Conservatives’ ‘very ethnic’ media approach a success: journalism study

An interview with April Lindgren who authored the study on ethnic media and the 2011 campaign (see earlier Conservatives received most election coverage in GTA ethnic newspapers – New Canadian Media – NCM):

In the run-up to the 2011 election there was interest from media and politicians in the effort from the Conservative to court the ethnic media, like the leaked strategy document that the party would target 10 of what they called “very ethnic” ridings from across the country.

We also saw a pattern of courting the ethnic media undertaken by Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney, who was then helping brief ethnic media separate from the parliamentary press gallery. There was also an advertising strategy in the key ridings.

I was interested in what impact that might have, and we don’t know a lot because in many cases there are language barriers. It’s actually very expensive and difficult to do, and the only similar research I know of recently was a 2007 study on Korean media in British Columbia at Simon Fraser University.

I had some talented students who spoke Korean, Punjabi, Russian and Chinese and we were able to find a common protocol for finding what stories were about. We asked how much did they report, and how did they report it.

Conservatives’ ‘very ethnic’ media approach a success: journalism study | Ottawa Citizen.