Dr. Sibo Chen

Sibo Chen is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director in the Professional Communication program at Toronto Metropolitan University. A critical communication scholar, he holds a PhD in Communication and Media Studies from Simon Fraser University. His research examines how political polarization is communicated in the public sphere, focusing on three areas: political contention over climate change, online mis/disinformation, and the rise of anti-Asian racism. His interests include Environmental Communication, Risk and Crisis Communication, Social Media, Transcultural Political Economy, and Critical Discourse Analysis. He serves on the Executive Board of the International Environmental Communication Association and the Canadian Communication Association. At the MLC Research Centre, Dr. Chen has been involved in the Telling COVID-19 Stories project.

Selected Books:

Chen, Sibo. Energy Politics and Discourse in Canada: Probing Progressive Extractivism. Routledge, 2023.

Selected Articles and Chapters:
Chen, Sibo. “The Political Economy of Environmental Communication: The Chinese Context.” The Sage Handbook of Promotional Culture and Society, Lee Edwards et al. Eds., Sage, 2025. 

Chen, Sibo. “Far-Right Political Extremism and the Radicalisation of the Anti-Vaccine Movement in Canada.” Communicating COVID-19: Media, Trust and Public Engagement. M. Lewis et al. Eds., 2024.

Chen, Sibo. “Reporting in a Time of Crisis: Progressive Alternative Media's Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada.” Journalism Practices, Vol. 18, No. 6, 2024, pp. 1542-1559.

Chen, Sibo and Zhao, Y. “China’s Ecological Civilization: A Blindspot in Global Environmental Discourse.” Environmental Communication, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2022, pp. 195-208.

Chen, Sibo and Wu, C. “#StopAsianHate: Understanding the Global Rise of Anti-Asian Racism from a Transcultural Communication Perspective.” Journal of Transcultural Communication, Online, 2021. 

Chen, Sibo. “Debating Extractivism: Stakeholder Communications in British Columbia’s Liquefied Natural Gas Controversy.” Sage Open, 2020, Vol. 10, No. 4.

Chen, Sibo. “How to Discredit a Social Movement: Negative Framing of “Idle No More” in Canadian Print Media.” Environmental Communication, Vol. 13, No. 2, 2019, pp. 144-151.

Chen, Sibo. “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, Vol. 11, No. 4, 2018, pp. 385-399.

Chen, Sibo. “Toward Multiple Conceptions of the Human–Nature Relationship: The ‘Human–Nature Unity’ Frame in a Chinese Village.” International Journal of Communication, Vol. 11, 2017, pp. 4481–4498.

Chen, Sibo. “Selling the Environment: Green Marketing Discourse in China’s Automobile Advertising.” Discourse, Context & Media, Vol. 12, 2016, pp. 11-19.