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Nationhood by Design? the Discursive Construction of a “New” New Zealand in the Flag Consideration Project

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Nationhood by Design? the Discursive Construction of a “New” New Zealand in the Flag Consideration Project Nationhood by Design? The Discursive Construction of a “New” New Zealand in the Flag Consideration Project Taylor Annabell MCS 2016 i Nationhood by Design? The Discursive Construction of a “New” New Zealand in the Flag Consideration Project A thesis submitted to Auckland University of Technology in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Communication Studies (MCS) Taylor Annabell 2016 School of Communication Studies Faculty of Design & Creative Technologies ii Table of Contents List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. iv Attestation of Authorship ............................................................................................................ v Acknowledgments ....................................................................................................................... vi Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... vii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Purpose of the research ...................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Overview of the Flag Consideration Project .................................................................... 1 1.3 Justification for the research ............................................................................................. 2 1.4 Background to New Zealand’s national flags .................................................................. 4 1.5 Changing the New Zealand flag ........................................................................................ 7 1.6 Research question ............................................................................................................... 8 1.7 Organisation of the thesis .................................................................................................. 8 Chapter 2: Literature Review ................................................................................................... 10 2.1 Democratic society & the public sphere ......................................................................... 10 2.2 Identification with the nation .......................................................................................... 13 2.3 New Zealand’s national identity ..................................................................................... 15 2.4 National symbols ............................................................................................................... 19 2.5 National flags .................................................................................................................... 21 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 25 Chapter 3: Methodology & Method ......................................................................................... 27 3.1 Research paradigm ........................................................................................................... 27 3.2 Discourse analysis ............................................................................................................. 28 3.3 Critical discourse analysis ............................................................................................... 29 3.4 Fairclough’s (1992) method of critical discourse analysis ............................................ 31 3.5 Texts under examination ................................................................................................. 33 3.6 Method ............................................................................................................................... 34 Chapter 4: Social & Discursive Practice .................................................................................. 36 4.1 Orders of discourse .......................................................................................................... 36 4.2 Hegemony & ideology ...................................................................................................... 37 4.3 Production of texts ............................................................................................................ 39 4.4 Distribution & consumption of texts .............................................................................. 43 4.5 New lexical items of “Flag Consideration Project” & “Panel” .................................... 44 Chapter 5: Analysis of 5 Alternatives ...................................................................................... 47 ii 5.1 Construction of the Panel as authoritative ..................................................................... 47 5.2 Construction of New Zealand’s national identity .......................................................... 49 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 6: Analysis of Our nation. Your choice. .................................................................... 65 6.1 Framing of the Flag Consideration Project ................................................................... 65 6.2 Construction of New Zealand’s national identity in the flag descriptions .................. 69 6.3 Construction of New Zealand’s national identity in the “opinions” ............................ 74 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 80 Chapter 7: Discussion ................................................................................................................ 81 7.1 Power dynamics ................................................................................................................ 82 7.2 Construction of New Zealand as inclusive & multicultural ......................................... 83 7.3 Construction of New Zealand as independent from Britain ........................................ 85 7.4 Construction of New Zealand as a national brand in the global context .................... 86 7.5 Implications of the constructions of national identity for the Flag Consideration Project ...................................................................................................................................... 88 7.6 Future Research ............................................................................................................... 89 References ................................................................................................................................... 91 Appendix A: Flag Consideration Project timeline ................................................................ 106 Appendix B: 5 Alternatives ..................................................................................................... 108 Appendix C: Our nation. Your choice. .................................................................................. 113 iii List of Figures Chapter 3 Figure 3.1: Fairclough’s (1992) three-dimensional approach to critical discourse analysis iv Attestation of Authorship I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person (except where explicitly defined in the acknowledgements), nor material which to a substantial extent has been submitted for the award of any other degree or diploma of a university or other institution of higher learning. Taylor Annabell 2016 v Acknowledgments I would like to thank my primary supervisor Dr Angelique Nairn for all of her support, advice and encouragement. I am so appreciative of your commitment and dedication to all that you do, and have learned so much from this experience. Thank you for the insight and challenge you brought to my work, and for always asking me “why is this significant?” I would have never have thought I would embark on a project like this and am glad that I got to go on this journey with you. To my secondary supervisor Dr Frances Nelson, thank you for also encouraging me to pursue postgraduate study and for generously offering your knowledge and advice to me during this process. It has been invaluable to be able to talk ideas through with you, and to hear your perspective. I would also like to thank my mum, dad and sister, Kendra, for their support throughout my university life and particularly during thesis writing. Thank you for all of your encouragement and belief in me, and for reading and listening to things that you may not have understood. Finally, I wish to thank the people who I do life with. To the other level 10 students, being surrounded by other people also reading, researching and writing added to the experience and I loved being part of a community. To Ximena, I am so pumped that we met and got to do this together. Thank for getting excited over the small things that I discovered, and for eating lunch with me. To my gang of friends who have offered me so much love and support throughout this process, thank you for putting things into perspective, asking about my progress and making my life so much fun. I feel incredibly blessed that I could engage in learning and research for an extended period of time, and that I was so supported throughout. vi
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