Polar Outreach Catalogue

The dissemination of Arctic science to the public has been an important and integral component of Canadian International Polar Year (IPY) programming. Not only were scientists asked to incorporate communication strategies into their research funding requests, the Canadian federal program office also established a separate funding pocket for communications and outreach proposals. The end of IPY offers an opportune time to determine whether these efforts have been successful. Qualitative and quantitative content analysis of Arctic news in select Canadian dailies will be used to examine media coverage of the Arctic. In particular, the angles used by journalists to frame stories will be discussed. News has been selected from major Canadian dailies including the Globe and Mail, the National Post, and the Calgary Herald. A preliminary examination of coverage suggests there were more stories about the North during IPY than before. There was also a difference in the topic of stories before and during IPY and between newspapers. There is evidence that media coverage influences which topics receive attention from government policy makers. Some studies show that parliament and government attentiveness to an issue follows newspaper attentiveness. At a time when some Canadian Arctic researchers are calling for stronger federal support and policy measures, it is important to know exactly what politicians, policy makers, and publics are reading about northern research and the Arctic in general.