La couverture de presse et ses fonctions légitimantes

The author examines the legitimating function of press coverage by means of a specific case study of political violence, the October Crisis in 1970. He maintains that dissident actors who resort to violence to achieve their political goals are generally treated by the authorities as common criminals. This criminal justice model is reproduced and reinforced in the press by selective focus on specific, narrow topics at the expense of political analysis. He notes that these topics include the victims, the threat of future attacks, police activity, and the declarations of those in authority. However, the author points out that in the October Crisis of 1970, this process was temporarily disrupted and a transient symmetry was achieved whereby the point of view of the dissident actors (the F.L.Q) and their supporters received as much attention as the official perspective of the authorities. Then, with the invocation of the War Measures Act on October 16, 1970, this symmetry was destroyed and press coverage once again returned to an almost exclusive focus on official definitions of the situation. The author suggests that this pattern of press coverage reflects a transient disruption in the legitimating function of the media whereby, in normal times, the reporting of “news” can reproduce and reinforce official views of dissident actors who use violence for political ends. In studying the news coverage of the October Crisis, the author examines the reporting in the Montreal Star, The Gazette, La Presse, Le Devoir, Le Journal de Montréal, Montréal-Matin, and Le Soleil.

Criminologie

Vol. 20

no. 1

35-57

1987

fr