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A tale of two videos : media event, moral panic and the Canadian Airborne Regiment

This thesis examines how and why two amateur videos, broadcast across Canada in 1995, contributed to the disbandment of the Canadian Airborne Regiment. A brief history of the Airborne highlights discipline problems that were known to exist before the videos were broadcast. Common assumptions about images, particularly amateur video images, are explored. The concept of the "media event" is used to show how mediation magnified the videos' impact. A detailed examination of the videos and their constructions as news stories demonstrates how narrative frames and the newsmaking process in general shaped what the public saw. A general content analysis of the media coverage surrounding the videos shows how a moral panic developed when Canadian values were threatened. It is argued that the videos and reaction to them shed more light on attitudes Canadians wanted to keep hidden than they did on any secrets the military harboured.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.28242
Date January 1997
CreatorsArmstrong, Martha, 1968-
ContributorsStraw, Will (advisor)
PublisherMcGill University
Source SetsLibrary and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
Formatapplication/pdf
CoverageMaster of Arts (Graduate Communications Program.)
RightsAll items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.
Relationalephsysno: 001610864, proquestno: MQ43829, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest.

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