Digital communication and Ramadan at the time of COVID-19

COVID-19 has presented both a health and an information risk with the viral spread of sometimes partial, false or erroneous news. In the Arab region, the media spheres have been saturated with information regarding coronavirus news. From social and traditional media, Arab audiences have been bombarded with a plethora of information, some of which was confusing and contradictory. As coronavirus sweeps across the world, many questions have been raised about the possibility of practicing the rites of the month of Ramadan and to observe fasting by Muslims. With the multiplication of the responses from medical staff, doctors of the law and political representatives, COVID-19 has simultaneously become a health, religious, political and ethical problem for the Muslim world. The premise elaborated so far calls for an in-depth research on the return of news on the official Facebook pages of three online magazines during the coronavirus emergency. The research carries out a qualitative media content analysis of all the news published by three digital ethnic newspapers: The Muslim News (United Kingdom), the Saphir News (France) and the Daily Muslim (Italy). The magazines have undertaken to stem the spread of fake news by offering users data and updates on COVID-19, proposing themselves as authoritative voices and reliable sources of information. Ramadan turns out to be a very central element in the three magazines in different measures, since it is an issue that becomes more and more urgent for the Muslim community as the weeks go by. The centrality of the religious element in the information flows is in line with the centrality of Islam in the individual and community life of the faithful. The health and religious emergency were narrated together providing updates on the daily measures to be put in place. Individuals have been called to face the health emergency stimulated by their sense of responsibility towards others also through religious principles. Social media have played an important role from religious, cultural and social points of view in one of the most important moments of the year for the Islamic community.

Front Page Challenge: A case study examining what the ethnic media promises and what it delivers

The editors and publishers of ethnic newspapers acknowledge the importance of reporting local news in helping their readers understand Canadian society. Yet detailed analyses of news content produced by ethnic media organizations often find that information that fosters understanding of life in Canada takes second place to news from the group‟s home country. This study investigates the local news content published about the Greater Toronto Area in the Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao(Toronto-area edition) and identifies a significant imbalance in the mix of local news versus homeland news from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. The author argues that newcomers trying to understand their adopted place would benefit from access to more extensive and varied local news and suggests that providing journalists who work in ethnic news media with greater opportunities for professional development would be one way to achieve this goal. Programs could include journalism skills workshops as well as seminars that explore the role of local news in helping immigrants adapt. Professional development sessions would also bring together journalists from different ethnocultural communities to discuss the challenges they face, develop joint projects, and acquaint editors and publishers with the latest research on the role of local news in fostering intercultural understanding.

"Nannies strike back": the representation of live-in caregivers and the Live-in Caregiver Program in the mainstream and ethnic press

Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study examines the representation of live-in caregivers (LC) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), between 2007 and 2013, in eleven mainstream Canadian newspapers (N=32) and five Filipino-Canadian newspapers (N=31). It contributes to the extant media analyses on the LCP by including the perspective of the ethnic press and, thus, the voices of LC, LC advocates, and members of the Filipino community. It also examines the recent hype surrounding the emergence of au pairing as a suitable caregiving option for Canadian families in light of the declining number of LC following the April 1, 2010 reforms to the LCP. This study concludes that the mainstream Canadian press portrayal of LC and their children is congruous with the “Problem Approach,” while that in the ethnic newspapers is congruous with the “Agency Approach” providing a space to both empower LC and resist negative mainstream portrayals.

"Nannies strike back": the representation of live-in caregivers and the Live-in Caregiver Program in the mainstream and ethnic press

Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study examines the representation of live-in caregivers (LC) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), between 2007 and 2013, in eleven mainstream Canadian newspapers (N=32) and five Filipino-Canadian newspapers (N=31). It contributes to the extant media analyses on the LCP by including the perspective of the ethnic press and, thus, the voices of LC, LC advocates, and members of the Filipino community. It also examines the recent hype surrounding the emergence of au pairing as a suitable caregiving option for Canadian families in light of the declining number of LC following the April 1, 2010 reforms to the LCP. This study concludes that the mainstream Canadian press portrayal of LC and their children is congruous with the “Problem Approach,” while that in the ethnic newspapers is congruous with the “Agency Approach” providing a space to both empower LC and resist negative mainstream portrayals.

"Nannies strike back": the representation of live-in caregivers and the Live-in Caregiver Program in the mainstream and ethnic press

Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study examines the representation of live-in caregivers (LC) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), between 2007 and 2013, in eleven mainstream Canadian newspapers (N=32) and five Filipino-Canadian newspapers (N=31). It contributes to the extant media analyses on the LCP by including the perspective of the ethnic press, and, thus, the voices of LC, LC advocates, and members of the Filipino community. It also examines the recent hype surrounding the emergence of au pairing as a suitable caregiving option for Canadian families in light of the declining number of LC following the April 1, 2010 reforms to the LCP. This study concludes that the mainstream Canadian press portrayal of LC and their children is congruous with the "Problem Approach," while that in the ethnic newspapers is congruous with the "Agency Approach," providing a space to both empower LC and resist negative mainstream portrayals.

"Nannies strike back": the representation of live-in caregivers and the Live-in Caregiver Program in the mainstream and ethnic press

Utilizing Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this study examines the representation of live-in caregivers (LC) and the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP), between 2007 and 2013, in eleven mainstream Canadian newspapers (N=32) and five Filipino-Canadian newspapers (N=31). It contributes to the extant media analyses on the LCP by including the perspective of the ethnic press, and, thus, the voices of LC, LC advocates, and members of the Filipino community. It also examines the recent hype surrounding the emergence of au pairing as a suitable caregiving option for Canadian families in light of the declining number of LC following the April 1, 2010 reforms to the LCP. This study concludes that the mainstream Canadian press portrayal of LC and their children is congruous with the "Problem Approach," while that in the ethnic newspapers is congruous with the "Agency Approach," providing a space to both empower LC and resist negative mainstream portrayals.

Ethnic Media Election Coverage: A Content Analysis Method

Politicians’ recent attentiveness to ethnic media coincides with the emergence of diverse societies where linguistic, cultural, and racial minority groups are an increasingly important demographic. Not much is known, however, about how ethnic media cover elections. This paper outlines a methodology for examining election coverage by ethnic newspapers, drawing upon best practices used to analyze election news content in mainstream media, the theoretical underpinnings of journalism practice, and the author’s experience with coding ethnic news publications.

Ethnic Media Election Coverage: A Content Analysis Method

Politicians’ recent attentiveness to ethnic media coincides with the emergence of diverse societies where linguistic, cultural, and racial minority groups are an increasingly important demographic. Not much is known, however, about how ethnic media cover elections. This paper outlines a methodology for examining election coverage by ethnic newspapers, drawing upon best practices used to analyze election news content in mainstream media, the theoretical underpinnings of journalism practice, and the author’s experience with coding ethnic news publications.

The Diverse City: Can you read all about it in ethnic newspapers?

The Diverse City: Can you read all about it in ethnic newspapers?

Toronto-Area Ethnic Newspapers and Canada's 2011 Federal Election: An Investigation of Content, Focus and Partisanship

Canada's political class is embracing ethnocultural news media with increasing zeal, highlighting the need to understand the role of these news organizations in the political process. This study investigated coverage of Canada's 2011 federal election in five Toronto-area ethnocultural newspapers. The publications, which carried campaign news to varying degrees, provided coverage that was distinct in many ways from mainstream media. Content such as the focus on ingroup candidates had the potential to strengthen community bonds while more general election news equipped readers with information that would facilitate participation in society through informed voting. Analysis of reporting about the Conservative Party of Canada, which pursued an aggressive ethnic media strategy, identified no clear pattern of stories with explicitly biased content. In most newspapers, however, the CPC did enjoy an advantage in that it received more coverage than the competition.