Racially and Culturally Diverse Media - Barriers and Challenges

Although the benefits of diverse media are considerable, the creation process can be riddled with challenges.

Racial and Cultural Diversity Participation in Canadian Media

Since before Canada became a Confederation, racially and culturally diverse groups have been creating their own media: the first issue of the Provincial Freeman, which was a weekly newspaper edited and published by Black Canadians in the Province of Canada West (now Ontario), was first published on March 24, 1853.

Deconstructing Online Hate

The internet has become a prime means of communication worldwide and this unprecedented global reach – combined with the difficulty in tracking communications – makes it an ideal tool for extremists to repackage old hatred, raise funds and recruit members. As the internet has grown and changed, hate groups and movements have adapted, creating websites, forums and social network profiles, becoming active in spaces such as online games and even creating parallel versions of services such as Twitter, YouTube and GoFundMe.

Impact of Online Hate

Online hate can have an impact in three interconnected ways:

• the harm done to its targets, either from personal harassment or from online spaces being experienced as hostile;
• the risk that those who encounter it may be radicalized by it, becoming more sympathetic and possibly even active; and
• the effect that it has on the values and culture of the online spaces in which it happens.

Online Hate - An Introduction

Since its earliest days, the internet has been hailed as a uniquely open marketplace of ideas and it’s become an essential means for people to access information and services. The downside of this is that, alongside its many valuable resources, the internet also offers a host of offensive materials – including hateful content – that attempt to inflame public opinion against certain groups and to turn people against one another.

Online Hate and Free Speech

The line between hate speech and free speech is a thin one, and different countries, platforms and communities have different levels of tolerance. The line is even thinner in digital environments where hateful comments posted lawfully in one country can be read in other countries where they may be deemed unlawful.

Racial and Cultural Diversity in News Media

Objectivity and accuracy are among the most important journalistic values. Consistently, however, Canadian news media has under-represented and stereotyped racialized groups.

Media Portrayals of Persons with Disabilities: Introduction

Persons with disabilities might best be described, in the media at least, as an invisible minority: though a large segment of the population has a physical or mental disability they have been almost entirely absent from the mass media until recent years. Moreover, when persons with disabilities appear they almost always do so in stereotyped roles.

Media Portrayals of Persons with Disabilites: Solutions

Media producers have recognized that they must make efforts to better represent persons with disabilities.

Responding to Online Hate Guide

The Responding to Online Hate guide assists law enforcement personnel, community groups and educators in recognizing and countering hateful content on the Internet – especially as it pertains to youth.