Media construction of Japanese Canadian redress: a case study of the "Globe and Mail's" news discourses

Abstract

This thesis examines how mainstream Canadian media, The Globe and Mail in particular, interpreted and represented Japanese Canadian redress. This study analysed eight articles published in The Globe and Mail from 1984 to 1988 using three­dimensional discourse analysis as proposed by Norman Fairclough (1992). This study attempts to deconstruct the media's construction of the redress negotiations and provide an alternative way of understanding the redress. From the perspective of constructivist structuralism, discourse is theorised as social practice. Discourse is conditioned by social .structure and, at the same time, contributes to transforming the conditions of social reproduction. This study finds that The Globe and Mail endorsed the redress campaign and presented the redress as an improvement in ethnic minority rights. However, it also constructed Japanese Canadians as "racial Others." The study reveals the complexity of the media's role in reproducing and transforming power relations in society.