<p>As Canadians, we take pride in our nation's official<br>commitment to fostering diversity. A close look at our media, however,<br>reveals that while they often pay lip service to diversity promotion,<br>they actually play a pivotal role in producing and reproducing the<br>values, structures, and priorities of a predominantly<br>"straight," white, male society. <em>The Media Gaze</em><br>shines a light on the myriad ways that mainstream media -- newscasters,<br>advertisers, filmmakers, and television programmers -- work to appear<br>objective, even as they actively ignore or misrepresent the experiences<br>of those who fall outside their frame of reference.</p><br><br><p>Drawing on a variety of thought-provoking case studies, Fleras<br>explores the implications of the media's framing of women, young<br>men, the elderly, racialized and new Canadians, Aboriginal peoples, the<br>working class and poor, gays and lesbians, and religious minorities. A<br>timely and critically important audit of representational bias in<br>Canada's media industry, <em>The Media Gaze</em> also presents<br>readers with alternative ways of creating, understanding, and analyzing<br>mainstream media.</p><br><p><br>Augie Fleras is a professor of sociology at the University of Waterloo.