Corporate Ventriloquism: Corporate Advocacy, the Coal Industry, and the Appropriation of Voice

Bsumek, Peter K.; Schneider, Jen; Schwarze, Steve; Peeples, Jennifer

doi:10.1057/9781137433749_2

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…We used informant directed interviews (Peterson et al, 1994(Peterson et al, , 2002 to enable informants to share with us their perspectives on whether and how democratic governance operates along the Yellowstone River. Because we wanted to meet our informants in places that were most comfortable for them, we traveled to informants' counties to conduct interviews in a one-onone setting so they could control both the macro and micro aspects of the conversation (Bsumek et al, 2014). The interviews were ∼45 min long.…”

Section: Informant Directed Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We allowed the informants maximum opportunity to fully explain their individual perspectives. To minimize collapsing their voices into predetermined frames for watershed management (Bsumek et al, 2014), we followed our informants' lead so long as they continued talking about governance in the watershed. We audio-recorded the interviews and made detailed field notes immediately after each interview.…”

Section: Informant Directed Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Negotiating the Democratic Paradox: Approaches Drawn From Governance Efforts on Yellowstone River

Horton¹,

Gilbertz²,

Hall³

et al. 2019

Front. Commun.

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We analyze perspectives on watershed governance articulated by community leaders along the Yellowstone River (Montana, U. S. A.). These leaders framed watershed governance as a process of negotiating tensions between individual rights and equality for all, embracing diverse viewpoints while achieving broad policy agreement, and acknowledging the constant presence of change. We conducted informant directed interviews and used the theoretical perspective of Mouffe's democratic paradox to analyze the resulting discourse. Their discourse indicated a belief that negotiating tensions between individual liberty and group sovereignty was simultaneously obligatory and difficult. These civic officials struggled to develop a pluralistic democracy that could legitimize heterogeneous perspectives of watershed residents. Their version of pluralistic democracy offers one model for negotiating the democratic paradox that may be especially useful in environmental conflicts where property and other individual rights vie with egalitarian access to shared resources. Their leadership struggles offer lessons regarding ways to position all citizens who wish to effect change through participation in the democratic process.

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Section: Informant Directed Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Informant Directed Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Negotiating the Democratic Paradox: Approaches Drawn From Governance Efforts on Yellowstone River

Horton¹,

Gilbertz²,

Hall³

et al. 2019

Front. Commun.

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“…This rhetorical sleight-of-hand is possible because fossil fuels are never just fuel sources. They symbolically stand in for conservative culture and identity-for example, many scholars have noted the layers of significance that surround the meaning of "coal" (Scott, 2010;Bsumek et al, 2014;Schneider et al, 2016). "The coal industry seethes with symbolism, " writes journalist Jonathan Thompson (2017):…”

Section: Political Polarizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Energy Covenant: Energy Dominance and the Rhetoric of the Aggrieved

Schneider

Peeples

2018

Front. Commun.

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The Trump Administration has adopted "energy dominance" as its guiding ideology for energy policy, marking a notable shift from decades of "energy security" rhetoric. This paper analyzes how Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, one of the administration's key spokespeople for energy dominance, uses "energy covenant renewal" to frame the importance of energy dominance for the conservative base. Covenant renewal is a modified form of the jeremiad; Zinke uses it to unite conservative identities around energy politics and policies. Energy dominance thus invites those who feel aggrieved under Obama administration regulatory policy and the multicultural identity politics of the left to renew their commitment to fossil fuels, American exceptionalism, and a restored social order and privilege.inTrODUcTiOn On September 29, 2017, Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, was hosted by the conservative organization the Heritage Foundation, where he gave his first major policy address titled: "A Vision for American Energy Dominance. " In this speech, Zinke outlines a vision for how the Department of the Interior (DOI) can aid in reversing decades of "American energy dependence. " The speech received media attention for how Zinke began it-he provided a lengthy defense of his own use of non-commercial flights, relevant because Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price had just been ousted from the Trump Administration for the same action (Adragna, 2017). What received less popular attention, however, and what is especially important about the speech, was its substance: Zinke's explication of the Trump administration's new approach to energy policy, known as "energy dominance. " We focus on that substance in this paper.We examine this speech because it is one of the more complete statements addressing energy policy to have emerged from the often-chaotic messaging apparatus of the first-year Trump administration. It also comes from one of its key spokespeople. Zinke, along with Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and Rick Perry, Secretary of the Department of Energy, are the primary mouthpieces for "energy dominance. " We use rhetorical analysis to demonstrate that energy dominance not only draws on previous, familiar energy and political discourses but also departs from them in ways that have significance for how conservative identity politics are playing out in this political moment. This analysis is therefore in conversation with other types of energy communication work that focuses on how legacy energy systems resist change, consolidate power, and construct identity (see Endres et al., 2016).

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“…Environmental communication scholars have identifi ed four primary modes of appropriation in environmental controversies: lateral appropriation, greenwashing, astroturfi ng, and UNDER PRESSURE 15 aggressive mimicry (Bsumek, Schneider, Schwarze, & Peeples, 2014 ). Of these, the mode of greenwashing has received the most attention.…”

Section: Appropriation In Environmental Discoursementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For each of these tactics, advocates tap networks of signifi cation by appropriating the powerful rhetorical resources of other organizations in order to capture, co-opt, or counter their infl uence or identity (for an extended discussion of appropriation strategies, see Bsumek, Schneider, Schwarze, & Peeples, 2014 ). We maintain that the coal industry in Appalachia uses these techniques of appropriation in ways that contribute to "the crisis of voice" identifi ed by Couldry.…”

Section: Appropriation and Corporate Ventriloquismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Under Pressure

Schneider

Schwarze

Bsumek

et al. 2016

Self Cite

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Global media and communication processes are central to how we know about and make sense of our environment and to the ways in which environmental concerns are generated, elaborated and contested. They are also core to the way information fl ows are managed and manipulated in the interest of political, social, cultural and economic power. While mediation and communication have been central to policy-making and to public and political concern with the environment since its emergence as an issue, it is particularly the most recent decades that have seen a maturing and embedding of what has broadly become known as environmental communication.This series builds on these developments by examining the key roles of media and communication processes in relation to global as well as national/local environmental issues, crises and disasters. Characteristic of the cross-disciplinary nature of environmental communication, the series showcases a broad range of theories, methods and perspectives for the study of media and communication processes regarding the environment. Common to these is the endeavour to describe, analyse, understand and explain the centrality of media and communication processes to public and political action on the environment.More information about this series at

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Corporate Ventriloquism: Corporate Advocacy, the Coal Industry, and the Appropriation of Voice

Cited by 15 publications

References 10 publications

Negotiating the Democratic Paradox: Approaches Drawn From Governance Efforts on Yellowstone River

Negotiating the Democratic Paradox: Approaches Drawn From Governance Efforts on Yellowstone River

The Energy Covenant: Energy Dominance and the Rhetoric of the Aggrieved

Under Pressure

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