“We’re holding the town’s mirror”: the self-referential discourses of the local newspaper Camden Advertiser during the controversy over a proposed Islamic School
“We’re holding the town’s mirror”: the self-referential discourses of the local newspaper Camden Advertiser during the controversy over a proposed Islamic School

Author(s): Caitlin Parr
Subject(s): Media studies, Civil Society, Islam studies, Theory of Communication, Crowd Psychology: Mass phenomena and political interactions, Sociology of Education, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Local newspapers; media; social issues; news-gathering; Camden Advertiser; Islamic School; public opinion;
Summary/Abstract: Local newspapers are a unique part of the media landscape, tasked with informing the community of events and issues in their immediate area and providing them with the knowledge they need to understand complex social issues. Despite advances in digital technologies, “newspapers remain a primary and vital component of the newsgathering infrastructure” (Clarke, 2014, p. 8). Therefore, the power of local print newspapers to build connections with and influence their communities makes them valuable sources for analysis. This chapter offers a discursive analysis of self-referential discourses utilised by the Camden Advertiser during reports on a controversial Islamic School proposal in Camden, Western Sydney, NSW, Australia. Self-referential is used here to describe the ways in which the Camden Advertiser referenced its own name, its journalists, and reflected on previously published newspaper content during the Islamic school debate.

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