Race affects how media cover Canadian political candidates

July 30, 2015

Although Canada’s federal election is not supposed to take place until October, rumours circulating around Ottawa have indicated that the campaign writ could be dropped as soon as this weekend.

While the media will cover the issues and optics of the campaign, specifically the party leaders, what impact does race have in how the mainstream press covers individual candidates?

That’s the question analyzed by Professor Erin Tolley in her latest book entitled: “Framed: Media and the Coverage of Race in Canadian Politics“. So far, the new book has been well-received.

Reviewers have noted that “Framed is a wake-up call for those who think that race does not matter in Canada. Pushing the field of Canadian political science in new directions, this groundbreaking work combines an empirical analysis of print media with in-depth interviews of elected officials, former candidates, political staffers, and journalists to reveal the connections between race, media coverage, and politics in Canada.”

The book was also recently the subject of a post on New Canadian Media. You can read that review by clicking here.