期刊名称：PLATFORM : Journal of Media and Communication
电子版ISSN：1836-5132
出版年度：2010
卷号：2
期号：2
出版社：University of Melbourne
摘要：Ethnic media, defined by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (for the ethnic program specifically) as “one, in any language, that is specifically directed to any culturally or racially distinct group other than one that is Aboriginal Canadian or from France or the British Isles” (CRTC, 1999), are emerging to offer new communicative civic spaces to ethno-cultural citizens. Studies, however, suggest that while they may not be completely disconnected from broader society, they remain largely “distinct from the dominant public sphere” (Karim, 2002). The majority are focused on a single ethnic group and develop in isolation of each other to cater to their specific group’s interests. Such an isolationist tendency is a concern in multicultural societies in that it can potentially intensify political, socio-economic, and cultural divides among older and new populations and develop “parallel societies” (Hafez, 2007) and a fragmented citizenship. Whether or not ethnic media will lead to hindering immigrants’ civic integration by raising citizens of communities rather than citizens of the broader society needs to be empirically validated. This paper, therefore, explores the distinction between mainstream and ethnic media through a comparative content analysis on coverage of the October 14 2008 Canadian federal election in English and Korean press in British Colombia, Canada. The findings suggest that in-group orientation is in fact more distinct in English media with significantly low attention given to ethnic minorities either as candidates or voters. Ethnic media, on the other hand, undertake significant citizenship education by delivering step-by-step “how-to” information about the election to immigrants who are less familiar with the Canadian political system to assist them in exercising voting rights.
