A Changing Sense of Place in Canadian Daily Newspapers: 1894-2005 By Carrie Mersereau Buchanan A.B. Bryn Mawr College M.J. Carleton University, School of Journalism and Communication A thesis submitted to The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy School of Journalism and Communication Faculty of Public Affairs Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario December 2009 © Carrie Mersereau Buchanan 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Voire r6f6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-67869-5 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-67869-5 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduce, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Nntemet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. 14-1 Canada ii Abstract In the modern era, changing perceptions of space and place and external intrusions into local space and culture have been theorized as weakening ties between people and the places they live in. Improvements in transportation and communication have enabled this process. Sociologist Anthony Giddens (1990, 1991) describes the phenomenon as "disembedding" and considers it a hallmark of modernity while geographer Doreen Massey (1994) describes an increasing "disruption" of local spaces occurring over time. This dissertation provides empirical evidence to support those theories. It examines the changing "sense of place" from 1894 to 2005 in two Canadian metropolitan daily newspapers: the Toronto Star, independent for most of the period under study, and the Ottawa Citizen, owned by a series of national chains since 1897. The results show a significant decline in local content and the priority it is given in both newspapers over the 112-year study period. Content analysis was used to compare articles from all sections of the newspaper between three time periods: the Victorian (1894-1929), the Professional (1930-1970), and the Corporate (1971-2005). While the quantity and priority of local news declined significantly in both newspapers after 1970, the decline was much sharper in the chain-owned iii newspaper. Furthermore, disappearing local content was replaced almost entirely by national stories in both newspapers, with the chain newspaper displaying a much greater increase in national content. The phenomenon replaced many stories that imparted a local sense of place with ones whose sense of place was national. Three possible reasons for this increase in national content after 1970— which is the study's major finding—are suggested in the conclusion: the threat of Quebec separatism, rising corporate influence on newspaper priorities, and a gradual process of spatialization that appears to favour the national and the global over the local. This study relies heavily on Barnhurst and Nerone's (2001) theories about how the form of news structures its messages, and its results support their finding of increased corporate control of news since 1970. Other theories of representation are also examined in an effort to understand how newspapers create and shape a sense of place. iv Acknowledgements It is not possible to complete a doctoral dissertation without help from many people, from those who first inspired the work to those who came through when times were tough. On the inspirational side, my late mother, Rosemary Squires Mersereau, and mother-in-law, Constance Muscroft Buchanan, receive my highest tribute. Rosemary's love of her native Newfoundland, in particular the place she called Midstream, helped me to understand the profound relationships possible between person and place. Transplanted to Montreal, she and my father created in our garden a haven from life's stresses, a highly productive vegetable garden and a floral display that was a synthesis of art and nature. My mother didn't have a university degree, due to a learning disability that made academic work extremely challenging for her in the days when no one recognized the cause of her slow reading and frequent misspellings. Nevertheless, she was my role model for returning to school in mid-life. She taught me to value scholarship and treasure my own ability to read and write easily, to complete what I started, and to have confidence in my own ideas. Her memory and spirit were with me throughout this process. So were those of my late mother-in-law, whose deep appreciation of the natural world and the importance of a sustainable lifestyle were equally inspirational. Connie's prairie roots were the foundation for her life; to this we attributed her drive to produce enormous quantities of organically grown vegetables, feed and commune V with flocks of birds, and spend as many as possible of her waking hours in the out- of-doors. She introduced me to the writings of Rachel Carson, Wendell Berry, Henry David Thoreau and others who taught us to care for place and planet. To these women who went before me, who never had the chance to go so far in academia, I dedicate this work. Many others contributed in ways large and small. Deepest thanks to Chris Dornan, my supervisor; Catherine McKercher, my mentor, friend and advisor; and to Simon Dalby, Andre Turcotte, Mahmoud Eid, and Ross Eaman, advisors who offered invaluable assistance and support. Additional thanks to Karim Karim, Michele Martin, and Vincent Mosco, whose courses stretched my mind and deepened my understanding, and whose advice helped shape my thinking and my plans. Appreciation to lain Wallace in the Geography department, whose advice and suggested readings helped get me started. And to Connie LaPlante, Elizabeth Dwivedi, Freida Choueri, Carole Crasswell and Michelle Bateman, whose administrative support saved me and supported me, time and again. Libraries were essential to my work, and none less than the Carleton University Library. Sincere thanks to Nancy Peden, Frances Montgomery and Janet Hempstead, who were helpful and supportive beyond the call of duty, always coming through for me when needed. Thanks also to Library and Archives Canada, whose staff helped immeasurably with the arduous process of collecting my sample, and to vi staff at the Ottawa Public Library's Ottawa Room, for helping me to access their microfilm collection of the Citizen. And a special thank-you to the Cleveland Public Library, which I discovered, upon moving to that city two years ago, truly lives up to its mandate as "The People's University." I am grateful to Jim Orban, publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, and Michael Goldbloom, former publisher of the Toronto Star, and the Star's current publisher, John Cruickshank, whose co-operation was readily given and essential to my project. Special thanks to David Eddy at the Citizen and Franca Brunshaw at the Star, who were my primary contacts and most helpful. Thanks also to Marian Robertson, manager of marketing and sales for the Audit Bureau of Circulation in Toronto. The latter three individuals provided extensive data on the two newspapers' circulation areas for all the years in my sample. And thanks to Citizen librarian Liisa Tuominen, whose help was cruicial on a number of occasions. This project could not have happened without the help of my two coders: Marilynn Best and Heather Sword. Theirs were truly major contributions, extending over a period of two years, during which they read and answered detailed questionnaires about every article in every edition of the two newspapers in my sample. I am deeply grateful to both of them for sticking with this project when the work turned out to be much more time-consuming than originally anticipated, and events in my life and theirs made it ever more challenging. Their commitment to the vii project, including their many detailed questions and observations about the coding, helped to ensure a set of consistent, reliable and, hopefully, replicable results. Last but certainly not least, I thank my husband, Rev. George Buchanan, whose unwavering support made it