Reflexivity or orientation? Collective memories in the
Australian, Canadian and New Zealand national press
BLACK, Jack <http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1595-5083>
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BLACK, Jack (2020). Reflexivity or orientation? Collective memories in the
Australian, Canadian and New Zealand national press. Memory Studies.
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This is an author’s accepted manuscript for ‘Memory Studies’, online first, copyright
SAGE.
Reflexivity or Orientation? Collective memories in the Australian, Canadian and
New Zealand national press
Dr. Jack Black, Academy of Sport and Physical Activity, Faculty of Health and
Wellbeing, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Hall, Collegiate Crescent, Sheffield,
S10 2BP
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Reflexivity or Orientation? Collective memories in the Australian, Canadian and
New Zealand national press
Jack Black, PhD
Academy of Sport and Physical Activity, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK
Abstract
With regard to the notion of ‘national reflexivity’, an important part of Beck’s
cosmopolitan outlook, this article examines how, and, in what ways, collective
memories of empire were reflexively used in Australian, Canadian and New Zealand
national newspaper coverage of the 2012 Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic
Games. In contrast to Beck, it is argued that examples of national reflexivity were
closely tied to the history of the nation-state, with collective memories of the former
British Empire used to debate, critique and appraise ‘the nation’. These memories were
discursively used to ‘orientate’ each nation’s postcolonial emergence, suggesting that
examples of national reflexivity, within the press’ coverage, remained closely tied to the
‘historical fetishes’ enveloped in each nations’ imperial past(s). This implies that the
‘national outlook’ does not objectively overlook, uncritically absorb or reflexively
acknowledge differences with ‘the other’, but instead, negotiates a historically grounded
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and selective appraisal of the past that reveals a contingent and, at times, ambivalent,
interplay with ‘the global’.
Introduction
This article examines how the Australian, Canadian and New Zealand national press
reported on the 2012 Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic Games. As noted by Skey
(2013), ‘the media are crucial in allowing people to access and engage with “otherness”
across different contexts in the process providing “spaces” for new forms of imagination
and, perhaps, solidarity to emerge’ (2013: 237). This is especially apparent during
transnational and international events, such as, the Diamond Jubilee and London Olympic
Games (Black, 2015). In fact, while ‘national’ events provide an important role in
sustaining national identifiers, they can also carry great risk, as often there are multiple
national histories to be told and numerous versions of the nation to be portrayed (Barnes
and Aughey, 2006). When considered in relation to the 2012 Diamond Jubilee and
London Olympic Games, it is apparent that for the former dominions of Australia, Canada
and New Zealand, representations of the ‘past’ required delineating between a past
indebted to the British Empire and a present that maintained, albeit in a far different
arrangement, Commonwealth relations, sporting rivalries and political, economic and
social interactions (Belich, 2001; McIntyre, 2004; Malcolm, 2012).
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Consequently, in this article, attention will be afforded to examining how
collective memories of empire were used by the commonwealth press as a form of
national ‘orientation’.
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That is, with regard to Beck’s (2002; 2005) work on
‘cosmopolitanism’ as well as literature on ‘collective memory’ (Phillips and Reyes, 2011;
Ryan, 2014; Zerubavel, 1985), the notion of ‘national reflexivity’ will be critically
considered in order to explore how collective memories of empire were reflexively used
within Commonwealth press coverage. In accordance with work that has highlighted how
collective memories serve to demarcate ‘the nation’ amidst wider global processes (Bell,
2003; 2006; Levy and Sznader, 2002), how one makes sense of this demarcation for
national groups – whose history is closely entwined with the history of former imperial
empires – can help to elucidate upon the transmission, negotiation and reconstruction of
collective memories (Bell, 2003).
Cosmopolitanism
Studies of globalisation have frequently considered the ways in which global interactions
go beyond the confines of the national context to include transnational processes of
collaboration. Notably, Beck’s (1992; 2002; 2005; 2006; Beck et al., 2003) work
demonstrates an intermediate position in global and national debates. For Beck (1992),
modernity is marked by processes of reflexivity through which the nation is made aware