SLIDE 1
Getting Into The Media or Getting Out the Message: Evaluating Mass Mediated Protest Actions As A Tool for Social Movement Framing.
SLIDE 2 Civil Disobedience and Road Blockades For example, one of the key organizers of the Clayoquot blockades was asked the following question during an interview, “What did the group hope to achieve with the blockade?” Her response illustrates the forementioned
Well, blockades are always a last option, its what you do when you’ve tried every possible legal method that’s available to you. ... we have [blockaded] on five occasions .. we are absolutely in support of peaceful non-violent direct action ... Well I suppose [that during] the first four [blockades] what we tried to do was actually [to] stop the logging and we were successful in two places in doing that: on Meares Island and in Sulfur Passage we actually did stop the road building and the logging because [of]
- ur blockade[s]. The others have been largely symbolic, but very
much the focus has been to raise public awareness. The media
- nly listens when it’s a sexy issue. And writing a letter to
Premier Harcourt isn’t newsworthy, but 800 people getting arrested is [emphasis]. And so through the blockades we have been able to raise the profile of Clayoquot Sound to an international, certainly a strong national level.
SLIDE 3 Civil Disobedience and Road Blockades A member of a youth environmental organization offered a similar perspective in providing her views on civil disobedience: My views? Well, ... I have been civilly disobedient before in that I have risked arrest and I think that there are two reasons for that and one, which is very very unfortunate, and that's the sensationalism in the media and that's very often one of the best ways to make sure that you get coverage is to have civil
- disobedience. And then of course the other one, which is more
- n the roads and blockading, is just kind of a last stand, just when
there's no other choice for people and none of the laws existing protect them or the forests and they just feel they have nothing else they can do. And so I definitely support it on an individual level but I don't know if they're the best thing, or the thing that works, blockades I mean, but I can totally understand it because I've grappled with that question myself, whether to blockade or not, so I support them.
SLIDE 4
Research Question and Hypotheses Is protest an effective tactic for environmentalists in their efforts to get messages about conservation into the print media? H1. Environmentalists’ communications about conservation are more likely to appear in non-protest stories than in protest stories. H2. Environmentalists’ communications that appear in protest stories are more likely to be about protest than about conservation.
SLIDE 5
METHODS Sampling Details Coding Details RESULTS
SLIDE 6
CODING TEMPLATE: Article ID# Type of Story: (Protest or Non-Protests): Sentence # 1 Statements about Forest Conservation and related processes and mechanisms. 2 Statements about Environmental Protests (specifically, Demonstrations, Blockades, and other Direct Action). 3 Statements about Other Forms of Environmental Protest (e.g., letter writing, court action, boycotts). 4 Statements about Other Environmentalist Activities (e.g., coalition building, fund rasing, information about the environmental group, etc.). 5 Statements about Other Issues. 2A ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES (E.g., Blockades, Direct Action). 2B LEGAL ACTIVITIES (E.g., Demonstrations at the Legislature).
SLIDE 7 Table 1. Frequency of Environmentalist Communications by Type of News Story. Number
Percentage
Protest Stories 376 68.9 Non-Protest Stories 170 31.1 Total 546 100
SLIDE 8 Table 2. Frequency of Different Types of Environmentalist Communication. Number
Percentage
- f Sentences
- 1. CONSERVATION:
Statements about forest conservation and related processes and mechanisms. 255 46.7
Statements about environmental protests (specifically, demonstrations, blockades and
227 41.6
- 3. OTHER: Statements about
- ther forms of environmental
protests; statements about other environmentalist activities; statements about other issues. 89 16.3 Note: percentages do not sum to 100% because sentences were coded for multiple categories (for categories 1 and 2).
SLIDE 9 Table 3A. Presence of Environmentalist Conservation Statements by Type
Number
Percentage
Protest Stories 125 33.2 Non-Protest Stories 130 76.5 = 87.88, df =1, p. < .001.
2
Table 3B. Presence of Environmentalist Protest Statements by Type of News Story. Number
Percentage
Protest Stories 217 57.7 Non-Protest Stories 10 5.9 = 129.47, df =1, p. < .001.
2
SLIDE 10 Appendix Table 1. Frequency of Different Types of Environmentalist Communication Before Aggregation of Specific Categories. Number
Percentage
- f Sentences
- 1. CONSERVATION:
Statements about forest conservation and related processes and mechanisms. 255 46.7
- 2A. PROTEST 1: ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
(E.g., Blockades, Direct Action). 209 38.3
- 2B. PROTEST 2: LEGAL ACTIVITIES
(E.g., Demonstrations at the Legislature). 18 3.3
- 3A. OTHER 1: Statements about other
forms of environmental protest (e.g., letter writing, court actions, boycotts). 37 6.8
- 3B. OTHER 2: Statements about other
environmentalist activities (e.g., coalition building, fund raising, information about the environmental group, etc.). 29 5.3
- 3C. OTHER 3: Statements about other
issues. 23 4.2
