https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884917717536 Journalism 1–21 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1464884917717536 journals.sagepub.com/home/jou The many voices of business: Framing the Keystone pipeline in the US and Canadian news Tim Wood New York University, USA Abstract Corporations rarely enter political battles alone. They have long partnered with trade associations to articulate industry views, and more recently have begun routinely creating their own activist organizations to act as allies. Amid this turn toward grassroots corporate organizing, how is the voice – or perhaps voices – of business articulated in the news? Using the case study of coverage of the Keystone bitumen pipeline, I offer a framing analysis of 480 news items from six outlets in the United States and Canada, showing which voices and frames dominate the debate. My data demonstrate that while corporations have a robust voice in news, trade associations participate only sparingly, and corporately funded grassroots campaigns are almost wholly omitted. Furthermore, key silences characterize corporations’ mediated voice, with companies neglecting to comment on issues such as climate change; anti-pipeline activists, meanwhile, maintain their own forms of strategic silence. Proponents and detractors alike promote their ‘owned issues’, offering discourse more akin to a shouting match than a debate. Keywords Comparative research, content analysis, energy, framing, Keystone XL, news, public relation On 9 February 2005, the company TransCanada put out a press release detailing plans to construct a 3000 km bitumen pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta to markets at Wood River and Patoka, Illinois, a project that would later be known as the first phase of the Keystone pipeline system. This seemingly routine missive marked the beginning of what would be a protracted and highly mediatized struggle over Keystone. Especially after TransCanada proposed Keystone XL as an extension to the pipeline in 2008, the project became a Corresponding author: Tim Wood, New York University, 239 Greene St, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10003, USA. Email: tim.wood@nyu.edu 717536JOU 0 0 10.1177/1464884917717536JournalismWood research-article 2017 Original article