Images and realities : women's experiences in a Newfoundland and Labrador fishery crisis

Robbins, Nancy (1997) Images and realities : women's experiences in a Newfoundland and Labrador fishery crisis. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

This thesis explores the line of fault (Smith, 1987) between women's experiences in the fishery crisis in Newfoundland and Labrador and the construction of the fishery crisis in the print media in this province. -- An analytical framework based on the work of Dorothy Smith guides the analysis. Smith (1987: 50) argues that a line of fault or a disjuncture between experiences and the forms in which these experiences are socially expressed occurs in society. In this case, the experiences of women in the fishery crisis as expressed in a series of workshops entitled Gathering Our Voices are contrasted with the results of a media analysis of The Evening Telegram coverage of the crisis. This analysis reveals two different stories: women's expressed realities in the fishery crisis and the expression and framing of the fishery crisis in the print media. -- Women are under represented in the print media of Newfoundland and Labrador. Their absence as authorized knowers, reporters, and in news photos show that there is a lack of news stories written from women's point of view. A qualitative analysis of The Evening Telegram also shows that women's issues and concerns are not represented in the coverage of the fishery crisis. Instead, the fishery crisis is framed from a male centered point of view in the print media. -- Women's experiences in the fishery crisis are unique and different from men's as women held different roles in the paid and unpaid sectors of the fishing industry. Women worked as mothers, wives and daughters in the household and as fish plant workers and harvesters in the paid sectors of the fishery. Women are concerned about themselves, their families and their future in the rural fishing communities of Newfoundland and Labrador.

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