La couverture médiatique des accommodements raisonnables dans la presse écrite québécoise : Vérification de l’hypothèse du tsunami médiatique

Abstract

From March 2006 to May 2008, the province of Québec engaged in a contentious public debate on diversity and reasonable accommodation practices. This study examines the evolution of press coverage in eleven Québec dailies dedicated to the issue of reasonable accommodation over the intensive twelve-month period during which the concept entered the public agenda. We examine the “media tsunami” hypothesis, an expanded version of the media hype theory developed by Vasterman (2005). The hypothesis posits that the media, in dealing with an emergent social issue in a relatively short period of time, amplify the importance of the issue through successive waves of press coverage that gain in intensity and magnitude over time. In doing so, they can manufacture social “crises.”