Hegemony and the Canadian newspaper industry's portrayal of the Oka crisis
Date
1993
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
The Canadian newspaper industry possesses considerable
freedom over how it reports and portrays news events. The
intention of this thesis is to examine how the Canadian
daily newspaper industry, an industry that professes and
prides itself on being objective and professional, portrays
one such situation, the Oka crisis. Specifically, this
thesis analyzes the ideological function of the newspaper
industry during the Oka crisis when extensive public
relations campaigns were employed by both the government and
the army to prepare and manage their media releases.
The literature suggests that the portrayal of news
events in Canadian newspapers is based on four variables: i)
the editorial nature of a newspaper, ii) the region in which
a newspaper is published in Canada, iii) the corporate
structure of the newspaper, and iv) the type of sources
utilized in a particular article. A thematic analysis of
all articles and editorials within a one week time frame
found in fifteen major daily Canadian newspapers is provided
as well as tests of significance of the four independent
variables. The statistical analysis suggests that three of
the four independent variables the literature suggests are
important, in fact are not significant in the thematic
portrayal of Oka crisis by the Canadian newspaper industry.
Alternatively, this thesis employs the theoretical
concept of hegemony, which proposes that the ruling class is
able to coerce subordinate groups or classes into consenting
to their best interests by suggesting the interests they
promote are in everyone's best interest. The ruling class
then receives mass popular support of their agenda from the
subordinate groups. Hegemony, when successful, is
undetectable. Similarly, in liberal democratic societies,
like Canada, the newspaper industry relies on the concepts
of objectivity and freedom of the press so that ideology
sustaining the political and economic status quo may be
latently published in newspapers without any scepticism by
the reading public.
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Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Sociology
Program
Sociology