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The Conventional News Paradigm as Systemic Bias: Re-Thinking the (Mis-)Representational Basis of Newsmedia-Minority Relations in Canada / Das konventionelle Nachrichtenparadigma als systemischer Bias: Die Basis der (Fehl-)Darstellung von Minoritäten in Nachrichtenmedien neu durchdacht

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Abstract

Canada’s mainstream news media are widely accused of reneging on the principles and practices of an official multiculturalism. Both print and broadcast news media continue to unwittingly frame migrants and minorities as “problem people”, that is, people with problems or who create problems. Moves to “unframe” this biased and unbalanced coverage by modifying the media mindset are well-intentioned. Yet an agency-oriented solution for improving the processing of minority news information may prove insufficient. The politics of mis-representation reflect a structural (“systemic”) bias because of the “news values” implict within a “conventional news paradigm”. The centrality of a systemic (“mediacentric”) bias is revealed in two ways. First, the very dynamic of newsmedia as a “medium of negative” tends to “racially profile” migrants and minorities as “troublesome constituents” in need of control or criticism. Second, the institutionalization of a liberal-universalism bias inhibits the framing of “deep differences” outside of a monocultural newsmedia framework. Such a mediacentric news bias not only intensifies the mis-representation of diversity, but also exposes those systemic barriers that preclude an inclusive newsmedia. The conclusion seems inescapable: Transformative change in redefining the representational basis of minority-newsmedia relations will materialize only when the conventional news paradigm “re-thinks” those “news values” that conceal as much as they reveal.

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Fleras, Augie: The Conventional News Paradigm as Systemic Bias: Re-Thinking the (Mis-)Representational Basis of Newsmedia-Minority Relations in Canada / Das konventionelle Nachrichtenparadigma als systemischer Bias: Die Basis der (Fehl-)Darstellung von Minoritäten in Nachrichtenmedien neu durchdacht. In: Geißler, Rainer;Pöttker, Horst: Integration durch Massenmedien / Mass Media-Integration – Medien und Migration im internationalen Vergleich Media and Migration: A Comparative Perspective. Bielefeld: transcript 2006, S. 179-222.10.14361/9783839405031-007
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