How Canadians Communicate IV: Media and Politics ed. by David Taras and Christopher Waddell (review)

Since the late 1990s, media in Canada have undergone continuous upheaval and transformation with new platforms, devices, and apps constantly in the offing, and an equally steady march of media consolidation and industry decline. Political life, whether reporting, observing, or participating in it, has experienced similarly dramatic alterations. How Canadians Communicate IV: Media and Politics takes up the gauntlet of attending to this change by examining issues and themes the book’s editors and authors consider impervious to new technology-related priorities, sifting through expectations for what the “next generation of political communication” might look like.

Based on a 2009 conference held in Calgary and Banff, editors David Taras and Christopher Waddell bring together scholars, journalists, and former political operatives who alternatively focus on what’s new and what remains important in media, politics, and culture. Several chapters provide debate about the nature of politics in Alberta – not so random given the location of the conference that seeded the book’s participants and the current governing majority party. Authors also reach out more broadly to reflect on the 2011 election, the role of Blackberries and blogs, negative ads, specific slices of popular culture, and the overhyped role of social media in public engagement.

The book is divided into two parts. The first features ten chapters, including two contributions from the book’s editors. Waddell argues that the way new technologies (the Blackberry is singled out) are being used by reporters alienates the public they serve and enables journalists to become even more tightly coupled to the political establishment they are meant to hold accountable. In their joint article, Waddell and Taras go further, arguing that political disengagement, far from decreasing with social media, has become more entrenched, and the consequences for traditional media could be dire. Tuned-out audiences, they conclude, likely won’t concern themselves with the decline of their supposed surrogate, or a less-than-faithful watchdog.

Setting the stage for this critique by asserting that the forms and styles of journalism must be rethought, Florian Sauvageau contends, “Journalism, previously a lecture, has now become a seminar or a conversation.” In slight contrast, Richard Davis’s chapter on the blogosphere concludes that bloggers’ influence is much less and narrower than anecdotally assumed, but he leaves room for robust developments that might shift that finding. Similarly, Tamara Small’s study of attack websites reveals a lateral move of negative ads (also addressed by Jonathan Rose); these sites, while having the veneer of e-democracy, don’t necessarily work to stimulate deliberative or participatory processes. Woven between such meditations on technology’s influence are political analyses of broader trends and strategies from Elly Alboim and Tom Flanagan. Flanagan’s observation that the obliteration of a divide between writ and non-writ periods has given way to a “permanent campaign” presents a new political norm alongside media change. However, missing among these contributions are the voices of those who either study or are directly working intensively toward the kind of public engagement, social movements, and new journalism that the book heralds. Here one might think of a diverse set of efforts (some more experimental than others) like VoteCompass, iPolitics, Rabble, The Tyee, OpenCanada, and OpenFile.

The second part of the book is an effort to comment on political life outside the usual modes by considering the “everyday” lenses offered through Quebec cinema, music, talk radio, Aboriginal art, and land-use conflict and activism in Alberta. While an admirable effort at addressing the role of broader cultural influences, this part of the book reminds one of the exclusivity with which Canadian politics and media, and analyses of them, often operate. For example, APTN, #IdleNoMore, and Twitter, having risen to more prominence after this volume was published, give pause to considering Aboriginal issues only in terms of political consciousness exhibited through cultural and artistic influence. The concluding chapter gestures at such possibilities, reflecting on Occupy and the Arab Spring movements and...