Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Painting The ‘Essential’ Green Activist: Critical Interrogations Of Responses To Environmental Activism, Alex Jack Painter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

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 …