This study examines how race affects the media’s coverage of candidates in Canadian politics. Situated in the literature on political communication, gendered mediation and race studies, it proposes a new theory of racial mediation, which posits that politics are covered in ways that reflect the assumption of whiteness as standard. Although candidate self-presentation does influence media portrayals, this alone does not account for differences in the framing of candidates’ policy interests, viability and socio-demographic characteristics. The project argues that candidate race has a significant but subtle impact on media portrayals. Articles from the print media coverage of the 2008 Canadian election are analyzed using a hand-coded content analysis, which is replicated through an innovative automated approach. The study finds that visible minority candidates’ coverage is more negative and less prominent than that of their White counterparts. It is less likely to focus on key electoral issues and much more likely to emphasize socio-demographic background. Visible minority candidates are held to a higher standard and in the absence of evidence to the contrary, they are portrayed as less viable and credible than their competitors. Gender can amplify these effects, with raced and gendered discourses characterizing the coverage of visible minority women. The media study is complemented by 40 elite interviews that probe candidates’ communication strategies, issue emphasis and self-presentation, as well as reporters’ negotiation of these elements in their construction of news stories. While there are visible minority candidates who emphasize elements of their ethnocultural heritage, my findings suggest that few rely only on racialized strategies, nor are White candidates immune from racialized appeals. Nonetheless, journalists struggle to adequately portray nuance and candidates’ multi-dimensionality. They employ familiar narratives and tropes, and generally only seize on racialized framing when it applies to visible minority candidates. Although the study does not provide a direct test of media effects on vote choice, it draws on existing literature to argue that because media coverage influences the ways that voters evaluate issues and develop schema for understanding the world around them, the portrayal of visible minority candidates has the potential to alter electoral opportunities and outcomes. As a result, racialized coverage and race continue to matter in Canadian politics. / Thesis (Ph.D, Political Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-04-22 15:21:07.585

Media representations of diverse groups in Canadian society have been shown by researchers to influence their individual and collective sense of well-being and by inference their welfare (Fleras, 2012; Henry & Tator, 2002; Gist, 1990). Nevertheless, mainstream media continue to be racially and/or sexually biased in their representation of minority groups, especially racialized minority and Aboriginal women. Although efforts have been made by the government and various interest groups to promote the tenets of equality, impartiality and objectivity as advocated in the Multiculturalism Act of 1988, Canadian broadcasting Act and the Employment Equity Act, media bias persists. Existing research exploring media representation of diverse groups in the political sphere has not been very thorough. The myopic focus on either the gender or race of candidates and their campaign activities en-route to political offices, offers limited analysis of the intersected identities of office holders in terms of their race/ethnicity and gender. Given the centrality of Parliament in formulating and upholding the tenets of social democracy in Canadian society, this study aims to address this gap by interrogating media representations of women with multiple targeted identities in the Canadian 41st Parliament – specifically the House of Commons. Through Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study examines mainstream and ethnic media representations of racialized minority and Aboriginal women MPs relative to their white counterparts in order to evaluate bias in these portrayals. In addition, the portrayal of racialized minority and Aboriginal women MPs in mainstream and ethnic newspapers are compared to highlight their convergences and divergences. The study’s findings reveal that while gender biased representations cut across both mainstream and ethnic media, ethnic media offer more positive portrayals of racialized MPs and their communities relative to mainstream media. The study also reveals that gender and race are not independent axes of oppression but operate simultaneously to compound oppressive misrepresentation of racialized minority women.

Principals and vice-principals occupy a vital role in our public schools. They hold politically and organizationally powerful positions to influence change and support educational reform. Riehl (2000) points out that one’s practice of leadership is influenced by one’s identity, thus knowing who administrators are is significant. Although understanding who our formal administrators are is still an emerging area of scholarly inquiry, most of the educational literature focuses on administrators from the mainstream, dominant culture. Little attention has been given to who our visible minority principals and vice-principals are, especially within in a Canadian and British Columbia context. This study explores how the life histories and life experiences of visible minority principals and vice-principals of BC who are immigrants and children of immigrants have created their identities. In particular, how have their experiences as “other” influenced their praxis as formal school leaders? Using a life history methodological approach, data were gathered through semi-structured in-depth interviews. Six themes and three sub-themes emerged from the interviews that highlight participant life experiences, meaning and learning about their identity and praxis as leaders. Participants linked their present views, beliefs, and approaches to leadership with events and personal experiences from their past. Participants’ enactment of school leadership was informed by their experiences trying to fit in with mainstream culture; identity issues and cultural identity development; connecting with minority students and families; needing to promote diversity; being mentored and now being mentors; and influencing change. Therefore, a connection was made by the research participants between who they are as leaders and how their experiences have influenced them. / Graduate / 0514 / shailoo@uvic.ca

Ideological shifts in Western society have transformed the process of entry into first unions including: a significant decline in legal marriage, later age marriage, and an increase in nonmarital cohabitation. Some literature has found that these trends have been further impacted by race as the decline in marriage rates has been significantly greater for racial minorities than for non-minorities. This study explores the divergence of marriage patterns on the basis of the visible minority hypothesis, which suggests that visible minority status itself, as a proxy for race will be significant in the first union process. The data were drawn from the 2006 General Social Survey (N= 19,983 men and women). The effects of visible minority status, socioeconomic factors, region, and other cultural markers are explored using Cox’s proportional hazard modeling. The findings suggest that standard economic models are insufficient in explaining differentials in the entry into the first union for visible minorities. That is, visible minority status has an independent effect on the entry into the first union. / Graduate

The results of Vancouver’s 2008 municipal election led to critiques that South Asian candidates, and possibly all visible minority candidates, face reduced electability under Vancouver’s at-large electoral system than they would under a different municipal electoral system. This thesis employs numerous quantitative research methods to assess whether visible minority candidates do face reduced electability under the at-large system compared to a ward system proposed for Vancouver in 2004. The extent that Vancouver’s 2008 election results fulfill three U.S. Supreme Court conditions for establishing minority vote dilution is also assessed as part of this thesis research.

The results of Vancouver’s 2008 municipal election led to critiques that South Asian candidates, and possibly all visible minority candidates, face reduced electability under Vancouver’s at-large electoral system than they would under a different municipal electoral system. This thesis employs numerous quantitative research methods to assess whether visible minority candidates do face reduced electability under the at-large system compared to a ward system proposed for Vancouver in 2004. The extent that Vancouver’s 2008 election results fulfill three U.S. Supreme Court conditions for establishing minority vote dilution is also assessed as part of this thesis research.

The sociocultural economic, and political participation of girls has become a prevalent focus of policy. research, and practice. Despite their increasing visibility in the demographic composition of Canadian society. however, racialized minority girls remain largely invisible in these debates. Monolithic discourses of girl power. 'at risk' girls. youth participation and feminist activism do not account for the complex and uneven ways in which minority girls engage as knowledge producers, advocates, and community participants within cultural contexts that foster the depoliticization and social exclusion of young women of colour. Minority girls face intersecting barriers to civic participation and social inclusion `on their own terms' related to race. gender. age, citizenship. language, class and religion, among other factors. As rapid global change reconfigures girls' local realities and thus their practices of engagement, our traditional models and discourses of participation must be expanded. To problematize the relations of power under which minority girls constitute their practices of engagement and community building. I constructed a transdisciplinary conceptual framework grounded in postcolonial and transnational feminist theories. The research examined minority girls' practices of 'transformative engagement' (TE) in a collaborative, community-based, feminist Participatory Action Research project entitled "It's About Us." The study was based in Victoria. British Columbia. a predominantly Euro-Western Canadian city. "It's About Us" responded to minority girls' requests for a minority- and girl-centered epistemic space from which to explore their experiences of gendered racialization. Expressive methods including popular theatre. photography. and art served as vehicles for their engagement. The iterative feminist research design yielded data garnered from focus groups. theatre sessions. and scripts. participant-observation, journaling and photo-ethnography. This design provided the enabling conditions to deepen and sustain the girls' practices of oppositional agency and thus the emergence of transformative engagement. I developed an Interpretive Spiral Model (ISM) to extricate the difficulties of translating a feminist conceptual framework into a sustainable girl-centered project. My findings characterize transformative engagement as a multisited. precarious, generative form of praxis, rather than a formulaic process with guaranteed outcomes. I propose that the facilitation of transformative engagement entails four intersecting strategies: border crossing into exclusionary spaces. resources. and lines of power; developing safe, strategic communities of belonging: producing disruptive. critical knowledge; and engaging in public and social action. Overall. the girls' strategies of transformative engagement reveal a spectrum of subversive, deeply contextualized, multifaceted feminisms congruent with their own needs and experiences. The transformative engagement process resulted in multiple successful outcomes including theatre and conference presentations, media and website productions, and, most notably, contribution to the creation of a network of over 100 racialized girls and women called Anti-dote. The research findings illustrate how girl-centered. feminist action research can provide avenues to support minority girls' unique practices of resistance and social change. and feature their voices more prominently in community, policy, research, and practice.

No description available.

This thesis presents the results of an exploratory study aimed at developing an understanding of Canadian Forces demographics and linking those demographics to current bodies of sociological theory. The background and literature review provide a starting point for sociological analysis; the study begins with a detailed review of existing literature in Canadian and United States military sociology, utilizing an exploratory approach that incorporates key elements from Bourdieus concepts of field and habitus, Habermass lifeworld and structure, and Giddenss notion of structuration. Once the key sociological theories are isolated, research methods and methodologies are developed. Data are collected from the 2006 Canada Census and the demographics of Canadian Forces members are explored through a logistic regression model. Data are interpreted within a sociological framework based on an integration of select theories from Bourdieu, Habermas and Giddens. This research identifies weak relationships between demographic characteristics and CF membership, along with socioeconomic factors and Canadian Forces membership. The completed research provides a starting point for future analyses in Canadian military sociology. Given that demographic and socioeconomic factors demonstrate weak correlation with Canadian Forces membership, future studies can focus on the motivations of Canadian Forces members knowing that background characteristics do not predetermine service. Although the Canadian Forces is primarily composed of Caucasian males, this accounts for only a small portion of variance in the Canadian Forces membership variable.

This thesis presents the results of an exploratory study aimed at developing an understanding of Canadian Forces demographics and linking those demographics to current bodies of sociological theory. The background and literature review provide a starting point for sociological analysis; the study begins with a detailed review of existing literature in Canadian and United States military sociology, utilizing an exploratory approach that incorporates key elements from Bourdieus concepts of field and habitus, Habermass lifeworld and structure, and Giddenss notion of structuration. Once the key sociological theories are isolated, research methods and methodologies are developed. Data are collected from the 2006 Canada Census and the demographics of Canadian Forces members are explored through a logistic regression model. Data are interpreted within a sociological framework based on an integration of select theories from Bourdieu, Habermas and Giddens. This research identifies weak relationships between demographic characteristics and CF membership, along with socioeconomic factors and Canadian Forces membership. The completed research provides a starting point for future analyses in Canadian military sociology. Given that demographic and socioeconomic factors demonstrate weak correlation with Canadian Forces membership, future studies can focus on the motivations of Canadian Forces members knowing that background characteristics do not predetermine service. Although the Canadian Forces is primarily composed of Caucasian males, this accounts for only a small portion of variance in the Canadian Forces membership variable.