Political Communication

My dissertation examined the evolution of government public relations in the province of Alberta. The major results of that dissertation have been published in Canadian Public Administration. Fundamentally, I showed that the structure of the government of Alberta’s bureaucratic public relations function was intimately related to both the political economy of the province but also the way the government of the day envisioned the democratic process. Most political and scholarly commentary on this issue argued that the government of Premier Ralph Klein (1992-2007) government substantially expanded its efforts in public relations and that this was a major factor in winning public support for heavy budget cuts and privatization between 1993 and 1997. In actuality, I was able to show that the government of Alberta dramatically reduced (see below). support for communications activities. However, it changed the focus of the government’s PR unit to be much more politically sensitive and playing a role shuttling between the political leadership and public opinion (see below). .

More recently, I have been involved in a project with a colleague at the University of Toronto where we surveyed Canadian parliamentarians, journalists and bloggers about their definitions of open government. We hypothesized that different actors would prefer definitions that fit with their interests. This is evident in this key plot of our data and was borne out in formal statistical models (see below).

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Publications

The Ambiguous Definition of Open Government: Parliamentarians, Journalists and Bloggers Define Open Government In Accordance With Their Interests

George W. Wootten & Simon J. Kiss
Canadian Journal of Political Science

Political Communication

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We present the results of a 2014 survey of Canadian parliamentarians, journalists and bloggers in which respondents were asked to rank competing definitions of open government. Overall, respondents preferred to define open government in terms of access to information and sources. However, controlling for age, ideology and language, we also found that respondents in the different positions ranked definitions of open government differently. Journalists are more likely than any other group to define open government in terms of access to information and sources. In contrast, parliamentarians who were members of a governing party were as likely to choose definitions of open government that emphasized public participation as they were to choose definitions that emphasized access to information. Opposition parliamentarians share more similarities with government parliamentarians than with journalists. These results suggest that key actors in the Canadian policy landscape define open government in ways that are consistent with their institutional interests. We suggest that these results reflect ways in which open government operates more like a buzzword, which helps explain the common pattern whereby opposition parties make promises to be more open and, after taking power, operate in less open ways. Moreover, these results raise questions about the extent to which open government can actually operate as an organizing principle.

@article{woottenAmbiguousDefinitionOpen2019, title = {The {{Ambiguous Definition}} of {{Open Government}}: {{Parliamentarians}}, {{Journalists}} and {{Bloggers Define Open Government In Accordance With Their Interests}}}, author = {George W. Wootten and Simon J. Kiss}, volume = {52}, number = {3}, pages = {479--499}, doi = {10.1017/S0008423918000446}, url = {https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0008423918000446/type/journal_article}, year = {2019}, month = {sep}, note = {Last visited on 02/06/2025} }

Balanced Journalism Amplifies Minority Voices: A Case Study of a Fluoridation Plebiscite

Simon Kiss, Karly Rath & Andrea Perrella
Canadian Journal of Communication

Political Communication

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@article{kissBalancedJournalismAmplifies2018, title = {Balanced {{Journalism Amplifies Minority Voices}}: {{A Case Study}} of a {{Fluoridation Plebiscite}}}, author = {Simon Kiss and Karly Rath and Andrea Perrella}, volume = {43}, number = {4}, doi = {10.22230/cjc.2018v43n4a3355}, year = {2018}, month = {nov} }

Responding to the 'New Public': The Arrival of Strategic Communications and Managed Participation in Alberta

Simon Kiss
Canadian Public Administration

Political Communication

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@article{kissRespondingNewPublic2014, title = {Responding to the '{{New Public}}': {{The Arrival}} of {{Strategic Communications}} and {{Managed Participation}} in {{Alberta}}}, author = {Simon Kiss}, volume = {57}, number = {1}, pages = {26--48}, doi = {10.1111/capa.12053}, year = {2014}, month = {mar} }

References

Kiss, Simon. 2013. “Legislation by Agenda-Setting: Assessing the Media’s Role in the Regulation of Bisphenol A in the U.S. States.” Mass Communication and Society 16 (5): 687–712. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2013.768345.

Kiss, Simon. 2014a. “Responding to the ’New Public’: The Arrival of Strategic Communications and Managed Participation in Alberta.” Canadian Public Administration 57 (1): 26–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/capa.12053.

Kiss, Simon. 2014b. “Where Did All The Baby Bottles Go? Risk Perception, Interest Groups, Media Coverage and Institutional Imperatives in Canada’s Regulation of Bisphenol A.” Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique 47 (4): 741–65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43298446.

Kiss, Simon, Peter Graefe, and Matt Polacko. 2023. “The Education And Income Voting Divides In Canada And Their Consequences For Redistributive Politics.” Electoral Studies 85 (October). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2023.102648.

Kiss, Simon, and Erick Lachapelle. 2019. “Opposition to Carbon Pricing and Right-Wing Populism: Ontario’s 2018 General Election.” Environmental Politics, ahead of print, April 29. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2019.1608659.

Kiss, Simon, Erick Lachapelle, and Eric Montpetit. 2020. “Beyond Region and Ideology: Cultural Theory and Risk Perception in Canada.” Canadian Journal of Political Science / Revue Canadienne de Science Politique 53 (2). https://doi.org/doi:10.1017/S0008423920000177.

Kiss, Simon, Andrea Perrella, and Barry Kay. 2014. “How to Win and Lose an Election: Campaign Dynamics of the 2011 Ontario Election.” Canadian Political Science Review 8 (1). https://doi.org/10.24124/c677/2014497.

Kiss, Simon, Karly Rath, and Andrea Perrella. 2018. “Balanced Journalism Amplifies Minority Voices: A Case Study of a Fluoridation Plebiscite.” Canadian Journal of Communication 43 (4). https://doi.org/10.22230/cjc.2018v43n4a3355.

Lachapelle, Erick, Simon Kiss, and Éric Montpetit. 2018. “Public Perceptions of Hydraulic Fracturing (Fracking) in Canada: Corporate Ownership, Issue Familiarity, and Cultural Bias.” Extractive Industries and Society 5 (4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exis.2018.07.003.

Perrella, Andrea ML, and Simon Kiss. 2015. “Risk Perception, Psychological Heuristics and the Water Fluoridation Controversy.” Canadian Journal of Public Health 106 (4): e197–203. https://doi.org/10.17269/cjph.106.4828.

Perrella, Andrea ML, Simon Kiss, and Barry J. Kay. 2017. “Triple Play: The Ontario 2014 General Election.” Canadian Political Science Review 11 (1): 157–81. http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/cpsr/article/view/1461.

Perrella, Andrea, Simon Kiss, and Barry J. Kay. 2020. “Conservative Populism, or Unpopular Liberalism? Review of the 2018 Ontario Provincial Election.” Canadian Political Science Review 14 (1): 118–46. http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/cpsr/article/view/1790.

Polacko, Matthew, Peter Graefe, and Simon Kiss. 2024. “Subjective Economic Insecurity and Attitudes Toward Immigration and Feminists Among Voters on the Right in Canada.” Social Science Quarterly 105 (2): 281–95. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.13336.

Polacko, Matthew, Peter Graefe, and Simon Kiss. 2025. “Revisiting the Sectoral Cleavage in Canada: Evidence From the Canadian Election Studies.” Canadian Review of Sociology = Revue Canadienne De Sociologie, ahead of print, August 18. https://doi.org/10.1111/cars.70014.

Polacko, Matthew, Peter Graefe, and Simon Kiss. 2026. “The Changing Class Basis of Canadian and Social Democratic Futures.” Perspectives, no. 5 (January). https://perspectivesjournal.ca/changing-class-socdem-future/.

Polacko, Matthew, Simon Kiss, and Peter Graefe. 2022. “The Changing Nature of Class Voting in Canada, 1965–2019.” Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue Canadienne de Science Politique 55 (3): 663–86. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423922000439.

Wootten, George W., and Simon J. Kiss. 2019. “The Ambiguous Definition of Open Government: Parliamentarians, Journalists and Bloggers Define Open Government In Accordance With Their Interests.” Canadian Journal of Political Science 52 (3): 479–99. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423918000446.