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This project explores the graphic interface design of interactive documentaries (i-docs) about housing projects between Canada and France. Against the backdrop of the modernist, utopian fantasies that constructed these large-scale housing developments, contemporary documentarians intervene in the social space of the multicultural city via creative interface design. I-docs like Highrise (Cizek, Katerina. 2010. "Out My Window." National Film Board of Canada. http://outmywindow.nfb.ca; Cizek, Katerina. 2011. "One Millionth Tower." NFB Highrise, November 5, 2011. http://highrise.nfb.ca/tag/one-millionth-tower/; Cizek, Katerina. 2015. "The Universe Within: Digital Lives in the Global Highrise." National Film Board of Canada. http://universewithin.nfb.ca/desktop.html#index), (B4-Windows on the Tower, Jean Christophe Ribot, 2012, http://www.francetv.fr/nouvelles-ecritures/banlieue-b4/), and Sarcellopolis (Sébastien Daycard-Heid and Bertrand Dévé, 2015, http://sarcellopolis.com/en/) employ user interfaces that conjure the vertical and horizontal dimensions of social interaction in the urban built environment. They are most successful when they move beyond narrative to mobilize objects and space, thus enacting the 'promiscuous relations' of urban experience and simulating the chance encounters of the urban public sphere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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.

Multicultural media serve as important sources of information for immigrant settlement. However, little is known about the role of multicultural media in the process of immigrant settlement. Our aim was to address this gap and to advance understanding of multicultural media use and immigrant settlement through a detailed empirical study involving four ethnocultural and immigrant communities (EICs)-the Chinese, Spanish-speaking Latin American, Somali, and South Asian-in Ottawa, Canada. Using a conceptual framework combining notions of immigrant contexts of reception, and immigrant settlement and information seeking, we present and analyze the findings of a large survey data set ( N = 1212) comparing types of multicultural print, broadcast, and digital media use by immigration category, length of stay, and yearly household income. Based on our findings, we argue that variations exist in the use of multicultural media both within and across the four participating EICs; while factors such as availability of multicultural media as well as length of stay in Canada and, to some extent, household income play a role, immigration category is less significant. Furthermore, we advance that although EICs do use various types of multicultural media, they tend to favor digital media. These findings contribute to improved understanding of the role of multicultural media use in the everyday lives of EICs and provide directions for future research and for the development of relevant policies and practices to address immigrant information needs and facilitate their settlement process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition is the property of Global Media Journal: Canadian Edition and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)