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Sibo Chen

Sibo Chen

Associate Professor & Graduate Program Director, TMU-York Joint Program in Communication and Culture (MA, PhD)
Memberships/ServicesCo-Vice Chair, Environment, Science & Risk Communication Section, International Association of Media and Communication Research; Business Manager, Canadian Journal of Communication

Biography

Dr. Sibo Chen is a critical communication scholar by training, with areas of interest that include critical AI studies, environmental communication, political economy of communication, and transcultural communication. He is author of Petro-Rhetoric in Canada: Narrating Extractivism (Palgrave McMillan, 2026), Energy Politics and Discourse in Canada: Probing Progressive Extractivism (Routledge, 2023), and over 50 peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Canadian Journal of Communication, Chinese Journal of Communication, Environmental Communication, Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, and Journalism Practice.

LinkedIn (external link) 

TMU Academia (external link) 

  • Critical AI studies
  • Environmental communication
  • Polarization

SSHRC Explore Grant: ““Bridging divides: Toward a unified conceptual framework for analyzing political polarization” (2025-26); SSHRC Insight Grant: “Decoding wildfires: A study on media coverage, conspiracy theories, and public engagement” (2025-28)

SSHRC Partnership Grant (as Co-PI): "The Explanatory Journalism Impact and Uptake (XJO) project" (2023–2027)

SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant: "Monitoring and Assessing Public Narratives concerning Canada–China tensions" (2023–2026)

SSHRC Insight Development Grant: "Probing Asian Experiences during the COVID­19 Pandemic" (2021–2025)

SSHRC Explore Grant: "Storytelling on Canadian Extractivism in an Era of Synergistic Epidemics" (2021–2023)

Selected Publications:

  • Chen, S. (2026). Petro-rhetoric in Canada: Narrating extractivism. Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Chakraborty, C., Chen, S., Li, M., Man, G. C., & Yang, X. A. (eds.) (2026). Anti-Asian Racism during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada. UBC Press.  
  • Chen, S. (2025). The political economy of environmental communication: The Chinese context. In Lee Edwards et al. (eds.), The Sage Handbook of Promotional Culture and Society. Sage.
  • Chen, S. (2024). Reporting in a time of crisis: Progressive alternative media's coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. Journalism Practices, 18(6), 1542-1559.
  • Chen, S. (2023). Energy politics and discourse in Canada: Probing progressive extractivism. Routledge.
  • Chen, S., & Zhao, Y. (2022). China’s ecological civilization: A blindspot in global environmental discourse. Environmental Communication, 16(2), 195-208.
  • Chen, S., & Wu, C. (2021). #StopAsianHate: Understanding the global rise of anti-Asian racism from a transcultural communication perspective. Journal of Transcultural Communication, Online First.
  • Chen, S. (2020). Debating extractivism: Stakeholder communications in British Columbia’s liquefied natural gas controversy. Sage Open, 10(4).
  • Chen, S. (2019). How to discredit a social movement: Negative framing of “Idle No More” in Canadian print media. Environmental Communication, 13(2), 144-151.
  • Chen, S. (2018). Exploring the formation of the “leave-it-to-experts” storyline during the initial outbreak of the 2013 smog hazard in Beijing. Chinese Journal of Communication, 11(4), 385-399.
  • Chen, S. (2017). Toward multiple conceptions of the human–nature relationship: The "human–nature unity" frame in a Chinese village. International Journal of Communication, 11, 4481–4498.
  • Chen, S. (2016). Selling the environment: Green marketing discourse in China's automobile advertising. Discourse, Context & Media, 12, 11-19.