Biden Cancels Keystone XL: How Alberta’s Local Media Is Framing the News

Climate change mitigation is frequently presented as a binary trade-off between economic development and environmental protection, particularly in Canadian news. The economic value and “necessity” of the oil sands is often used as a justification for perpetual extractivism and further expansion of energy infrastructure. News media have an important role in delivering information and shaping public opinion on large-scale issues in society, including the issue of climate change.

This Major Research Paper explores Alberta’s local news media’s reaction to the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline by examining the narratives used in their reporting of the news. I highlight the importance of studying Canadian local news influence on public perception of issues, as this is often not adequately represented in environmental communications research. I conducted an exploratory content analysis of articles from three local news publications, the Calgary Herald, the Red Deer Advocate, and the Lethbridge Herald. The findings suggest economic arguments that justify oil sands expansion largely overshadow pro-environment representation of the issue. This study also uncovers high use of victim narratives that perpetuate extractivism by using “us versus them” populist rhetoric in storylines.