A cultural studies approach to semantic instability: The case

of news translation

Kyle Conway1
University of North Dakota (USA)

This article explores news translation and the semantic instability of politi-
cally charged words and their translations. Such pairs are linked in a pa-
radoxical relationship of dependence (one is a translation of the other) and
independence (they have evolved and continue to evolve within different
conceptual horizons). This paper describes a methodology for addressing
this phenomenon by considering such pairs as examples of essentially
contested concepts (Gallie 1956). This methodology derives from a circuit
model of culture, and it provides translation studies scholars with tools to
describe the dynamic, historically conditioned relationships linking politi-
cally charged words, their translations, and their contested, frequently
contradictory meanings.

1. Introduction: news translation

As the speed of global communication increases, so does academic interest

in news translation. In our multi-lingual, multi-cultural world, writes
Susan Bassnett,

information flows through, around, and across language boundaries,

and the speed of the flows means that obstacles to communication
have to be erased as quickly and smoothly as possible. The processes
of global news transfer are extremely complex, and yet the end-
product must be available quickly, efficiently and, insofar as anyone
can judge, accurately. (2005: 105)

This recent interest builds on a relatively sparse literature made up of ar-

ticles published sporadically since the 1970s. They fall into three main
groups, the first of which includes articles focusing on international news
flow, especially as it is facilitated by international news agencies (e.g. Lee-
Reoma 1978; Wilke & Rosenberger 1994). The second group, which in-
cludes articles by academics and journalists alike, examines the journalists
institutional role in collecting and writing news about people belonging to
different cultures, nations, or linguistic groups (e.g. Chu 1984; Goldscheid-
er 2004). The third (and smallest) group of articles compares original texts
and their translations (e.g. Abdel-Hafiz 2002; see Bassnett 2005 and Con-
way & Bassnett 2006 for recent examples of all three types).
30 Kyle Conway

While we should not underestimate the value of past research, these

studies all share a common shortcoming: they all focus on the journalist-as-
translator (the two roles are often filled by the same person) as the crucial
actor in the processes of meaning-making. Journalists negotiate relation-
ships in foreign cultures, finding fixers who help them meet and interview
local people. They act as gatekeepers, deciding what to include and what to
omit. They take translated versions of texts such as official speeches, in-
terviews, witnesses accounts of facts and use them as raw material for
the construction of news stories (Orengo 2005: 173). They are the arbiters,
past research tells us, of what foreign news is made available to readers,
listeners, and viewers.
This focus on the journalist, however, obscures the role played by
other important actors including those whose speech journalists cite in
attributing meaning to words and events. What is the role of speech writers,
to name one example, in shaping the meanings of key politically charged
terms, for instance war and terror in George Bushs speeches imme-
diately following the attacks of September 11, 2001 (Montgomery 2006)?
What are the roles of public officials, academic experts, and people-on-the-
street? What happens when such terms are translated and reported in a cul-
tural context where they bear a different semantic charge?
Such words and their translations are in fact linked in a paradoxical
relationship of dependence and independence: dependence, first, because
one is a translation of the other (or, more accurately in some cases, they are
translations of each other); and independence, second, because both the
word and its translation have evolved within different conceptual horizons.
More important, they continue to evolve as journalists and political actors
engage in a larger ideological struggle to give them meaning (Conway
2005). Drawing examples from English- and French-language coverage by
the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation of the Meech Lake constitutional
accord in 1990, this article describes a methodology for addressing this
phenomenon of relative semantic instability by considering such pairs as
examples of essentially contested concepts (Gallie 1956). This methodol-
ogy, in contrast to that of past research, shifts focus away from the journal-
ist to the relation of the journalist to the larger social and industrial system.
It derives from a cultural studies circuit model of culture, and it provides
translation studies scholars with tools to describe the dynamic, historically
conditioned relationships linking politically charged words, their transla-
tions, and their contested, frequently contradictory meanings.

2. A more dynamic conception of semantics

Past research on news translation has treated meaning as one consideration

among others that figure in a journalists decision-making process. Stella
Sorby (2006) asks, for instance, how journalists working between Chinese
and English account for the approval or disapproval implied by many Chi-
A cultural studies approach to semantic instability 31

nese words when English words tend more toward neutrality. What this
research has neglected, however, is the historical dimension of meaning
how words come to evoke specific associations for different speakers and
listeners.
Meaning here, to be clear, refers to more than mere denotation (see
Hall 1980: 132133). Instead, it includes the broad, contested set of conno-
tations associated with a word. What a speaker seeks to evoke and what is
evoked for a listener may not be the same thing, at which point a certain
politics enters the equation: what happens when a word evokes different
associations for different people? Whose associations win out when two
people or groups of people disagree about what a word means, that is, what
it connotes?
Examining this politics involves examining a word and its translation
in all of their historical dimensions. As mentioned above, two tools are
especially useful in this task: W.B. Gallies (1956) notion of essentially
contested concepts, which provides a vocabulary for describing the com-
plex set of associations (and the tensions between them) evoked by a word,
and the circuit model of culture, developed by cultural studies scholars (e.g.
Hall 1980; DAcci 2004) as a means to describe the interactions between
competing forces shaping a text, a cultural artifact, or in this case, a word.

2.1. Essentially contested concepts

In a paper he delivered to the Aristotelian Society in 1956, W.B. Gallie

(1956: 121122) observed that there existed a class of concepts which,
when evoked, were liable to be contested because of an evident disagree-
ment as to and the consequent need for philosophical elucidation of
[their] proper general use [...]. He went on to argue, however, that for cer-
tain concepts, the very idea that there should be a proper general use was
misleading:

We find groups of people disagreeing about the proper use of [such]

concepts, e.g. of art, of democracy, of the Christian tradition. When
we examine the different uses of these terms and the characteristic
arguments in which they figure we soon see that there is no one
clearly definable general use of any of them which can be set up as
the correct or standard use. Different uses of the term work of art or
democracy or Christian doctrine subserve different though of
course not altogether unrelated functions for different schools or
movements of artists and critics, for different political groups and
parties, for different religious communities and sects.

Gallie (1956: 125, 131) identified seven traits that characterized concepts
such as these, which he described as essentially contested: 1) they were
evaluative or, in his words, appraisive, and 2) the achievement they de-
scribed was internally complex, 3) requiring an explanation that referred to
32 Kyle Conway

the respective contributions of its various parts or features. 4) The under-

standing of the achievement could be modified as circumstances changed 5)
because everyone using the concept recognized its contested nature. Final-
ly, 6) such concepts referred back to an original exemplar, 7) the under-
standing of which also developed as people argued about it.
One of Gallies (1956: 141) stated goals was to shift philosophers
(and linguists) attention away from a conception of meaning informed by
the assumptions of classical systems of logic to one informed by hermeneu-
tics or at least historical investigation: At any given stage in the history of
the continued uses of any essentially contested concept, it will no doubt be
necessary to call upon psychological or sociological history or the known
historical facts of a persons or groups background, to explain their present
preferences and adherences. This shift has important implications for ques-
tions of cross-cultural communication, and by extension translation, as
William Connolly (1974: 38) points out: When we see the extent to which
shared concepts and beliefs enter into our emotional states and actions, it is
immediately clear that other societies could populate the world of action
and emotion rather differently than we do.
In other words, a concept might be essentially contested in various
cultural and linguistic contexts, but contested differently, with groups in
each context placing different value on the concepts constituent parts. This
situation is further complicated when we consider the relationship of such
concepts to language: the associations evoked by the word that names a
concept in one language are unlikely to map directly onto the associations
evoked by that words translation in another. As Christina Schffner (2004:
121) has demonstrated, differences between languages become especially
acute in news translation about politics, when journalists or the people they
cite make strategic use of political concepts, or keywords, for achieving
specific political aims.
Thus Gallies conceptual tool raises a larger methodological ques-
tion, namely how to identify and describe the forces that shape the interpre-
tations and consequent uses made of essentially contested concepts at a
given historical moment.

2.2. Circuit model of culture

Cultural studies scholars, beginning with those working at the Centre for
Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, England, have proposed
various circuit models of culture for dealing with questions such as this.
Stuart Hall (1980: 128) was the author of the first (and best known) model,
the encoding/decoding model, which borrowed the idea from Marxs
Grundrisse that commodity production (in particular, production of televi-
sion programming) could be studied as a continuous circuit production-
distribution-production [that is] sustained through a passage of forms.
Several scholars have reworked Halls model, most recently Julie DAcci
(2004), who locates cultural studies object of analysis in the articulation of
A cultural studies approach to semantic instability 33

four discursive sites centered around 1) a cultural artifact, 2) its production,

3) its reception, and 4) the relevant socio-historical context.
Concern for context is not new, of course. Schffner (2004: 137), for
instance, observes that translations (as target texts) reveal the impact of
discursive, social, and ideological conventions, norms and constraints. By
linking translations (as products) to their social contexts, causes and effects
of translations can be discovered [...]. The circuit model goes a step fur-
ther, however, by directing researchers attention to the dialectical nature of
the relationship of the translator or journalist to the larger social context:
translators and journalists, through the texts they produce, have an impact
on the very context that shapes their texts in the first place. Hence the cir-
cuit. DAcci (2004: 433) makes this point when she states, first, that her
four sites represent points of convergence of economic, cultural, social,
and subjective discourses, and second, that applying the circuit model
means describing those discourses in conjunction with the ways the four
sites are articulated or linked.
To apply DAccis model to words that evoke essentially contested
concepts in news and news translation, then, the first step is to identify
these four sites:

Artifact: the word or words in question as they are spoken by politi-

cal figures, experts, people-on-the-street, etc., and incorporated into
news stories
Production: the work performed by translators and journalists, influ-
enced by their social, institutional, and political roles, as well as by
their sense of professional norms, etc.
Reception: the consumption and interpretation of stories by readers,
listeners, and viewers, as influenced by their political, cultural, or
other beliefs
Socio-historical context: the network of other events or issues per-
ceived by translators, journalists, viewers, politicians, etc., as rele-
vant to the events described by journalists in the stories they present

Figure 1 describes these sites as they relate to coverage of the Meech Lake
Accord by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, discussed in more detail
in section 3 (cf. DAcci 2004: 432).
The second step is to map out the circuit by describing the ways
these sites are linked. The questions linking the rectangles in Figure 1 indi-
cate relevant concerns. For instance, how do journalists roles within a
news organization, shaped by their relationships to their editors, to the
owners of the organization for which they work, and so on, affect how they
incorporate key politically charged words into their stories? How do news
consumers belief systems influence their interpretations of those words in
the stories they see, read, or hear? How do news consumers interpretations
in turn, through feedback mechanisms such as television ratings and public
opinion polls, influence journalists in their work?2
34 Kyle Conway

artifact: word as
incorporated How do view-
How do into news stories ers political
journalists views affect
institutional their interpreta-
roles shape tion of news
their stories? How does context stories?
affect which pers-
pectives are in-
cluded/excluded?

production: reception: role

institutional, How do of viewers
political role viewer political
of journalists attitudes views, percep-
influence tions
journalists
stories &
vice versa?
How do the How do viewers
politics of identities affect
national identi- their political
ty shape jour- views & vice
nalists institu- versa?
tional roles? socio-historical
context: national
identities & the
constitution

Figure 1: DAccis (2004) circuit model applied to coverage of the

Meech Lake Accord by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Describing these points of articulation helps clarify how politically
charged words, their translations, and the concepts they evoke circulate,
making it possible to account for factors beyond those directly related to the
journalist that contribute to the processes of meaning-making.

3. The Meech Lake Accord

News coverage of the Meech Lake constitutional debates by the English-

and French-language television networks of the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation (the CBC and Radio-Canada, respectively) offers a good illu-
A cultural studies approach to semantic instability 35

stration of the dynamics shaping the circulation of politically charged words

and their translations. The Meech Lake Accord, reached by Canadas feder-
al and provincial leaders in 1987, was designed to create the political condi-
tions necessary for the French-speaking province of Qubec to join the
Canadian constitution. Qubec had refused to ratify the constitution since
1982, when then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau patriated it from London to
Ottawa without first agreeing upon an amendment formula that Qubec
found acceptable. As part of the 1987 agreement, Qubec sought recogni-
tion as a socit distincte or distinct society,3 along with the legal en-
trenchment of various rights related to its ability to veto future amendments,
to appoint judges to the Supreme Court, and to regulate its own immigra-
tion.
Not surprisingly, the terms socit distincte and distinct society
were controversial, especially outside of Qubec, where many people feared
that such recognition would give the province undue special powers (IRPP
1999: 315324). This fear arose largely from the fact that the terms were
not explicitly defined in the Meech Lake Accord. As a result, it was diffi-
cult, if not impossible, to identify a clearly delineated meaning at the deno-
tational level even the terms denotations were actively contested. Hence
the analytical utility of Gallies notion of essentially contested concepts.
The terms socit distincte and distinct society were clearly evaluative,
describing Qubecs place in Canada, with people approving or disapprov-
ing largely as a function of whether they were sympathetic toward Qubec
(trait 1). The qualities they described were complex. Historians such as
Brian ONeal (1995) cite the preliminary report of the Royal Commission
on Bilingualism and Biculturalism in 1965 as the place where the terms as
such first appeared (earlier reports had evoked Qubecs specificity using
other terms). The commission described Qubecs socit di-
stincte/distinct society in largely sociological terms, pointing to the prov-
inces use of the French language, its civil law tradition, and its distinct
educational and economic institutions. As debate about the constitution and
Qubecs place in Canada continued through the 1970s and 80s, the terms
came to resonate also on emotional, legal, and political registers, depending
on the circumstances (Behiels 1989). People participating in the debates
leading up to Meech Lake gave different weight to different aspects, and,
consequently, the way the terms were understood effectively evolved (traits
25). At the same time, people appealed to exemplary (if contradictory)
notions of federalism and sovereignty to make their case, fueling debate
about these concepts as well (traits 67).
The following sections apply DAccis (2004) circuit model frame-
work to coverage of the Meech Lake Accord in its final days. When Cana-
das leaders reached the accord in 1987, they stipulated that it must be rati-
fied by all provincial legislatures within three years. By 1990, Newfound-
land and Manitoba had yet to do so, even as the June 23 deadline ap-
proached. Newfoundland premier Clyde Wells was elected after the 1987
agreement was reached. Unlike his predecessor, he opposed Meech Lake,
36 Kyle Conway

and he chose not to bring it forward for a vote in Newfoundlands legisla-

ture. In Manitoba, Elijah Harper, a Native member of the provincial legisla-
tive assembly, used parliamentary procedures to block a necessary vote
because he felt that the accord marginalized Native concerns. When it failed
to pass these two legislatures, Canadian leaders declared the agreement
dead.
The following analysis describes the circulation of the terms socit
distincte and distinct society on Radio-Canada and the CBC. It highlights
the terms internally complex nature by foregrounding those aspects that
speakers chose to evoke during Meech Lakes final days. Sections 3.1 and
3.2 describe the artifacts themselves: socit distincte, distinct society,
and the meanings they evoked on the flagship nightly news programs of
Radio-Canada (Le Tljournal) and the CBC (The National). Section 3.3
examines points of articulation between discursive sites, in particular the
effect of viewer attitudes (3.3.1 and 3.3.2) and socio-historical context
(3.3.3) on the terms meanings.

3.1. Artifact one: Socit distincte on Le Tljournal

Between June 9, 1990, the day Canadas federal and provincial leaders
reached a last-minute compromise in hopes of ensuring Meech Lakes pas-
sage, and June 25, two days after the deadline to pass it, Le Tljournal and
The National each produced sixty-three stories about the accord. Because
the terms had not been explicitly defined, the difference in meaning be-
tween socit distincte and distinct society as they were used on the two
programs derived from the connotative associations that each evoked. On
the French-language program, speakers sought to evoke associations related
to Qubcois culture: socit distincte described a province with its own
political and social institutions where French was the majority language, the
implication being that rejecting the accord with its socit distincte clause
was tantamount to refusing to recognize Qubec and its rightful place in the
Canadian confederation. By appealing to Qubec nationalism in this way,
speakers inflected the sociological aspects of socit distincte with politi-
cal and emotional overtones. (In contrast, speakers on The National sought
to limit the meaning of distinct society to a clause in the Meech Lake
Accord, rather than Qubcois culture per se, the implication being that it
was possible to reject the accord while still recognizing Qubecs value in
the larger Canadian context.)
Stories about Qubec figured prominently on Le Tljournal. There
were fourteen, a number equaled only by the number of stories about Mani-
toba and Elijah Harper. In its Qubec stories, where the socit distincte
was most frequently discussed, Le Tljournal focused on the provinces
politicians, and as a result, the term socit distincte evoked strongly po-
litical associations, shaped by the maneuvering politicians had to do to
arrive at an agreement. Journalists and the people they interviewed conti-
nually asked what Qubecs politicians had to give up in exchange for
A cultural studies approach to semantic instability 37

Qubecs recognition as a socit distincte: did Premier Robert Bourassa

give up too much?
Coverage of Bourassas interactions with Jacques Parizeau, leader of
the Parti Qubcois (PQ), which acted as official opposition in Qubecs
legislative Assemble nationale, provides a representative example of how
political confrontations combined with emotional appeals to shape the asso-
ciations evoked by socit distincte on Le Tljournal. Night after night,
Parizeau criticized Bourassa for having given up too much. On June 10, for
example, reporter Marthe Blouin paraphrased Parizeau, saying, Selon le
chef du PQ, laccord du Lac Meech est copieusement amend, et la notion
de socit distincte substantiellement dilue par lavis juridique qui est
annex [According to the PQ leader, the Meech Lake Accord has been
copiously amended, and the notion of socit distincte substantially wa-
tered down by the appended legal opinion]. Then Parizeau himself, re-
proaching Bourassa for feeling a stronger connection to Canada than to
Qubec, said, M. Bourassa a lch en dpit de tous les messages quon
pouvait lui passer. Il a lch pour garder son pays [Mr. Bourassa gave up
despite all the messages we could send him. He gave up in order to preserve
his country]. Then, June 11 Bourassa and Parizeau participated in a de-
bate during which Parizeau accused Bourassa of having caved in. June 12
Bourassa was forced yet again to demonstrate that he had not given in; a
group calling itself Les Amis de Meech [Friends of Meech] rose to his de-
fense. Only at the end of the debates did Parizeau relent, reaching his hand
out in a symbolic gesture to a defeated and angry Bourassa on Le Tljour-
nal on June 22, the day it became clear that neither Manitoba nor New-
foundland would hold a vote. His tone after that point was conciliatory, but
apparently only because Bourassa seemed to adopt a position closer to his
own. Meech Lakes defeat, according to a June 24 story about a meeting
between Bourassa and his provincial counterparts, could be seen only as a
repudiation of Qubec and its concerns, whose legitimacy derived from the
provinces status as a socit distincte.

3.2. Artifact two: Distinct society on The National

In contrast to Le Tljournal, The National framed stories about recognition

of Qubec as a distinct society in terms that carefully circumscribed its
meaning. For one thing, reporters for The National de-emphasized the
Qubec political context (and the bitterness that characterized it). For
another, the program featured more stories about politicians from Ottawa, a
total of eleven, than from Qubec, a total of seven.
In concrete terms, this meant that Parizeau did not play as large a
role as on Le Tljournal. The June 11 edition of The National, for instance,
featured a story about Bourassas triumphant return to Qubecs legislature
after reaching the last-minute compromise two days earlier. Reporter Paul
Workman explained, Robert Bourassa received a long and jubilant wel-
come as he returned to the Qubec National Assembly. As he spoke, The
38 Kyle Conway

National showed images of the members of the legislature standing and

applauding. Not that Parizeau was absent, of course. Workman further ex-
plained, Among the few not standing were members of the Parti
Qubcois, who accused the premier of selling out Qubecs best interests.
Parizeau then held up a list of amendments that had been added to the
agreement, but his objections did not shift the focus away from Bourassas
optimism.
The focus on federal politicians also shaped the meaning of distinct
society on The National. In contrast to their Qubec counterparts, federal
politicians explained the rejection of Meech Lake by appealing to national
unity and by insisting that the accords failure did not imply a rejection of
Qubec. The exception was Joe Clark, one of Prime Minister Brian Mul-
roneys cabinet members, who asked of Clyde Wellss decision not to hold
a vote, How can you convince Quebecers that this is not a rejection? Of
course this is a rejection by some Canadians of Qubec it can be seen as
nothing else (June 22). Other than Clark, however, federal politicians fol-
lowed the cue of Mulroney, who reacted to the accords death by saying,
Its a sad day for Canada. This was all about Canada, about the unity of
our country (June 22), a sentiment he echoed in a speech the next day: To
my fellow Quebecers, I want to say how dismayed I am that Qubec has not
at this time been able to join the constitutional family (June 23). Senator
Lowell Murray made the link between this line of reasoning and the dis-
tinct society clause explicit when he proposed that so far as the federal
government is concerned, were going to have to find ways there are ways
many ways outside of the constitutional discussions to respect the dis-
tinctiveness of Qubec in all our policies and programs (June 23). In this
way, most speakers on The National worked to limit the term distinct soci-
ety to the clause itself, rather than applying it to the whole of Qubcois
culture and identity.

3.3. Points of articulation

3.3.1. Viewer attitudes in the context of reception

A large and well established literature has demonstrated that English Cana-
dians and Francophone Quebecers interpretations of Canadian history and
Canadian federalism diverge significantly, especially in the ways they un-
derstand the provinces relationships with each other and with the federal
government in Ottawa. English Canadians typically see all provinces as
equal, while Quebecers typically see Qubec as home to one of two found-
ing peoples (IRPP 1999; Gagnon & Iacovino 2007). Because of these di-
vergent interpretations, viewers of The National did not generally share a
common interpretive framework with viewers of Le Tljournal. During the
final days of the Meech Lake Accord, these different conceptions, amplified
by the strong emotions generated by the highly charged debate, became
manifest in the following ways. In Qubec, feelings of nationalism in-
A cultural studies approach to semantic instability 39

creased, in no small part because of Quebecers perceptions of hostility

from the rest of Canada. According to a May 1990 poll, 65 percent of Que-
becers found the rest of Canada hostile toward their province. A majority
also thought they were better governed by the provincial government in
Qubec City than Ottawa, and, consequently, preferred Qubec politicians
to federal politicians (Bissonnette 1990: 9).
A certain bitterness was apparent among English Canadians, too. The
same poll confirmed, first of all, that most Canadians outside of Qubec (73
percent) viewed themselves as Canadian citizens first, residents of their
province second. More than half felt that the country was more divided than
it had been five years before, and, perhaps not surprisingly, Qubec was the
region with which they felt the least affinity (Bissonnette 1990: 13). Despite
this profound lack of sympathy (Allan Gregg, quoted in Bissonnette
1990: 13), nearly three quarters of Canadians outside of Qubec said that
they did not want the province to separate. While English Canadians
wanted unity, however, they wanted it on their own terms. In a different
poll, 53 percent of English Canadians supported the Meech Lake Accord
when it was described as allowing Qubec to rejoin the constitutional fami-
ly; 56 percent opposed it when it was described as recognizing Qubec as a
distinct society (Blais & Crte 1991: 389).

3.3.2. The impact of viewer attitudes on production

These divergent attitudes begin to explain some of the differences between

the two programs coverage. To explain how audience worldviews and
expectations shape the way journalists report the news, Mohammed el-
Nawawy and Adel Iskandar (2003: 54) have proposed the concept of con-
textual objectivity the necessity of television and media to present sto-
ries in a fashion that is both somewhat impartial yet sensitive to local sensi-
bilities. Such a necessity was apparent in the case of Meech Lake, where
there was a clear congruence between the widespread perception in Qubec
of English Canadian hostility and the recurrent assertion on Le Tljournal
that a rejection of Meech Lake was also a rejection of Qubec. Likewise for
English Canadians rather ambivalent attitude toward Qubec expressed in
their desire for la belle province to remain part of Canada but on Cana-
das terms and The Nationals coverage of the English Canadian political
elite contending that Canada still valued Qubec despite Meech Lakes
failure. In both cases, journalists were arguably taking viewers interpreta-
tions of events into account, even as the stories they produced worked to
reinforce them.

3.3.3. The role played by socio-historical context

An important aspect of context that helps explain these differences has to

do with how news programs achieve balance. According to the Journalistic
Policy guidebook of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (1988: 7),
40 Kyle Conway

programs dealing with matters of public interest on which differing views

are held must supplement the exposition of one point of view with an equit-
able treatment of other relevant points of view. Context plays a crucial role
in shaping journalists judgments about who should be called upon to ex-
press the other relevant points of view. In the case of Meech Lake, who
should respond, for instance, when Robert Bourassa speaks in favor of the
accord Jacques Parizeau, whose disagreement with Bourassa is grounded
in provincial politics, or Clyde Wells, whose disagreement is grounded in
federal politics?
According to Trina McQueen (1990), the CBCs vice president of
news in 1990, the mandate for balance was one that CBC journalists took
very seriously, despite the accusations of bias that followed in the wake of
Meech Lakes demise (see Boswell 1991). The problem faced by English-
language journalists was that the majority of federal and provincial politi-
cians favored the accord, but voters outside of Qubec were increasingly
disenchanted with it. To maintain balance, journalists had to seek out the
accords political detractors; as a result, between January and June 1990,
Clyde Wells appeared on The National and The Journal [the CBCs flag-
ship public affairs program] 69 times, well ahead of the second most inter-
viewed leader, Robert Bourassa, who was on 45 times (McQueen 1990:
A27; see also Alboim 1988).
The effect of political and social context on who responded to whom
was just as strong on Le Tljournal. The person who spoke most between
June 9 and June 25 was Robert Bourassa, who spoke in ten different stories.
In seven of those stories, he was the person whose speech was responded to
(the rest of the time, he was a respondent). The person who responded to
Bourassa the most times was Jacques Parizeau. Likewise, Parizeau was the
person Bourassa responded to the most times. (On The National Bourassa
spoke eight times, and his only respondent was Clyde Wells.) It is not sur-
prising, then, that the meaning of socit distincte was so politically
charged on Le Tljournal: the people whom journalists chose to respond to
the accords biggest proponent in Qubec were his political rivals. The
semantic charge of distinct society on The National was different: the
accords supporters and detractors both had more room to maneuver, and
their sense of national identity was not invested in the recognition of
Qubecs specificity in the same way as Qubecs sense of itself.

4. Conclusion

We could expand our examination to look at other points of articulation

indicated in Figure 1; the influence of the politics of national identity on
journalists and translators approaches to their work, and the resulting
impact on the meanings of socit distincte and distinct society, would
be especially useful to map out. Expanding our scope, as even the limited
analysis in this article suggests, would reveal that while these terms ap-
A cultural studies approach to semantic instability 41

peared to be semantic equivalents (and were treated as such by journalists,

for instance, when they gave voiceover translations of politicians speaking
a language their viewers did not speak), they circulated differently on The
National and Le Tljournal. Journalists were actors in the very same polit-
ical systems about which they were reporting, and as a result, they did not
necessarily have the perspective to recognize and describe the ways the
terms meant different things to different groups. Thus it would not neces-
sarily have been clear to viewers that they meant different things. The end
result was that Canadas English- and French-speakers were talking past
each other as the Meech Lake Accord fell apart. The news services of the
CBC and Radio-Canada were not solely responsible for this failure to
communicate, of course. Rather, their coverage was symptomatic of a larg-
er cultural disconnect between Canadas linguistic communities: as the
circuit model makes clear, their coverage both reacted to and reinforced an
already existing semantic gap between socit distincte and distinct so-
ciety.
We can draw a second conclusion here, too, which relates to the me-
thodology proposed in this paper. It is worth investigating whether this
methodology has applications in other contexts and disciplines. It promises,
for instance, to yield new insight into situations such as those described by
Schffner (2004) where journalists and translators have different levels of
choice between words when translating. Likewise, it should be able to ac-
commodate approaches deriving from political science, history, media stu-
dies, and so on. It should also be able to make use of quantitative approach-
es (e.g. statistical content analysis) as well as qualitative approaches (e.g.
cultural history). In this way, it should be applicable to more than just news
translation, and it stands to shed new light on the historically conditioned
relationships linking semantics, translation, and the circulation of meaning.
42 Kyle Conway

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_____________________________
1 The author would like to thank the Dlgation du Qubec Chicago (Ministre des relations
internationales) and the International Council for Canadian Studies for the funds they provided
that made this research possible. He would also like to thank participants at the TransCanada Two
conference (Guelph, Ontario, October 14, 2007) and the Association for Canadian Studies in the
United States biennial conference (Toronto, Ontario, November 15, 2007) for their feedback on
earlier versions of this paper. Finally, he would like to thank the journals two anonymous re-
viewers for their clear-sighted recommendations.
2 With more space, we could expand the scope of the analysis sketched out here in at least two
ways. First, we could look at other factors influencing the meaning of specific terms as they cir-
culate in news discourse. For instance, during the Meech Lake debates described in section 3,
politicians were also news consumers, as were journalists themselves. Politicians frequently made
statements in direct response to coverage of the Meech Lake debates (see Taras 1991). Evidence
also suggests that journalists shaped their stories in reaction to what they were seeing or hearing
from other news organizations. Second, we could explore the implications of a factor that further
complicates the analysis of politically charged words and their translations. Clearly, the members
of such pairs circulate as artifacts within their own respective linguistic contexts. We could,
therefore, apply the circuit model schema described here twice, once for a word, once for its
translation. However, the journalists act of translation brings these contexts into contact. As a
result, the distinction between these two applications becomes blurred, requiring us to consider
how the passage from one context to the other alters the circulation of such words within their
own respective linguistic worlds.
3 The equivalence of distinct society and socit distincte was sanctioned by the terms use in
the English and French versions of the Meech Lake Accord. Because they were the official terms,
journalists were constrained in their lexical choice when translating them for viewers, listeners, or
readers (cf. Schffner 2004: 121124). Despite their sanctioned equivalence, however, they still
evoked different associations in English and in French. It is in cases like this, where the journal-
ists lexical choice is limited, that the circuit model, with its focus on the relation of the journalist
to the larger social and political context, yields insight that would be missed by methodologies
with a narrower focus on journalists and the choices they make.