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Queering the Cable Airwaves: The Evolution of LGBTQ2+ Community Television in Ontario, Canada (1977-2001)

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dc.contributor.advisorMacLennan, Anne
dc.contributor.authorDemus, Axelle
dc.date.accessioned2024-03-18T17:54:06Z
dc.date.available2024-03-18T17:54:06Z
dc.date.issued2024-03-16
dc.date.updated2024-03-16T10:54:02Z
dc.degree.disciplineCommunication & Culture, Joint Program with Toronto Metropolitan University
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractDrawing on archival research, oral history interviews, and close reading, this dissertation develops a history of LGBTQ2+ cable access television programming in the province of Ontario, Canada from 1977 to 2001. In particular, this dissertation traces cable access’s entanglements with local LGBTQ2+ groups and movements, as well as with other forms of media dedicated to amplifying LGBTQ2+ causes in the province. I argue that LGBTQ2+ community television programming was guided by what I conceptualize as queer access mobilization, a process through which queer individuals and groups mobilize to increase access to media and information, as well as access to social, cultural, and/or political networks. In other words, I show that local queer groups and individuals took to the platform with hopes of reaching out to wider constituencies, building solidarity with other groups and individuals at a time when the LGBTQ2+ movement was gaining ground in the province and in Canada as a whole, and communicating information that was not readily available via the mainstream media. I further posit that queer access mobilizations are deeply rooted in an ethics of care and a praxis of connection, as I attend to the relational and affective dimensions of cable access programming. This dissertation, therefore, tells both the story of the LGBTQ2+ movement in Ontario through the lens of cable access television, and the story of the medium of cable access television through the eyes of the LGBTQ2+ movement. It proposes an innovative way of doing media history and queer history, while foregrounding the voices of individuals who were often not included in official histories of LGBTQ2+ activism in the province. It also tells the story of LGBTQ2+ cable access archives, how they came to be, how they can be recovered, and how they can be mobilized in the digital age.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/41867
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectGLBT studies
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subjectCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordsCommunity television
dc.subject.keywordsCable access television
dc.subject.keywordsPublic access television
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian community television
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian history
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian regional history
dc.subject.keywordsCanadian local history
dc.subject.keywordsMedia history
dc.subject.keywordsTelevision history
dc.subject.keywordsLGBT history
dc.subject.keywordsLGBT community media
dc.subject.keywordsLGBT television
dc.subject.keywordsTelevision archives
dc.subject.keywordsLGBT archives
dc.subject.keywordsMedia archives
dc.subject.keywordsActivism
dc.subject.keywordsSocial justice
dc.subject.keywordsFeminist
dc.subject.keywordsQueer
dc.subject.keywordsOntario
dc.subject.keywordsToronto
dc.subject.keywordsOttawa
dc.subject.keywordsThunder Bay
dc.titleQueering the Cable Airwaves: The Evolution of LGBTQ2+ Community Television in Ontario, Canada (1977-2001)
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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