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    Canadian Political Science Association
    2020 Annual Conference Programme

    Confronting Political Divides
    Hosted at Western University
    Tuesday, June 2 to Thursday, June 4, 2020
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    Presidential Address:
    Barbara Arneil, CPSA President

    Origins:
    Colonies and Statistics

    Location:
    Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 05:00pm to 06:00pm
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    KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
    Ayelet Shachar
    The Shifting Border:
    Legal Cartographies of Migration
    and Mobility

    Location:
    June 04, 2020 | 01:30 to 03:00 pm
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    Keynote Speaker: Marc Hetherington
    Why Modern Elections
    Feel Like a Matter of
    Life and Death

    Location:
    Wednesday, June 3, 2020 | 03:45pm to 05:15pm
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    Plenary Panel
    Indigenous Politics and
    the Problem of Canadian
    Political Science

    Location: Arts & Humanities Building - AHB 1R40
    Tuesday, June 2, 2020 | 10:30am to 12:00pm

Canadian Politics



A15 - News, Fake News, and Contentious Issues

Date: Jun 4 | Time: 08:45am to 10:15am | Location:

Chair/Président/Présidente : Jeffrey Sachs (Acadia University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Alex Marland (Memorial University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Brooks Decillia (University of Calgary)

“You Are Fake News”: Canadians’ Perception of News’ Quality and Integrity: Joanie Bouchard (Western University), Dominic Duval (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Abstract: Social media has simultaneously become a tool to obtain news and a way for non-journalists or fraudulent news sources to grow their readership. But mainstream media has also been accused of corruption of truth, most notably by elected officials. This article looks at the perception Canadian voters have of mainstream mass media’s integrity. It relies on an adaptation of Enders et al.’s (2018) question battery on conspiracy theories to specifically target Canadians’ beliefs regarding the quality of mass media’s news reports and the honesty of journalists. These questions were asked during the post-electoral wave of the Canadian Election Survey (CES) as well as the Democracy Check-up survey, gathering a large sample of respondents. Our analysis will focus on a descriptive account of the state of trust in mass media in Canada, as well as a more detailed analysis of the attitudes of different social groups on the matter. Specifically, we look for the impact of sociodemographic, ideological and regional variations on Canadians’ attitude.


All in the Frame: How Local Media Outlets Framed Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot: Meaghan Irons (Wilfrid Laurier University), Andrea Perrella (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Abstract: Poverty alleviation is subject to political debate due to differing attitudes towards its cause and solutions. One frequent narrative about poverty, and one often found in mass media, typically looks at low income through the perspective of individual circumstances. Specifically, the media frame typically invoked when covering poverty is “episodic,” which may inadvertently attribute the plight of the poor to personal decisions, and thus, rendering low-income individuals undeserving of public assistance. A more systemic, or “thematic,” frame implies a role for public policy. One poverty-alleviation policy is Ontario’s three-year guaranteed basic income pilot, announced in 2017 by Premier Kathleen Wynne. It was abruptly cancelled in 2018 by Premier Doug Ford, leaving much unknown about this pilot's effects. But we can examine some context. How the media framed this pilot when it was announced, when it was fully underway, and when it was ultimately cancelled can inform whether basic income as a poverty-alleviation solution was doomed for lack of supportive narratives, as per the episodic-frame hypothesis, or whether the dominant media narrative was more supportive, as per the thematic-frame hypothesis. A content analysis of the main local newspapers in the communities that participated in the Ontario pilot (Lindsay, Hamilton, and Thunder Bay) supports the thematic hypothesis. Coverage of the basic income pilot – from announcement to cancellation – was dominated by thematic frames that justified a role for policy in poverty alleviation, challenging some widely held notions, and potentially leaving open the idea of basic income as a solution to poverty.


Understanding Journalistic Self-Censorship in Canada: A Qualitative Investigation: Simon Thibault (Université de Montréal), Colette Brin (Université Laval), Virginie Hébert (Université Laval), Frédérick Bastien (Université de Montréal), Tania Gosselin (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Abstract: The study of journalistic self-censorship in democratic contexts has generated a small body of research, especially in Europe and the United States (e.g. Kohut et al., 2000; Clark and Grech, 2017). However, the phenomenon is not well documented in Canada. Beside the analytical essays by Marlin (1999) and Burman (2017), Bernier (2008) offers the most complete empirical analysis on the issue. Based on a quantitative survey among Quebec-based journalists, Bernier (2008: 108) reveals, for example, that self-censorship is perceived as being widespread in Quebec. But Bernier’s research, although pioneering, has its limits. Undertaken as part of a broader study of media concentration and convergence in Quebec, it dedicates only a few survey questions on the matter. It also solely targets Quebec unionized journalists and it provides little information about contextual aspects conditioning journalistic self-censorship. Our research seeks to address this gap in the literature. Through an analysis of the scholarship on journalistic autonomy (e.g. Hanitzsch et al., 2010; Reich et Hanitzsch, 2013) and data from interviews with 31 retired journalists across nine Canadian provinces, this study sheds light on journalistic censorship in Canada. It shows, in particular, the mechanisms at work and the conditions conducive to this phenomenon in different Canadian media ecosystems. It also shows how self-censorship can be perceived as pervasive in corporate media environments with high levels of concentration in media ownership, such as in New Brunswick. This research is an important step to further our understanding on an overlooked problem in Canadian political communication scholarship.


The Future of Fake News: Political Shallowfakes & Deepfakes: Dianne Lalonde (Western University)
Abstract: Fake videos in the form of shallowfakes and deepfakes are becoming increasingly easier to produce and spread, but thus far they are underexamined from a political science perspective. This paper defines and provides examples of political shallowfakes and deepfakes. It then relates them to other means of political misinformation and disinformation. Finally, this paper explores the potential negative impacts of fake videos on Canadian democracy using an intersectional anti-oppression lens. The three impacts focused on are that shallowfakes and deepfakes will (1) exclude people from political representation, (2) censor political participation, and (3) hinder democratic deliberation. The overall goal of this paper is to ring an early alarm bell about how shallowfakes and deepfakes may harm Canadian democracy.




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