Social construction of aboriginal peoples in the Saskatchewan print media

Abstract

This thesis examines the portrayal of Aboriginal Peoples in two Saskatchewan daily newspapers. This research is based on the question: "How is the notion of Aboriginal Peoples socially constructed in the print media?" Previous research indicates that media portrayals of minority groups are often partial and stereotypical. Such portrayals are partly responsible for linking the unacceptable behavior of minority groups to phenotypic traits, and thereby contributing to the social significance of "race." Discourse analysis is used to analyze 437 newspaper articles that were collected using a full-text keyword search of the EBSCO Host database, which indexes articles from the Leader Post and the Star Phoenix. In general, the results reveal that Aboriginal peoples are regularly portrayed as problematic; either as having problems themselves, or as causing problems for non-Aboriginal peoples. The results support the view that race is socially constructed and demonstrate that "race," through media discourse, can become a socially acceptable explanation for social problems.