Constructing the Quebec Referendum

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 takes an in-depth look at three separate issues. She first pinpoints the ways in which federal and provincial nationalist rhetorics were constructed and adapted in the course of the referendum. In addition, she maps professional and presentational differences between French and English journalists, relating their unique rhetorics to the differential audiences they addressed. And finally, she explores the effects of television's tabloid-style news coverage, showing that recent technology has not only altered representational ground rules for politicians, it has accorded journalists greater interpretive power than ever before.