The many faces of Rob Ford: the representation of politician deviance, dishonesty and denial

Abstract

The discourse surrounding recent Canadian politics has involved the misbehaviour of Toronto’s former mayor, Rob Ford. Much of the information the public received about the antics of Ford is derived from media representations. The current inquiry sought to understand the treatment of Ford by the media to explore the messages the public receives regarding politician deviance. This was established through the creation of a 45 event timeline and a content analysis of the articles in the newspaper, Toronto Star that discussed each of the timeline events. The findings suggest that the journalists frame Ford as being incompetent most of the time, corrupt some of the time and a street level criminal occasionally. These frames are created through media narratives and strengthened through the inclusion of apparent perceptions of important community stakeholders.