Newcomers and old-timers: The cultural production of "Canada" and "Canadians" in an audio-visual text

This paper examines the cultural production of "Canada" and "Canadians" in "The Newcomers", a 1953 film produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Using a form of discourse analysis that sees talk as social interaction and identity as socially and locally constructed, this study illuminates how "Canada" and "Canadians" are talked into being in a film ostensibly about immigration and immigrants. While illustrating the moment-to-moment construction of these social identities in this specific context, this study also illustrates how ethnomethodological tools could be used to critically analyze the production of ideologies and identities in audio-visual media. Specific attention is paid to the marginalization of Aboriginal peoples in this governmental text. (Contains 3 footnotes.)