and flow. This work not only highlights the politics of mobile data, but also contributes more generally to theorizing mobility within communications studies. Mobility has been taken up extensively within sociology and geography, and while communications has focused on mobile devices, the focus tends to be on the device and the user, rather than on the movement itself. This paper thus helps fill this gap in the literature. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While studies on alternative media have increased exponentially in the last ten years both in Canada and the United States, they have tended to focus on what John Downing calls radical media, defined as those media "…that express an alternative vision to hegemonic policies, priorities, and perspectives" (Downing 2001:v). Recognizing that these visions can also be radically "negative" (Ibid:ix), this paper contributes to political communication research by providing an overview of a range of this kind of media in Canada as they exist today. Making a distinction between progressive media - policies and practices that aim to alleviate or eliminate social relations of oppression and domination, and regressive media - those which facilitate and entrench such relations, the paper employs case study methodology and critical discourse analyses to identify how this regression is articulated across both historical and new media examples. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational public service broadcasting has been under challenge by provincial New Right policies since the early 1990s. The privatization of Access Alberta in 1994 and the struggle of other educational broadcasters against politicization are also of concern in this environment.This paper will argue that the often overlooked educational broadcasting sector has been decentred from its quiet provincial niche as serving the public interest and, like the CBC itself, as playing a hegemonic role within Canadian society, and is now marginalized within the alternative media environment. As the reputation and space for public interest broadcasting diminishes, it remains vulnerable as it continually scrambles for resources and renegotiates its mandate. Moreover, within the alternative media environment, educational broadcasting, with its non-radical, non-controversial content, has little profile or recognition as playing a role in challenging the mainstream world of private for-profit broadcasting and is thus doubly marginalized. The paper also suggests that the fate of Canadian educational public service broadcasting may be linked both to the future of the CBC and its relationship with alternative media. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To overcome the "digital divide," the government of Alberta, Canada, built a high speed broadband network to connect government offices, schools, healthcare facilities, and libraries across the province. Internet service providers can connect to the SuperNet to provide high speed access to rural areas where it was previously unavailable. While the network holds promise for future opportunities and construction is complete, the SuperNet's implementation is fraught with difficulties. Research in rural areas uncovers three central obstacles: deficient communication from the government about the network and its potential; a pricing structure that is cost prohibitive to small organizations; and ISPs' lack of interest in serving rural areas. These major barriers have left SuperNet equipment sitting idle, rural community members unsure of what the network can do, and some counties creating municipally-owned ISPs to bypass private providers. This paper examines the challenges faced by rural Albertans in connecting to the SuperNet. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hollywood is not only the dominant global exporter of programs but also of the "industry lore" of what television should look like in terms of genre, narrative forms, and audience expectations - to the extent that other countries now adopt these conventions in order to sell programs internationally. Canadian producers, through their cultural proximity to the United States as well as their experiences working with American counterparts in the Canadian runaway locations industry, have become particularly adept at integrating the Hollywood style while maintaining a unique cultural sensibility that appeals to the U.S. industry's current discourse on the need for both standard formulas and competitive originality in the post-network era. This paper explores this process through a case study of Canadian producer Chris Haddock's series Da Vinci's Inquest, a crime drama that has been sold to thirty countries and was the first Canadian series to be purchased by a major American network (CBS). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concepts of race and ethnicity that inform notions of citizenship and identity creep into our everyday through the news, albeit in socially permissible forms of expression. Using the theories of Kenneth Burke, this paper identifies and brings together three 'terministic screens' - namely deracialization, scapegoating, and criminalization - and analyzes their discursive and ideological power as well as the 'motives' behind their employment. Functioning together, these frames effectively contained and relegated racism to the fringes of Canadian society to define not only the terms of citizenship and nationality during the arrival of 599 'illegal' Chinese migrants to the shores of British Columbia in 1999, but also foster a narrative that directed public attention away from the national government's mandate to impose stricter immigration legislation in the face of external and internal complexities that were increasingly challenging its competencies, authority, and legitimacy in a period of globalization. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across Canada, thousands of community "intermediary" organizations act as links between the various levels of government and Canadians, often people experiencing poverty, health problems, social isolation and other forms of disadvantage. Community intermediary organizations produce community media to publicize to the larger society the issues and events they believe are important and they network with each other and with their community members to share information and coordinate their activities. This paper explores the community media and networking activities of four community intermediary organizations in four different Canadian provinces, and the role of the Internet in these activities. For our analysis we draw on fieldwork data including transcripts from interviews and focus groups as well as content analysis of texts produced by the organizations. Our research situates these community intermediary organizations as actors within wider social movements and considers their community media and networking activities in this context. The research contributes understanding about how the Internet is used by this specific group of social movement actors - community intermediary organizations - and the challenges, opportunities and barriers to using the Internet for their community media and networking activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tracks, on a weekly and monthly basis, blog and online news coverage of candidates in the race to be elected as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada in 2006. The research is examining the relationship between a candidate's coverage in the news "mediasphere" in comparison to the less formal and less organized "blogosphere." The project investigates levels of coverage in the two spheres, the effect of events and policy statements, and the emergence of issues. Lastly, the project also evaluates the "tone" of the blogopshere, through content coding, in an attempt to locate and identify moments when the campaign becomes more hostile or negative. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper will review and discuss recent the findings of CRACIN researchers on the role played by community informatics initiatives in fostering civic participation, social capital and a sense of belonging in local communities in Canada. CRACIN (The Canadian Research Alliance for Community Innovation and Networking) is a SSHRC-funded research alliance based in the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto (Principal Investigator: Dr. Andrew Clement). CRACIN brings together academics, community practitioners and federal government officials to study the impact of community-based ICT initiatives in Canada. Civic participation lies at the core of both the practice and intended outcomes of community networking, giving rise to hopes that community networks and other community informatics initiatives can help reverse downward trends in civic participation, social capital and the sense of belonging observed in many countries and communities in recent years. As a growing international and Canadian body of research suggests, community networks serve both as sites of civic participation, (where community members are actively engaged in the development, management, and maintenance of networks as community assets) and as enablers of civic participation, particularly among marginalized populations without access to new ICTs, by providing access, training, and content services and supports. Recent CRACIN-supported research conducted at community networking sites across Canada has yielded some new insights in this regard, particularly with regard to the civic participation and community-building activities of new immigrants and youth, two groups that are typically less engaged and involved in their local communities than the average Canadian. The presentation will review and discuss a number of CRACIN-supported qualitative studies, as well as the early results of a quantitative survey of community network staff and users that explores how community network resources and services contribute to local community engagement. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past decade, the U.S. and Canada have proposed memorials to the victims of communism. I argue that the process by which each nation memorializes these victims represent a broader attempt to craft narratives of their past involvement in the Cold War to suit present day needs. These memorials provided visual and rhetorical platforms through which each nation can strategically address and naturalize the past. The American memorial was used to create a historical continuum of extremist ideologies that have required American intervention at a time when the government was seeking support for the Iraq War. The Canadian memorial frames itself as memorializing immigrants who sought refuge within its borders at a time when immigration is again a contested issue. Three aspects of the commemorative process are analyzed, including the memorials' origin stories, their design aesthetics, and the rhetoric used to discuss, debate, and critique the memorials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Names, as a part of language, can create challenges—and even barriers—when migrating to a new country of residence. For generations, many migrants to Canada have experienced personal name changes. Since the mid-1990s, Canada's immigration goals have increased and efforts have been made to attract people from countries with more substantial cultural differences than earlier source countries, but activities that change the ways that people who migrate to Canada use their names persist; this begs exploration. My dissertation project combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to explore interactions that contribute to and create name changes by people who have migrated to Canada, working from the perspectives of individuals whose names have shifted. The focus of this paper is quantitative: I examine legal name change data to describe the amount and types of—as well as reasons for—name changes made by residents of Ontario since 1990. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico operates in the context of new realities. Not only its internal political conditions have changed, but the new international order conditions have also changed. Mexico's destiny was linked to those of the United States and Canada since 1994 due to NAFTA not only due to commercial and political interests but because international terrorism and drug traffic is a major concern for the North American region.From the year 2005 onwards, the NAFTA partnership evolved into a treaty known as the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP).Today SPP arrangements imply commitments in areas in which the three partners must be committed not only in the commercial arena but in other areas as well, and all of them involve the linkage of their communication systems. Therefore, Mexican Communication Policies and regulations must evolve, especially in the arena of telecommunications, for it is imperative that the Mexican communication carriers comply with North American standards and regulations within the context of SPP.This paper presents an overview of the challenges that the Mexican Communication Policies and Regulations face within the context of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian hip-hop artists, Eekwol and Kinnie Star reflect on the ties between identity, responsibility, and music in the following statements. According to Eekwol, "My goal is to get more girls feeling comfortable doing music, and being a part of hip-hop, and being proud to be a woman, and proud to be Indigenous." And Kinnie Star states, "It's my responsibility, as a musician, as a woman, and as a half breed, to be as honest as I can be because my dad couldn't." Both artists position themselves as racialized and gendered subjects within a music culture and industry that leaves little room for certain forms of difference. In this paper I interrogate the concept of difference in the music of Eekwol and Kinnie Starr, paying particular attention to questions of belonging and community. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The analysis considers five dimensions of coverage from 1996 to 2009: frame(s) used; population(s) mentioned in connection to BPA; links between BPA and general or specific health effects; source(s) of scientific information about BPA cited; and tone of coverage regarding health risks. The study concludes by considering what the findings suggest about news coverage of controversies involving contested science as well as the potential effects of such coverage on public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study on the subject of globalization in the framework of the New International Division of Cultural Labor (NICL) that addresses the transition of the organization from fordism to postfordism. It examines the coproduction between Canada and China for the studio infrastructure in the global industry. It cites the use of several methods for data collection process including ethnography, interviews and document analysis.

This study explores how variations in media systems influence the ways in which mass media are associated with audiences' socioeconomic status and their democratic engagement. First, the present study proposes a conceptual framework to tap into relatively distinctive media systems developed in five countries (France, Portugal, Canada, Denmark, and Finland), based on the notions of external and internal pluralism as well as Hallin and Mancini's (2004) theoretical model. Second, an analysis of survey data from the five countries demonstrates that variations in media systems explain variations in the relationship between (a) mass media use and (b) sociodemographics, political efficacy, tolerance, and political discussion. Third, however, the survey results suggest that there are not only 'between-models' differences but also 'within-model' differences, highlighting both advantages and dangers of model-based comparative media research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the scholarly and policy treatments of localism in Canadian and Australian television policy. The state of broadcasting in Canada and Australia in the years preceding the introduction of television is explained. The expansion of television and the dual role of broadcasting is explained.

This study investigates how prime-time television news portrayed attribution of responsibility for climate change policy issues in three major countries-the United States, China and Canada. By analyzing news reports on the 2009 climate change conference in Copenhagen, we distinguish conceptually and operationally between causal and treatment responsibility. Drawing on the notion that three conditions must be met for responsibility to emerge as a major issue, we develop specific framing measures to test the concept. The results suggest the news media in different countries portray who should be responsible for treating climate change differently. The prominence of morality, global justice and national efficacy frames differs across countries. Treatment responsibility is associated with other important frames embedded in news. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the implementation of Access to Information Act (ATIA) in Canada. It mentions Canada is the eighth country in the world to guarantee its citizens the right to request secret government records. Further it mentions citizens can choose and request the government records under ATIA.

Normative comparisons of media regulation across international settings can provide insight and highlight differences and similarities in the way political systems address media that other classifications may overlook. This study addresses the typology developed by Daniel Hallin and Paolo Mancini (2004), which compares along four dimensions - market development, media - politics links, journalistic professionalism, and state intervention in media. While the Hallin and Mancini typology groups the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada under the same model - the "North Atlantic"/"Liberal" model - this study describes and compares the underlying philosophical underpinnings of media ownership rules in these three countries; and although similarities exist, especially in light of ongoing concerns associated with the concentration of media ownership in all three, the normative ideals that have persisted and the variegated regulatory paths that have been taken highlight three very different "models" with nuanced histories that should be recognized as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]