Towards Deliberative Democracy: Parliamentary Intelligence and the Public Sphere in Upper Canada, 1791-1840

McNairn, Jeffrey L.

doi:10.3138/jcs.33.1.39

“…The enduring cross-cultural utility of Habermas' analytical framework is evident in McNairn's (1998) claim that in early nineteenth century Upper Canada, "the publication of parliamentary debates transformed newspaper readers into participants in the legislative process" (48).…”

Section: News Produces Publicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From social celebration to politics as usual : newspaper coverage of the Legislative opening in Ontario, 1900-2007

Cairns¹

2021

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This dissertation analyzes twentieth century changes in the representation of political authority in Ontario. It does so by conducting narrative analysis and framing analysis of newspaper coverage of the ceremonial Opening of the Legislature. In contrast to standard political science approaches to this key civic ritual, the dissertation builds upon cultural theory that views news as central to the social construction of reality and addresses three research questions: In what ways has the meaning of the legislative opening been represented in mainstream Ontario newspapers? How have mass mediated processes of ritualization changed over time? And what do answers to the first two questions suggest about the development of popular conceptions of political legitimacy in Ontario? Textual analysis demonstrates that social knowledge about the legislative opening has changed significantly between 1900 and 2007. During the first half of the twentieth century, journalists approached and described the Opening of the Legislature as a Social Celebration: a popular festival at Queen's Park that was also a break from routine policy discourse and partisan battle. By contrast, by the 1970s coverage was organized around the Speech from the Throne. Increasingly aggressive journalistic tones and techniques represented the ritual as a performance of rationality--a special iteration of Politics as Usual. Once a celebration of social order centred around Ontario High Society, the legislative opening is now depicted as a debate among competing interests in Ontario society. While remaining critical of the emergent ritual of liberal-pluralism for its part in normalizing systems of inequality, the dissertation argues that changes in newspaper coverage both reflect and reinforce the rise of what Smith calls "electoral democracy", a conception of politics in which extra-parliamentary actors are legitimized as participants in government. At the level of scholarly practice, the study makes an original contribution to recent debates in media anthropology by using longitudinal textual analysis to study the ritualization of civic ritual; and shifts in news coverage are used to advocate further interdisciplinary studies of legislative politics in Canada.

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“…The enduring cross-cultural utility of Habermas' analytical framework is evident in McNairn's (1998) claim that in early nineteenth century Upper Canada, "the publication of parliamentary debates transformed newspaper readers into participants in the legislative process" (48).…”

Section: News Produces Publicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From social celebration to politics as usual : newspaper coverage of the Legislative opening in Ontario, 1900-2007

Cairns¹

2021

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This dissertation analyzes twentieth century changes in the representation of political authority in Ontario. It does so by conducting narrative analysis and framing analysis of newspaper coverage of the ceremonial Opening of the Legislature. In contrast to standard political science approaches to this key civic ritual, the dissertation builds upon cultural theory that views news as central to the social construction of reality and addresses three research questions: In what ways has the meaning of the legislative opening been represented in mainstream Ontario newspapers? How have mass mediated processes of ritualization changed over time? And what do answers to the first two questions suggest about the development of popular conceptions of political legitimacy in Ontario? Textual analysis demonstrates that social knowledge about the legislative opening has changed significantly between 1900 and 2007. During the first half of the twentieth century, journalists approached and described the Opening of the Legislature as a Social Celebration: a popular festival at Queen's Park that was also a break from routine policy discourse and partisan battle. By contrast, by the 1970s coverage was organized around the Speech from the Throne. Increasingly aggressive journalistic tones and techniques represented the ritual as a performance of rationality--a special iteration of Politics as Usual. Once a celebration of social order centred around Ontario High Society, the legislative opening is now depicted as a debate among competing interests in Ontario society. While remaining critical of the emergent ritual of liberal-pluralism for its part in normalizing systems of inequality, the dissertation argues that changes in newspaper coverage both reflect and reinforce the rise of what Smith calls "electoral democracy", a conception of politics in which extra-parliamentary actors are legitimized as participants in government. At the level of scholarly practice, the study makes an original contribution to recent debates in media anthropology by using longitudinal textual analysis to study the ritualization of civic ritual; and shifts in news coverage are used to advocate further interdisciplinary studies of legislative politics in Canada.

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News and Nationality in Canada, 1890-1930

Allen¹

2009

Journal of Canadian Studies

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Adopting the approach that nationality is primarily a cultural phenomenon, this essay analyzes patterns of national news coverage in Canadian newspapers between 1890 and 1930. Based on an examination of 6,800 articles that appeared in 17 newspapers, the essay concludes that national news presented an image of the nation that focussed heavily and consistently on federal politics and government in Ottawa—the “state” part of the nationstate—and on the province of Ontario. The proportion of coverage devoted to Quebec steadily declined after 1900, while the volume of news about Western Canada increased. Beyond this, newspapers in different areas of the country printed a varying mix of national news (as did French- and English-language newspapers in Quebec), so that the image of the nation differed depending on one’s vantage point. Coverage also varied along rural-urban lines, with smaller localities depicted mainly as places where crime and accidents took place. Over all, national news coverage affirmed both unity and equality (in that all citizens shared a focus on Ottawa and Ontario) and, at the same time, hierarchy and difference (in that other parts of Canada received less attention).

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Towards Deliberative Democracy: Parliamentary Intelligence and the Public Sphere in Upper Canada, 1791-1840

Cited by 3 publications

References 26 publications

From social celebration to politics as usual : newspaper coverage of the Legislative opening in Ontario, 1900-2007

From social celebration to politics as usual : newspaper coverage of the Legislative opening in Ontario, 1900-2007

From social celebration to politics as usual : newspaper coverage of the Legislative opening in Ontario, 1900-2007

News and Nationality in Canada, 1890-1930

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