Date of Award
10-4-2023
Publication Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Department
Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminology
Keywords
Eco-Marxist;Green Activism;Manufactured Consent;Media Studies;Protest Paradigm;Treadmill of Media
Supervisor
Amy Fitzgerald
Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
In this paper, qualitative Directed Content Analysis is used to elucidate and analyze media rhetoric and legal rhetoric found in prominent news publications reporting on green protests in Canada and the United States. Preliminary theory suggested commodification of the environment encourages the denigration of green dissenters and may aim to lead to negative conceptualizations of the ‘green activist’ in the public consciousness. Further content analysis notions that the political leanings of given news publications may be the strongest predictor of the level of support/opposition to green protest that an article will purvey. And, animal advocacy, youth-led dissent, protest around critical infrastructure, and disruptive-to-civilian protest are suggested to be solid predictors for heightened negativity in coverage. Furthermore, protestors were rarely depicted as threats to peoples’ safety but more often to the established status quo of the treadmill of production.
Recommended Citation
Painter, Alex Jack, "Painting the ‘Essential’ Green Activist: Critical Interrogations of Responses to Environmental Activism" (2023). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 9216.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/etd/9216