The Importance of Context: The Effect of the Market on the Framing of Elections at the Subnational Level in Canada

Abstract

In Canadian media studies, very little research has been done on how elections at the subnational level are covered by newspapers. This paper analyzes the way major newspapers in six Canadian capitals covered provincial elections between 2011 and 2012. The findings were interesting in that they underscored the importance of context in news coverage. Rather than a formulaic game frame focus, with an adherence to who’s winning and who’s losing, our study determined that each newspaper had a distinct voice and focus in their news coverage. This adds a new and interesting dimension to the study of election coverage in Canada.