Clash of Identities: Media, Manipulation, and Politics of the Self

Geoffrey Hayes is an associate professor of history at the University of
Waterloo.

Most of the 16 papers in this collection were presented at the CBC’s
1994 journalism symposium. Political fragmentation and identity was the
theme that brought together such diverse topics as race and gender,
nationalism, Canada and Quebec, multiculturalism, and democracy and the
media. Despite a certain unevenness, there is much of interest here for
journalists and general readers alike.

The selections offer warnings from every direction. From June Callwood
comes the plea that journalism move past preoccupations with color and
gender to address the real issues of

poverty, violence, and child suffering. From Brian Maracle comes the
verdict that the “Euro-

Canadian media” cannot fairly assess Native issues, no matter how
“objective.” Equally provocative assessments come from Joanne St.
Lewis and Judy Rebick. Morton Weinfeld wonders just how well we have
balanced our celebration of ethnic diversity with the urge to be
“politically correct.”

Identity politics take on a different hue when seen through a
nationalist lense. Here Michael Ignatieff maintains that journalists can
help overcome “the narcissm of minor difference” that divides Serb
and Croat. William Pfaff and Alain Finkielkraut provide further warnings
about the racist side of European nationalism and the ways in which the
media portrays it. The book’s section on Canada and Quebec, in which
Reg Whittaker, Ramsay Cook, and Louis Balthazar provide important
postreferendum commentary, reminds Canadians that they are not immune to
the excesses of nationalism.

The work’s final section begins with Lewis Lapham’s lofty critiques
of the American media. Far more interesting are William McGowan’s case
studies of how identity politics have eroded some U.S. newspapers. Liora
Salter argues that journalists contribute to “the politics of
fundamentalism and the politics of dissatisfaction.” In the book’s
concluding essay, Ron Graham maintains that, amid all the confusing and
often competing forms of identity, journalists should persevere and
still try to tell the big story: if only it could be so simple.