Constructing the Quebec Referendum : : French and English Media Voices / / Getrude J. Robinson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Robinson, Getrude J.,
• MitwirkendeR: Saint-Jean, Armande,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1998
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (272 p.)

The 1980 Quebec referendum was a momentous event that redefined Canada's nationalist ideologies. While the political implications of the referendum have been widely analysed, this is the first sustained study of the role played by the media in shaping and interpreting the referendum campaign. Robinson addresses interrelated issues in public opinion creation during the 1980 campaign. She explores how the ideologies of Quebec and Canadian nationalism were constructed and modified by the separate French and English networks, and how their idiosyncratic visual styles and thematic selections reinforced Montreal viewers' linguistic and political divisions. In addition, Robinson compares French and English media professionals and discovers how their work settings and their perception of their roles had become polarized a decade before through the imposition of the 1970 War Measures Act. The two journalistic groups were affected by its imposition in radically different ways, resulting in much more self-censorship and bland programming on the part of the French media than the English during the 1980 referendum. Finally, Robinson demonstrates how the instant playback capabilities of television, newly developed at the time of the referendum, have affected news discourses and turned electoral coverage into personalized and sensationalized 'tabloid formats.' These formats narrowed citizen's abilities to conceive of alternative political interpretations and actions.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Part I: Referendum Actors and Journalistic Practices -- 1. The Referendum Actors and Issues in Historical Perspective -- 2. Journalistic Ethics and Referendum Coverage in Montreal -- Part II: Constructing the Interpretive Grid: 'Framing• the Referendum as Election -- 3. Television and Electoral Coverage: Changing Rules -- 4. The Referendum on Quebec Television: Broadcast Rules and Content Frames -- Part III: Situating the Narrative: French/English Understandings of Quebec Nationalism -- 5. Press Interpretations: Distilling the White Paper and Beige Paper Versions of 'Nationalism' -- 6. Interpreting the White Paper on Television -- Part IV: Exploring the Argumentation: Rhetorical Processes in Public Opinion Creation -- 7. 'The Day After': Explaining the Referendum Outcome to French- and English-Speaking Montrealers -- 8. Rethinking News, Public Opinion, and Democratic Politics in Quebec and Canada -- APPENDIXES -- Appendix A. Chronology of Events Leading to the Referendum -- APPENDIX B. Visual Content Categories -- Appendix C. The Coding Scheme -- Appendix D. English Vox-Pop Interviews -- Appendix E. French Vox-Pop Interviews -- Bibliography -- Author Index -- Subject Index