More than a Monolith: Podcasting Authentic Self-Concepts and Cultural Expressions in Canada

This dissertation explores how podcasters from different racial and ethnic groups in Canada use podcasting to articulate their own identities and represent themselves and their communities through sound and language. Ten non-public podcasts were compared to ten publicly produced podcasts from the CBC between 2015 and 2020. In total, three episodes from each of the 20 podcasts were listened to for a total of 60 episodes. Critical discourse analysis (CDA) was used to evaluate how podcasters linguistically self-express. Sound analysis helped examine how podcasters use voice, music, added FX, and archival audio to articulate their cultural identities. Interviews contextualized how podcasters conceived of their production, their motivations, and their podcast goals to represent community and revisit cultural histories in Canada.

The findings indicate that “history” and “true crime” podcasters in public and non-public models tend to critique institutionally produced myths about Canadian identity that have shaped colonial understandings of Canada today and the people who are products of its systems. On the other hand, “society and culture” podcasters from public and non-public models tend to support cross-national communication where members of non-hegemonic groups address various communities as heterogeneous collectives rather than monoliths. Findings also indicate that public (CBC) and non-public podcasts both encourage open self-expression and national criticism. Podcasts can promote voices that are difficult to access elsewhere and deepen what people can learn about infrequently taught or underrepresented historical experiences and modern cultural practices. Podcasters in this study often authored their sense of selves using local, multinational, and diasporic labels beyond a “Canadian” label and its cultural connotations. Podcasters explicitly talking about their race or ethnicity often contextualized how it influences, and is influenced by, their professional, political, and social experiences. Sonically, podcasters audibly self-represented using their regular speaking voices that reject standardized broadcasting voices.

Overall, this dissertation forwards that podcasts help critique Canadian history while celebrating non-settler histories and experiences that shape what podcasters believe to be their authentic selves exhibited in their vocalized values, attitudes, and beliefs. Thus, podcasts invite us to hear a diversity of peoples, perspectives, and cultures in public and non-public production spaces.