The framing of Greenpeace in the mass media
Date
1992
Authors
Widdowson, Frances
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Abstract
Groups which engage in environmental activism are often faced with a dilemma - that of offering a radical challenge to the existing social order while at the same time trying to be "effective" politically. Since environmental groups usually lack financial resources, they often depend on the mass media to convey their views in order to attract public attention. But while such groups may succeed in attracting media attention, newsgathering routines which have arisen out of a corporate structure often result in media frames which submerge the radicalism of environmental organizations.
In trying to understand how the interaction between the mass media and radical environmental groups both constrains and offers openings for fundamental challenges to the existing system, the case of Greenpeace is examined in the thesis. Greenpeace is an interesting case because it has been successful in attracting prominent and often sympathetic coverage while at the same time advocating a fundamental challenge to the existing economic and social system.
Greenpeace's so-called ability to "manipulate" the media, however, does not necessarily mean that the organization has been able to challenge the engrained assumptions of economic growth and technological progress upon which the existing system is based. Instead, my analysis shows that in early campaigns such as the seal hunt, Greenpeace obtained coverage through its dramatic actions which often resulted in superficial coverage discouraging connections between environmental degradation and its root causes. And although the increasing institutional development of Greenpeace and a heightened environmental awareness in society have created openings for the organization to bring issues like pulp mill pollution "on the agenda", the coverage of these issues is usually framed within a discourse of incremental regulation and "environmentally sensitive" economic growth. Radical messages are also further constrained by Greenpeace's fears of "scaring off" support and industry's skill in coopting environmental concerns to market their various products.
Therefore, as Greenpeace enters into the 1990's it appears that the organization is outgrowing its initial media orientation because of the change of tactics needed to move into the third world and to take on more complex environmental concerns. Greenpeace is reducing its dependence on the media because it wants to activate an environmental revolt and not reinforce the belief that citizens can only be spectators to the political process.
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UN SDG 15: Life on Land