Visual Media and the Construction of the Benign Canadian Border on National Geographic’s Border Security

• In Event: 370 - Regular Session. Crossing Borders: New Digital Technology and People

Abstract

Visual media have long been instrumental in the production of international borders as sites of spectacle. Such projects involve careful delineations of who may enter and under what conditions. In Canada, this representation often centres on a dialectical relationship between a welcoming and generous, multicultural nation, and a threatening foreign immigrant Other. We adopt a visual content analysis approach to examine Border Security: Canada’s Frontlines, a documentary series produced for the National Geographic Channel that follows the daily activities of Canadian border security agents. Because this series is sponsored by the Canadian Border Patrol Agency, it provides an ideal case with which to interrogate the State’s agenda in representing home, Other, and risk. Given previous scholarship on the dialectical representation of Other and Canadian multiculturalism, we expected to find similar juxtapositions on Border Security. Rather, our analysis reveals a carefully managed representation of colour and nation-blindness. Border Security is indicative of the State’s growing awareness of the need to portray itself as inclusive and diverse.

Authors

• Rima Wilkes, The University of British of Columbia

• Yolande Pottie-Sherman, Dartmouth College