Diplomatic dissonance: how Canadian newspapers cover China amidst changing relations

Media portrayal of current events can influence public perception and the actions that policy and decision makers take with regard to these events. This study applied a content analysis to explore variations in the way Canadian news media depicted anthropogenic climate change by employing an approach previously used by Liu, Vedlitz and Alston (2008). This research applied their existing methodology to both the regional and national levels of media in a Canadian setting. Climate change articles from two newspapers published between 1988 and 2007, the Toronto Star, a regional newspaper, and the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper, were obtained. They were examined for aspects of climate change, including salience, image, scope, country representation, participants, and the origins of scientific information that was presented in the articles. Differences in the way climate change is portrayed between the newspapers at regional and national levels are also examined. Overall, climate change is portrayed similarly in the two newspapers as a large-scale (national and global) problem, despite the differences in audience scope. The Toronto Star exhibits a more national perspective with respect to climate change although it is a regional newspaper. Attention paid by the media to climate change increases from 1988-2007. Climate change is predominantly depicted in both newspapers as a destructive issue. There are linkages to other public issues, including those in international co-operation, science research and development, and energy and transportation. The analysis reveals that a number of non-government and government actors are concerned with climate change and a wider array of interest groups is becoming involved. Finally, the majority of the solution strategies presented in the articles focus on mitigation techniques, as opposed to adaptation strategies.

The aim of this study was applied to explore to climate change articles from two newspapers published between 1988 and 2007, the Toronto Star, a regional newspaper, and the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper. A content analysis was conducted and the results were examined and compared for aspects of climate change, including salience, image, scope, country representation, participants, and the origins of scientific information presented in the articles. Overall, it was found that climate change is portrayed similarly in both newspapers as a large-scale (national and global) problem. Attention paid by the media to climate change was found to increase from 1988 to 2007. Climate change is predominantly depicted in both newspapers as a destructive issue. There are linkages to other public issues, including those in international co-operation, science research and development, and energy and transportation. The analysis reveals that a number of non-government and government actors are concerned with climate change and a wider array of interest groups is becoming involved. Mitigation solution strategies are more predominant than adaptation strategies.

Media portrayal of current events can influence public perception and the actions that policy and decision makers take with regard to these events. This study applied a content analysis to explore variations in the way Canadian news media depicted anthropogenic climate change by employing an approach previously used by Liu, Vedlitz and Alston (2008). This research applied their existing methodology to both the regional and national levels of media in a Canadian setting. Climate change articles from two newspapers published between 1988 and 2007, the Toronto Star, a regional newspaper, and the Globe and Mail, a national newspaper, were obtained. They were examined for aspects of climate change, including salience, image, scope, country representation, participants, and the origins of scientific information that was presented in the articles. Differences in the way climate change is portrayed between the newspapers at regional and national levels are also examined. Overall, climate change is portrayed similarly in the two newspapers as a large-scale (national and global) problem, despite the differences in audience scope. The Toronto Star exhibits a more national perspective with respect to climate change although it is a regional newspaper. Attention paid by the media to climate change increases from 1988-2007. Climate change is predominantly depicted in both newspapers as a destructive issue. There are linkages to other public issues, including those in international co-operation, science research and development, and energy and transportation. The analysis reveals that a number of non-government and government actors are concerned with climate change and a wider array of interest groups is becoming involved. Finally, the majority of the solution strategies presented in the articles focus on mitigation techniques, as opposed to adaptation strategies.

PurposeThis study investigates the relationship between earnings call sentiment and subsequent media coverage sentiment. Examining these synergistic effects between executive communication style and resulting news narratives provides novel insights. The unscripted qualitative discussions in earnings calls establish perceptions and outlooks that the media echoes in later coverage. Understanding these intricate connections between information channels aids communication experts and market analysts in shaping strategic messaging and predicting market impacts. In addition, the link with the stock return reaction is revisited, and this study shows that the effects on stock returns driven by news information are moderated by earnings call sentiments.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyzes the interplay between earnings call sentiments and subsequent news sentiments for 30 S&P 500 companies from 2012 to 2022. Utilizing the FinBERT Natural Language Processing (NLP) model, we extract sentiment scores from earnings call transcripts and corresponding news articles. We apply OLS regression models to examine the relationship between negative earnings call sentiments and subsequent negative news sentiments, as well as their combined impact on stock returns. Control variables include financial metrics such as ROA, ROE, firm size, Market-to-Book ratio and liquidity. The methodology allows for a nuanced exploration of sentiment transfer mechanisms in financial communication and their market implications.FindingsOur study reveals a significant positive correlation between negative sentiment in earnings calls and subsequent negative news sentiment. A 1% increase in negative call sentiment associates with a 0.54% increase in negative news sentiment the following day, supporting Agenda Building and Impression Management hypotheses. We observe a multiplicative effect on stock returns when negative call sentiment coincides with negative news sentiment, supporting signaling theory. Financial metrics like ROE show marginal influence on news sentiment, while others demonstrate insignificant impact. These findings underscore the importance of holistic corporate communication management in mitigating potential negative market reactions.Research limitations/implicationsThis study’s primary limitation is its sample size of 30 S&P 500 companies, potentially limiting generalizability. The use of a single sentiment analysis model (FinBERT) could impact results, warranting comparison with alternative methods. The study’s timeframe (2012–2022) may not capture the most recent market dynamics. Future research could expand the sample size, incorporate additional sentiment analysis techniques and explore longer-term effects. Investigating industry-specific variations and the impact of macroeconomic factors could provide further insights. Additionally, qualitative analysis of earnings call content could complement these quantitative findings, offering a more comprehensive understanding of sentiment transfer mechanisms.Practical implicationsThis study offers insights for corporate communicators, investor relations professionals and financial analysts. The strong correlation between earnings call sentiment and subsequent news sentiment emphasizes the need for management of corporate messaging during these calls. Companies should be aware that negative sentiments expressed in earnings calls may amplify through news coverage, potentially impacting stock performance. Investors and analysts should consider both earnings call and news sentiments when evaluating market reactions. For regulators, these findings highlight the importance of monitoring information dissemination practices to ensure market fairness. Overall, the study underscores the significance of a holistic approach to financial communication strategy.Social implicationsThis research highlights the interconnected nature of corporate communication and media narratives, emphasizing social responsibility of both corporations and news outlets. The findings suggest that negative corporate messaging can perpetuate and amplify through news coverage, potentially affecting public perception and investor sentiment. This underscores the need for transparent and ethical communication practices in the business world. The study also raises awareness about the potential manipulation of public opinion through carefully crafted corporate narratives. It encourages stakeholders to critically evaluate both corporate communications and subsequent media coverage, promoting a more informed and discerning society in the context of financial information dissemination.Originality/valueThis study uniquely explores the interplay between earnings call sentiments and subsequent news sentiments, addressing a significant gap in financial communication research. By examining the sentiment transfer mechanism from corporate messaging to media narratives, it provides novel insights into information dissemination in financial markets. The research demonstrates how negative sentiments in earnings calls can amplify through news coverage, offering valuable implications for corporate communication strategies. This multifaceted analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of the complex relationships between corporate communication, media coverage and market behavior.

This paper examines how young people are constructed as media pirates in three Canadian newspapers during two publication periods, 1998–2000 and 2010–2012. These periods bookend copyright law modernization in the United States and Canada, represented by the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, and the Canadian Copyright Modernization Act, passed in 2012. Drawing on a corpus of articles from The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, and the Calgary Herald as primary texts, I use critical discourse analysis and media frame analysis to argue that the discursive construction in print media of the young person as pirate reveals public attitudes toward copyright law.

Changing economic conditions in the second half of the 20th century led to a transformation in the discursive frame of reports about labour in US and Canadian newspapers. The article first historically documents the shift in the target market of US and Canadian newspapers from a mass audience of the working and middle class to a niche, “upscale” audience of the upper middle class. Secondly, the article critically analyses news reports of transit (e.g., rail, bus, and airline) strikes, and how the framing of those strikes dramatically switched from a pre-1970s orientation of worker struggles to a post-1970s orientation of high consumer inconvenience. The article's analysis tracks three North American newspapers: the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Toronto Star. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how the target market of the newspaper business clearly affects the language of news.

This paper examines how young people are constructed as media pirates in three Canadian newspapers during two publication periods, 1998–2000 and 2010–2012. These periods bookend copyright law modernization in the United States and Canada, represented by the American Digital Millennium Copyright Act, passed in 1998, and the Canadian Copyright Modernization Act, passed in 2012. Drawing on a corpus of articles from The Globe and Mail , The Toronto Star , and the Calgary Herald as primary texts, I use critical discourse analysis and media frame analysis to argue that the discursive construction in print media of the young person as pirate reveals public attitudes toward copyright law.

In 2006, Stephen Harper boldly pronounced Canada as an “emerging energy superpower” to a variety of international audiences, including at the G8 meeting in London. While this label is likely more representative of a marketing campaign than reality (Hester, 2007), it is important to understand the degree to which the Canadian media has embraced it. This paper determines the extent to which Canada’s national newspapers, the Globe and Mail and the National Post, and its largest paper, the Toronto Star, adopted the “energy superpower” frame in their reporting about Alberta’s oil sands over a 25-month period. The oil sands were selected as a case study because proponents of Canada as an “energy superpower” cite the development of Alberta’s oil sands as a key component of the country’s new-found status. To discover how this new label was intertwined into the broader discourse on oil sands development, I used content and discourse analysis to examine newspaper stories over 300 words in length that contain “oil sands” or “tar sands” in the lead paragraph and/or headline. While my study found few instances of news stories containing the term, it did find that these newspapers more closely adopted Harper’s underlying ideas about what an energy superpower is than the more activist government traditionally associated with the term

Discussion of Dhaliwal, Goodman, Hoffman, and Schwab (2019): Revisiting Tax-Related Reputational Costs

The word gang appears frequently in newspapers. The meaning of this term, however, varies greatly depending on context. This study examines its different significations in the top-selling English-language newspapers in Canada. Taking almost 3,900 occurrences of the term and its variants (gangs, ganging, and ganged) in the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Vancouver Sun, and Montreal's Gazette, the authors analyse how journalists deploy the concept of gangs to describe diverse subjects from vandalism by teenagers to extortion by organized crime syndicates to terrorist plots by religious extremists as well as simply groups of friends or acquaintances with no criminal connections. Using Ernesto Laclau's concept of the empty signifier as the main theoretical framework, the authors argue that “gang” has been emptied of its meaning and, while its current uses are not necessarily indicative of conspiratorial or ideological strategies, this ambiguity risks being appropriated within hegemonic political discourses if not questioned and reassessed by journalists and readers. The authors conclude by suggesting ways to combat this problem of ambiguity and highlight the political implications that future researchers may explore in relation to mediated representations of crime.

Ashley Smith, who is typically presented in the media as mentally ill, was nineteen years old when she died from self-strangulation in an Ontario women’s prison on October 19th, 2007. In this thesis, I explored how Ashley Smith’s actions and death were portrayed in four mainstream Canadian newspapers (Globe and Mail, Telegraph-Journal, Toronto Star and National Post). My aim in this thesis is to critically analyze patterns of stereotypes of mental illness present in these news articles and connect these patterns to labeling theories. To accomplish this goal, I used a mixed methods approach that combined computerized topic modeling with critical reading. Topic modeling revealed three variables that affected topic weight: the timing of the news coverage, newspaper political affiliation and circulation/location. These three variables also impacted how these newspapers depicted Ashley Smith as mentally ill, through their use of generic and/or negative terminology, medicalization and vulnerability stereotypes.

Ashley Smith, who is typically presented in the media as mentally ill, was nineteen years old when she died from self-strangulation in an Ontario women’s prison on October 19 th , 2007. In this paper, I explore how Ashley Smith’s actions and death were portrayed in four mainstream Canadian newspapers ( Globe and Mail , Telegraph-Journal , Toronto Star and National Post ). My aims in this paper are to critically analyze depictions of mental illness presented by these news articles and connect these portrayals to labeling theories. Two variables—the timing of the news coverage and newspaper political affiliation—emerged as being influential in how newspapers depicted Ashley Smith as mentally ill, through their use of generic and/or negative terminology and vulnerability stereotypes. I also discuss ‘alternative’ stories of Ashley Smith and examine their potential to challenge typical conceptualizations of mental illness, gender and carceral environments.

Ashley Smith, who is typically presented in the media as mentally ill, was nineteen years old when she died from self-strangulation in an Ontario women’s prison on October 19th, 2007. In this paper, I explore how Ashley Smith’s actions and death were portrayed in four mainstream Canadian newspapers (Globe and Mail, Telegraph-Journal, Toronto Star and National Post). My aims in this paper are to critically analyze depictions of mental illness presented by these news articles and connect these portrayals to labeling theories. Two variables—the timing of the news coverage and newspaper political affiliation—emerged as being influential in how newspapers depicted Ashley Smith as mentally ill, through their use of generic and/or negative terminology and vulnerability stereotypes. I also discuss ‘alternative’ stories of Ashley Smith and examine their potential to challenge typical conceptualizations of mental illness, gender and carceral environments.

Purpose: To assess stability and change in representations of disability and persons with disability in the Canadian news media between 1998 and 2008. Method: The study replicated research conducted in 1998 that assessed the representation of disability in the Canadian news media. Following the earlier study, three newspapers were selected (Globe and Mail, Toronto Star and Toronto Sun) and all articles from a three-month period in 1998 and 2008 were assessed for disability content. In total, 362 articles were found in the two time periods. These were coded for structure and content using a schema developed in the earlier research. Results: Between 1998 and 2008, there was a significant increase in the proportion of stories using “person first” language, and a significant increase in the proportion of “progressively” themed articles (e.g. dealing with barriers to participation, or disability awareness and inclusion). At the same time, there were significant differences between newspapers, with the Toronto Sun (a tabloid) maintaining a strong focus on “traditional” themes (e.g. special education, charitable provision). Conclusions: The differences in news media representations between 1998 and 2008 suggest a positive change in the way people with disabilities are represented, with greater attention to the complexity of their identity and their multiple social roles.Implications for RehabilitationThe participation of persons with disabilities in society continues to be limited by negative attitudes.Media reporting has a significant influence on public attitudes toward disability.In a content analysis of three Canadian newspapers, this study found several significant changes in the language and content of disability-related articles.Together, these changes provide some evidence of more favorable media representations of disability. Further research in rehabilitation is needed to understand how such changes may both reflect and facilitate ongoing efforts to enhance people with disabilties’ participation in social life.

This essay examines the differences in coverage of the Afghanistan and the Second Persian Gulf War within the Toronto Star, Winnipeg Free Press, and Vancouver Sun. I examine Robert M. Entman's model by exploring the role foreign news outlets play in the dissemination of American foreign policy frames across the globe. In cases where the frame offered by the White House is accepted by the foreign leaders, journalists extend and enhance it, but in instances where there is disagreement with the White House frame reporters enhance the elite criticism offered toward the White House. This essay contributes to a better understanding of Entman's cascading activation model for news framing as it explores how White House frames cascade through foreign leaders and foreign media.