Nature Talk in an Appalachian Newspaper

What Environmental Discourse Analysis Reveals about Efforts to Address Exurbanization and Climate Change

Bibliographic Data

ID7800534
AuthorsBrian J Burke (0000-0002-0550-6364, corresponding author), Meredith Welch-Devine (0000-0001-8519-4585), Seth Gustafson (0000-0002-8326-0291)
Year2015
Volume74
Issue2
Pages185-196
Publication date2015-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHuman Organization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-7259 • E-ISSN: 1938-3517
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.17730/0018-7259-74.2.185
OpenAlexW2180740996
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited32

As the people of Southern Appalachia confront the challenges of climate change and exurban development, their foundational beliefs about the environment and human-environment relations will significantly shape the types of individual and collective action that they imagine and pursue. In this paper, we use critical discourse analysis of an influential small-town newspaper to understand how the environment is being represented publicly and consider how these representations might affect local environmental politics and efforts to mitigate or adapt to climate change and exurban sprawl. We find that the environment is generally represented as an amenity to be enjoyed rather than a subject of concern, that environmental degradation, when represented at all, is often discussed in vague or distancing terms, and that human agency is typically presented in individualizing, hyper-local terms rather than in collective, community- or national-scale ones. In conclusion, we suggest that these representational styles are likely very effective for inspiring interest in and connection to local landscapes, but they do not provide a strong basis for collective efforts to understand and address climate change and exurbanization

Climate change · Critical discourse analysis · Discourse analysis · Environmental ethics · Environmental resource management · Linguistics · Media studies · Newspaper · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Ecology · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Environmental Science · Law · Rhetoric and Communication Studies