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Anglos with feathers: a content analysis of French and English media coverage in Québec on the Oka crisis of 1990

University of British Columbia

All articles, editorials and letters to the editor written by The Gazette and La Presse during the Oka Crisis of 1990 are measured and compared in order to determine which of the two major newspapers in Quebec was more sympathetic in its coverage of the Oka Crisis. The method used is content analysis, with 1674 pieces written by the two newspapers being analyzed from the seventy-eight day period which has been characterized as the Oka Crisis (July 12 to September 26, 1990). The study will be divided into several parts, as follows: theory and literature review, chronology of events at Oka, methodology, presentation of findings and discussion of the relevance of these findings. In particular, six areas of theory helped lay the foundation for the hypothesis: non- Aboriginal attitudes towards Aboriginal peoples and protest, studies on newspaper coverage of the Oka crisis, studies on differences between French and English media, studies on the FLQ crisis, communications theory and Aboriginal peoples as portrayed by the media. Chapter two describes the history of the Mohawk land claim, divisions within the Mohawk community and a chronology of events at Oka. Chapter three outlines the methodology and explains that content is placed into seven categories: law and order, death of Lemay, native perspective, Mohawk rights and claims, mixed or other, criticism of the S.Q. or provincial government, and criticism of the army or federal government. They are then further classified as either positive, negative or neutral. The findings show that La Presse was less sympathetic than The Gazette towards the Mohawks, and that La Presse emphasized the need for law and order, while The Gazette gave greater attention to the Native perspective. Both newspapers however, tended to have negative front page and editorial coverage. The final chapter discusses the results and points to some possible reasons for the differing coverage: the sovereignty movement in Quebec, the historic relationship between the English and Aboriginal peoples and the French and Aboriginal peoples, and the fact that the Mohawks were English speaking which facilitated reporting for The Gazette. A summary of the literature and the findings is presented at the end of chapters one and four.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-02-16

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/4619

Political Science

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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