Mainstream and marginal newspaper coverage of the 1995 Quebec referendum: An inquiry into the functioning of the Canadian public sphere

This article employs Habermas's concept of the public sphere in examining t he relationship between ethnic and mainstream Toronto newspapers. In partic ular, the study analyses editorials in the year leading up to the 1995 Queb ec referendum on sovereignty, and draws upon interviews with the newspaper editors in explaining the patterns of coverage. During the specified time p eriod, all but one newspaper was anti-separatist. Unlike the mainstream pap ers, however, the ethnic presses stressed issues of cultural survival. The editors' approaches to the sovereignty question suggests that there is neit her a single unified public sphere nor multiple discrete publics. Instead, there are multiple overlapping public spheres-embedded in particular socio- economic historical moments-that complement one another.