‘METRO’ & ‘THE STAR ’:

A PRINT MEDIA ANALYSIS OF INDIGENOUS ISSUE-BASED REPORTING

Tutorial III – LBST 392

Simran Sarwara

Dec. 6, 2019

Sean Ashley

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Acknowledgement

This project was planned to be finished within the scope of a semester at Capilano University.

This time frame entails the necessity of setting and working within a set of parameters to ensure feasibility. The topic of this project cannot be holistically encompassed within the span of a 4-month time period, and as a result contains a significant degree of limitations. In addition, this piece was completed from my perspective, which lacks the lived experiences that are referenced and written about in this project.

It is imperative to recognize that as academics, students, and just as people in general there are always more ways in which we can embed intersectionality and anti-oppression values and methodologies in our work. This reminder of the need to actively seek ways ‘to do better’ is essential for me (as someone who wants to better practice ‘allyship’ academically, professionally, and personally.) It is my hope that this paper can encourage the use of an anti-oppressive analysis to examine the many intersections of seemingly linear issues.

This project was written and submitted on the unceded and stolen territories of the Lil’wat,

Musqueam, Sechelt, Squamish, and Tsleil‐Waututh Nations whose ancestral lands I have called home for the past 18 years.

- Shukriyah (thank you)

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The influential role of media in shaping the beliefs, values, and attitudes of ‘consumers’ of information is a long-standing finding across interdisciplinary studies. The nature in which such a multi- faceted institution has disproportionately impacted marginalized communities in the colonial state of

Canada has also been extensively researched. The following analysis seeks to draw on these studies to contextualize the findings from the tutorial’s qualitative research endeavour. This analysis begins with a contextualization of the history of and transition between two, local print media establishments selected for the project: ‘Metro’ (Vancouver branch) and ‘The Star Vancouver’. It then seeks to highlight and discuss several studies conducted on the representation of Indigenous peoples in Canadian media.

This is followed by a presentation of the result of the tutorial as well as a compare- and-contrast analysis concerning how the findings of the tutorial relate to the discussions of the previous sections.

Section 1: A Historical Snapshot

‘Metro’

The ‘Metro’ runs out of - a “Swedish global media company” that is based in

Luxembourg (Metro International, n.d.). At its peak, the published in 23 countries1, with a strategic focus on enhancing “young, active, well-educated Metropolitan” readers2 and the “working urbanite” (Facts & Figures, n.d.). Founded by Per Andersson, the newspaper advertises as reporting on local, national, and international , and claims to be “unbiased and neutral” but at the same time

“not scared to earnestly analyze news for [their]…18-40 year old readers3” (The Metro Moment, n.d., p.8). Though Metro International launched several branches of its newspaper in in 2000, in

2012 the company chose to close all European editions (with the exception of the Hungarian version).

This was allegedly undertaken to allow the company to focus on Latin American, asserting that the

1 As of 2017 2 The website does not explain or define what is meant by “unique visitors” 3 See Appendix 2 for chart found in ‘The Metro Moment” Report (p. 24) 3 region is “considered the last growth market for free ” (Metro International, n.d.). The

‘Metro’ newspaper is an example of a ‘commuter newspaper’, intended to target those that move “daily in and out of big cities’ business areas…” (Metro International, n.d.). The newspapers are distributed in

“high-traffic commuter zones” or in “public transport networks” (Metro International, n.d.). Other specific distribution points include “office buildings, retail outlets…busy streets, [and]…in other high- density population areas such as college campuses” (Metro International, n.d.). The Metro newspapers are made available on “self-service” racks as well as through hand-distribution at those major public networks (Metro International, n.d.).4

‘The Star Vancouver’

‘The Star Vancouver’ has its roots in ‘The Evening Star’, that came to be in November of 1892 after four young adults were “locked out during a labour dispute at the afternoon News” (History of the

Toronto Star, n.d.). The newspaper evolved over the years into what would become Canada’s largest daily newspaper – ‘The Star’ (History of the , n.d.). In 1899, Joseph Atkinson was appointed editor during a time when the newspaper was financially struggling. Shifting to the title of

‘Toronto Daily Star’, Atkinson implemented changes including relocating advertisements from the front page to bolster “broader news coverage”; livening the sports pages; and designating columns for

“lovelorn” and “meaty articles on women’s issues” (Atkinson Principles, n.d.). Atkinson developed

“strong views” on the role of the newspaper and the principles it should reflect – these came to be known as the “Atkinson Principles”5 (Atkinson Principles, n.d.). He argued that a “progressive newspaper” should strive to support the growth of society through “social, economic and political reforms” (Atkinson Principles, n.d.).

4 Vancouver – 48% rack and 52% hand-distribution method 5 Summary of Atkinson principles - Social justice individual and civil liberties; community and civic engagement; rights of working people; necessary role of government 4

It is imperative to recognize that the Vancouver edition of this newspaper – termed “The Star

Vancouver’ – was a result of a “joint venture” between the ‘Torstar’ and ‘Metro International’, leading to the re-branding of ‘Metro’ on April 10, 2018 (Wikipedia contributors, 2019). However, on December

20, 2019 the ‘Torstar’ announced it would be terminating the Vancouver edition, in addition to four others in other cities (Farooqui, 2019, para. 1). These editions are the “last English-language free commuter dailies in Canada” (Farooqui, 2019, para. 17). The closures are reportedly a result of a

“decline in print advertising volumes” as well as an increase in the use of digital technology to “consume news” (Farooqui, 2019, para. 3). professor April Lindgren argues that such actions create more barriers for “young people and lower-income communities who can’t access paid news” (Farooqui,

2019, para. 6). The closure entails that “73 employees will be laid off”, though the ‘Torstar’ has reported that it intends to hire 11 journalists for “new bureaus” in cities “outside of Ontario” (Cheung, 2019, para.

2).

Section 2: Print media representation of Indigenous Peoples

The historically intentional and strategic framing of Indigenous peoples in derogatory and discriminatory ways in Canadian print media is irrefutable. The ‘Toronto Star’ was also among such newspapers at a time (King, 2017, para. 3). Across numerous studies, it has been evidenced that these past practices continue to inform underlying biases, as issues concerning Indigenous peoples are reported even today in ways that perpetuate “stereotyping, conflation of diverse Indigenous identities into Native or Aboriginal, and binary coverage…framed in us vs. them terms” (Harding, 2018, para. 1).

This is further enabled through the lack of meaningful engagement and practices stemming from

“deadlines or limited connections on the part of the reporter…” (Enos, 2019, para. 6). The following 5

table6 highlights key findings and arguments from several studies examining Indigenous representation

in Canadian print media, that serve to evidence the perpetuation of historical biases:

Article Title Authors Key Findings Source Link The Media, Robert • Indigenous issues framed in a way that implies http://www3.brandonu.ca/ Aboriginal People Harding Indigenous peoples are not “ready” to be cjns/25.1/cjnsv25no1_pg31 And autonomous and self-sufficient (p.312) 1-335.pdf Common Sense • New kinds of stereotypes of Indigenous peoples emerging (p.312) • Simplification7 of complex Indigenous issue through “promotion of common-sense interpretations of [Indigenous] issues” (p. 313) • Headlines often indicate/reflect Indigenous representations that are stereotypical (p. 326) • The following topics were found as part of this study (p. 328): o Treaties Land claims o Self-governance o Financial Management of Reserves o Fishing rights

(Review Of) Mark • Three “Essentialisms” have primarily https://www.cjc- Seeing Red: A Cronlund underpinned framings: online.ca/index.php/journa History Of Anderson & o Moral depravity l/article/view/2615/2864 Natives In Carmen L. o Racial inferiority Canadian Robertson. o Inability to progress Newspapers • Reporting on Indigenous women have (historically) drawn on two main stereotypes: The “Indian Princess” and the “Indian Squaw”

Buried Voices: Robin Pierro • Top themes found in Indigenous-focused media https://www.jhr.ca/wp- Media Coverage et. al stories in 2010/2011 were (p. 4): content/uploads/2015/08/ Of Aboriginal o Contraband tobacco: 6% Buried_Voices.pdf Issues In Ontario o Missing Aboriginal women: 5% o Indian Act negotiations: o 4% Salaries of Aboriginal chiefs:

6 Additional studies not referenced here include John Lowman’s (2000) study “Violence and the outlaw status of (street) Prostitution in Canada”; Kristen Gilchrist’s (2010) study “’Newsworthy’ Victims? Exploring differences in Canadian local press coverage of missing/murdered Aboriginal and White Women”; Yasmin Jiwani’s (2006) Missing and Murdered Women: Reproducing Marginality in News Discourse 7 Duncan McCue explains his discussion with an elder that for an Indigenous person to ‘make the news’ they must be “dancing, drumming, drunk, dead (+ warrior)” – (https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/what-it-takes-for- aboriginal-people-to-make-the-news-1.2514466) 6

o 4% Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking the RCMP to investigate First Nation reserve contracts: o 3% Land claim conflicts: 3%

• Top themes in Indigenous-focused media stories in 2011/2012 were (p. 5): o The Attawapiskat Housing crisis: 22% o Prime Minister Stephen Harpers meeting with First Nations: 6% o Residential schools: 3% o The Ring of Fire mining project: 3% National o Aboriginal day: 1% • Top themes in Indigenous-focused media stories in 2012/2013 were (p. 6): o Idle No More Movement: 31% o The Attawapiskat housing crisis: 25% o Prime Minister Stephen Harpers meeting with First Nation Chiefs: 19% o Deaths at residential schools: 3% o Shawn Atleo's election as chief of the First Nations Assembly: 2%

• More media attention is attributed to the actions of Indigenous protests as opposed to the “reasons” behind the protests (p. 12)

Examining The Emily • Reporting patterns indicate that “bad news https://dalspace.library.dal Media’s Portrayal Caddell receive the most attention” (p. 27) .ca/bitstream/handle/1022 Of Idle No More: • A consistent focus on negative stories 2/50620/Emily_Caddell_un A Critical perpetuates a problematic perception of dergrad_thesis.pdf?sequen Discourse Indigenous peoples that is reflective of a “crisis ce=1&isAllowed=y Analysis mentality” (p. 28) • Dimensions of “time and space” impact coverage of Indigenous issues; time referring to deadlines and space referring to the “length of an article” p.28)

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Reconciliation In Michael • The most frequently used media frames were https://viurrspace.ca/bitstr The News: A Francoeur “attribution of responsibility” and “conflict eam/handle/10613/6646/F Framing Analysis frames” (p.43) rancoeur_royalroads_1313 Of Residential • The use of a “human-interest frame” was less O_10554.pdf?sequence=1 Schools And The common but used primarily when coverage was &isAllowed=y TRC In Canadian regarding the impact of the residential school National system on “specific communities and individuals” Newspapers (p. 46) • The “economic frame” was used to provide “significant attention” to the implementation costs associated with the TRC report recommendations (p. 47( • The reconciliation frame was another frequently used frame (p. 49)

Section 3: Tutorial Findings

This section provides a summary of key findings and highlights from the analysis of ‘Metro’ and

‘The Star Vancouver’ articles respectively, followed by a brief cross-comparison. The appendices

attached to this written assignment provide the original and more elaborate notes made during the

accumulation, selection, and coding of each article. In addition, memos from the analysis of each article

are also included to serve as a transparent point of reflection for both the research process as well as

the researcher’s own experience engaging in the analysis:

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‘Metro’ ‘The Star Vancouver’

MAJOR THEMES • Indigenous children services • Physical confrontations/conflicts • Sixties Scoop case (title did not reflect topic) • Legal cases • Repatriating Indigenous place names • Health and human rights

• truth & reconciliation is a significantly • Specific issues were focus of article – emphasized theme throughout the articles reconciliation as a framing served as an and the primary ‘framing’ extension of main discussion of issue (reverse approach of Metro articles) • Similar initial codes* o Reconciliation/truth & reconciliation • Only exact same initial code used was ‘BC o Canadian history Supreme Court’* o Human rights tribunal • Similar analytical codes** • Similar analytical codes* o Legality o Truth & reconciliation o Indigenous rights o National identity (Canadian state o Reconciliation (many different context) framings) o Systemic issues o State-Indigenous relations o Government commitments/responsibilities (many ▪ Framings tend to reflect government different framings) responsibilities, accountabilities, actions o Displacement (different framings – o Public perceptions (Canadian) though not explicit in one of the articles) o Mobilization of Indigenous o Healing communities, leaders, activists o Legality (legal processes, court rulings, hearings, trials, justice system personnel (e.g. judge), cases, judicial bodies) *’Similar’ entails the codes appeared in at least 2 of the 3 articles

Cross-comparison of findings:

• In ‘The Star Vancouver’ - specific issues were the focus and construction of the article –

reconciliation as a framing served as an extension of the main discussion of the issue

o This contrasts the nature of ‘Metro’ articles, that appeared to highlight the premise of

reconciliation primarily, with details about the related ‘issue’ embedded further into the

article 9

o Selected ‘Metro’ articles tended to reference pipeline protests when discussing

Indigenous issues; however, many articles regarding the pipeline specifically included

only minimal (if at all) reference of Indigenous quotes, position, impacts

• Greater ‘diversity’ of Indigenous-related issues reported in ‘The Star Vancouver’

• Greater highlighting and reporting of Indigenous mobilization and activism using a ‘positive’ or

more ‘objective’ tone

• More specific Indigenous communities, nations, and people quoted in ‘The Star Vancouver’

• Greater extensive coverage of specific acts and resistance movements in ‘The Star Vancouver’

e.g. continuous Uni’sto’ten camp coverage across a number of different newspaper editions

• Indigenous-based articles took up more space in ‘The Star Vancouver’

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Reference List:

Atkinson Principles. (n.d.). The Star Vancouver. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com /about/atkinson.html.

Caddell, E. (2014). Examining the Media’s Portrayal of Idle No More: A Critical Discourse Analysis. Retrieved from DalSpace College of Sustainability Undergraduate Honours Theses. http://hdl.handle.net/10222/50620.

Cheung, C. (2019, November 19). StarMetro Vancouver to Shut Down in Torstar Cost-Cutting Move. The Tyee. Retrieved from https://thetyee.ca/.

Enos, E. (2019). What works and what doesn't in the way the media represent Indigenous people? CBC. Retrieved from https://www.cbc.ca/.

Facts & Figures. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.metro.lu/about/facts-figures/.

Farooqui, S. (2019, November 24). Industry experts say StarMetro, English Canada’s last free daily, will be missed. Meadow Lake Now. Retrieved from https://meadowlakenow.com/.

Francoeur, M. (2018). Reconciliation in the News: A Framing Analysis of Residential Schools and the TRC in Canadian National Newspapers. Retrieved from VIURRSpace Dissertations & Theses @ RRU. http://dx.doi.org/10.25316/IR-1548.

Harding, R. (2005). The Media, Aboriginal People and Common Sense. Canadian Journal of Native Studies, 25(1), 311. Retrieved from https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.capilanou.ca /login.aspx?direct=true&db=edo&AN=20906028&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Harding, R. (2018). Problematic representations of indigenous issues in media. The Canadian Bar Association. Retrieved from https://www.cba-alberta.org/Publications- Resources/Resources/Law-Matters/Law-Matters-Spring-2018/Problematic-Representations-of- 11

Indigenous-Issues-i/.

History of the Toronto Star. (n.d.). The Star Vancouver. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com /about/history.html.

King, H. (2017, July 31). Media’s Indigenous coverage has always been slanted. And it’s still scant, says writer Hayden King. The Star Vancouver. Retrieved from https://www.thestar.com/ vancouver.html.

Metro International. (n.d.). The Metro Moment. Retrieved from https://www.metro.lu /assets/TheMetroMoment_LATAM.pdf.

Metro International. (n.d.). Retrieved November 25, 2019 from Wikiwand: https://www.wikiwand .com/en/Metro_International.

Pierro, R., Barrera, J., Blackstock, C., Harding, R., McCue, D., & Metatawabin, M. (2013). Buried Voices: Media Coverage of Aboriginal Issues in Ontario. Journalists for Human Rights. Retrieved from https://www.jhr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Buried_Voices.pdf.

Tegelberg, H. M. (2013). (Review of the book Seeing red: a history of natives in Canadian newspapers, by Anderson, M.C. & Robertson, C. L.). Canadian Journal of Communication, 38(1). Retrieved from https://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/view/2615/2864.

Wikipedia contributors. (2019, November 21). StarMetro (newspaper). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved December 6, 2019, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/ index.php?title=StarMetro_(newspaper)&oldid=927254895.

APPENDIX 1

Source: Facts & Figures. Metro International. Retrieved from https://www.metro.lu/about/facts-figures/.

APPENDIX 2 1

Source: The Metro Moment. Metro International. Retrieved from https://www.metro.lu/assets/TheMetroMoment_LATAM.pdf. (p.g. 25) APPENDIX 3 2

NEWSPAPER SAMPLE DATE AUTHOR TITLE Page # ‘IDENTITY’ LANGUAGE* Metro 1 Jan. 9, Vicky Canada will party • Indigenous 2019 Mochama while Indigenous kids 9 • First Nation are denied services Metro 2 Feb. 23, Vicky Lawyers little help in • Indigenous 2017 Mochama truth and 9 • First Nation reconciliation’ Metro 3 Mar. 27, Wanyee Li Council considers • First Nation 2017 Indigenous names’ 5 • Indigenous

NEWSPAPER SAMPLE DATE AUTHOR TITLE Page # ‘IDENTITY’ LANGUAGE* The Star 4 Jan. 7, Perrin Grauer RCMP gathers in • Nation names Vancouver 2019 nearby towns as First (not explicit Nation braces for 6 descriptive conflict’ language)

The Star 5 Feb. 12, Ainslie B.C. First Nations back • Nation names Vancouver 2019 Cruickshank in court over fishing 3 • First Nations rights’ The Star 6 Mar. 6, Kristy Kirkup Chief wants • Indigenous Vancouver 2019 sterilization inquiry’ 11

This appendix provides summary tables of all the article samples used for the analysis.

*Note: ‘Identity Language’ is included as a table item for the inquisitive purpose of tracking the language used to refer to Indigenous peoples, as during the research, the tendency for interchangeable language as well as different choices was noted across some articles.