Kristine Lafontaine

Kristine Lafontaine is a French-Canadian graduate student in the Digital Innovation in Journalism Studies MA program at Concordia University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Communication Studies from the Université de Montréal and is pursuing her master’s part-time while working full-time in Quebec’s television industry.

During the completion of her core courses, she received the Concordia Merit Scholarship, a Graduate Award recognizing academic excellence. Her research focuses on a comparative media analysis of English- and French-language news coverage of Quebec’s 2023 tuition hikes targeting out-of-province and international students at Bishop’s, Concordia, and McGill universities. The goal of this project is to identify the themes that emerge in each linguistic media sphere and examine how they reflect deeper sociopolitical tensions in Quebec surrounding identity, language, and populist political narratives.

Kristine’s broader research interests lie at the intersection of journalism, communications, language, and identity. Deeply interested in Montreal’s bilingual dynamics, she approaches these questions from the perspective of a French-Canadian studying in English, which allows her to navigate both linguistic worlds. In her research, she aspires to contribute to a more inclusive and critically engaged understanding of journalism in a multilingual society.

Thesis subject: Comparative media analysis of English and French-language news coverage of Quebec’s 2023 tuition hikes targeting out-of-province and international students at Bishop, Concordia and McGill.