Constructing the Nation Every Night: Hegemonic Formations in Today Tonight and A Current Affair

Abstract

Political articulations of identities and the nation occur both through the demands of the commercial current affairs format and the journalistic use of textual elements. The tabloid format engages in processes of politicising divergent cultural identities through the appeal to mass Australia. Indeed, the particular feature of ethnic individuals in content provides a hegemonic formation through which the ‘nation’ can be articulated. This article draws upon the discursive hegemony of Laclau and Mouffe to deliberate how the journalistic use of production elements functions to negotiate both identity and the nation through the sub-genre of sexuality. It uses a text-based analysis to argue that the content structure demonstrates how information can be constructed incongruously across production elements. The journalistic use of textual elements in Channel Seven's Today Tonight and Channel Nine's A Current Affair is analysed to reveal complexities in structuring discourses of the nation and representing identities.