Predictably the media is looking for sensationalism - I read the transcript and the conversation between the crew could have been on any one of a thousand flights - seemed fairly normal.
The interesting thing is what wasn't mentioned.
They bugged speeds for the approach which they quoted as 14 and 18, so presumably 114kts for Vga and 118kts for Vref which would make sense for a Q400.
Later they mentioned ice on the windscreen, so if they were using the ice protection system properly would have had the "increased ref speed switch" on, and should then have rebugged the speeds at 134 and 138kts, but they failed to do so.
The stick shaker activated as they were letting the speed bleed back toward the bugged speed and took them by surprise. Why they didn't fly a proper recovery is anyones guess.
I would defend the crew, however. It is easy to say this happened because of inexperience, but there are plenty of Q400 pilots who have forgotten the ref speed switch because of distraction. I'll put my hand up and say that I'm one of them, and we got a stick shake intercepting the localiser - it was a few years ago and at the time I had about 11000 hours total and about 2500 PIC in the Q400, and I got distracted while line training a new F/O and forgot to turn it off as we descended out of icing - so not quite the same scenario.
I think however, that their company check list could do with some amendment. In the transcript the F/O reads the descent and approach checklist and makes no mention of ice protection - in the Q400 check list I have in front of me now it is the second item in the descent checks and also in the approach checks - and had they got as far as the landing checks it is the first item there, before the gear - I saw no mention of the anti-ice system being operated at all in the whole transcript, and can't help thinking there were some CRM issues here - they were talking to each other about flying stuff but didn't seem to be talking to each other much about the actual flying they were doing.