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This paper addresses the post-multicultural challenges that confront the integrative logic of Canada’s multicultural media. Multicultural (or ethnic) media once complemented the integrative agenda of Canada’s official multiculturalism, but the drift toward a post-multicultural Canada points to the possibility of a post-multicultural media that capitalizes on the positive aspects of multicultural media. The argument is predicated on the following assumption: an evolving context that no longer is multicultural but increasingly transnational, multiversal, and post-ethnic exposes the shortcomings of a multicultural media when applied to the lived-realities of those who resent being boxed into ethnic silos that gloss over multiple connections and multidimensional crossings. According to this line of argument, both diversity governance and ethnic media must reinvent themselves along more post-multicultural lines to better engage the transnational challenges and multiversal demands of a post-multicultural turn. Time will tell if a post-multicultural media can incorporate the strengths of a multicultural media, yet move positively forward in capturing the nuances of complex diversities and diverse complexities. Evidence would suggest “yes”, and that a post-multicultural media may well represent an ideal that reflects and reinforces the new integrative realities of a post-ethnic Canada.

This paper aims to advance understanding of the role ethnic and multicultural media can play in connecting municipal governments and Ethnocultural and Immigrant Communities (EICs). Using an innovative mixed-methods approach and methodological triangulation, we compare the access to and use of multicultural media among four EICs—the Chinese, Latin American, Somali and South Asian—in Ottawa, Canada. Our cross-comparative study yields three main findings: 1) members of participating communities proactively and strategically use a variety of sources to access information about local services; 2) noteworthy differences exist in the access to and use of different types of media both across and within the four EICs, due to demographic and cultural differences; and 3) participants shared challenges and opportunities that multicultural media afford to better connect municipal government and EICs. The paper’s findings make important empirical contributions to the literature on the integrative potential of ethnic and multicultural media by strengthening the reliability of data, validity of findings, and broadening and deepening understanding the role multicultural media play in promoting collaboration between city governments and diverse EICs.

This paper aims to advance understanding of the role ethnic and multicultural media can play in connecting municipal governments and Ethnocultural and Immigrant Communities (EICs). Using an innovative mixed-methods approach and methodological triangulation, we compare the access to and use of multicultural media among four EICs—the Chinese, Latin American, Somali, and South Asian—in Ottawa, Canada. Our cross-comparative study yields three main findings: 1) members of participating communities proactively and strategically use a variety of sources to access information about local services; 2) noteworthy differences exist in the access to and use of different types of media both across and within the four EICs, due to demographic and cultural differences; and 3) participants shared challenges and opportunities that multicultural media afford to better connect municipal government and EICs. The paper’s findings make important empirical contributions to the literature on the integrative potential of ethnic and multicultural media by strengthening the reliability of data, validity of findings, and broadening and deepening understanding the role multicultural media play in promoting collaboration between city governments and diverse EICs.