Negativity within the Public's Responses to New Articles Concerning Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

A Content Analysis

Abstract

This content analysis studied the negative comments responding to four news articles about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women with thirty or more total comments that were posted to the CTV News Facebook page in either 2015 or 2016. Results showed that there were five general trends within these negative responses: generalizations or stereotypes about Indigenous peoples, victim blaming (blaming Indigenous peoples for this issue), dependence of Indigenous peoples on the government and other Canadians, accusations of reverse racism towards White Canadians, or the argument of all lives mattering, not only those of Indigenous women. These findings demonstrate that there is a long way for Canadians to go in terms of their understandings of Indigenous peoples.

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Diane Symbaluk

Discipline: Sociology