ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ‘media tsunami’ hypothesis, which 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 intensity and magnitude over time, manufacturing social crises. The chapter investigates the introduction of a new Charter on secular values by the Parti Québécois (PQ) during the election campaign of 2012. In 2014, the PQ lost the elections. All content on the debate published by thirteen Québec daily newspapers was analysed. The results show that massive and successive waves of media coverage manifested during the eighteen-month period, but also that this tsunami was a politically rather than media fuelled event.
