Beyond the Headlines: Exploring Media Portrayal of Youth Climate Change Activists

Climate change is the biggest global threat to our planet today and youth will bear the brunt of this threat (Currie & Deschênes, 2016). Recently, we have seen youth stand up and become activists for climate. This qualitative study was conducted on media representations of youth climate change activists because of its usefulness for exploring the complexity of youth voices, and how they are ignored. This research focuses closely on Swedish teen activist, Greta Thunberg, currently 18, and Autumn Peltier, 17, a Canadian Indigenous activist and Chief Water Commissioner of the Anishinabek Nation. By employing Foucault’s theory of discourse and power, the sociology of childhood, and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, herein UNCRC), this research provides new insight on our representations of youth activism. Through analysis, there were seven distinct discourses related to the research questions: adults as supporters, active actors, westernized viewpoints, lone and collective activism, media as a gatekeeper/catalyst, hierarchical and power relations, and dismissal of children. Findings showed that to change media’s perceptions of youth activism, we must first challenge the discourse of childhood innocence, while also still holding relative power in a non-authoritarian way. The UNCRC (1989) also needs to be integrated further within schools and policy implementation as even though childhood globally shares the same inherent rights, not all youth activists are being afforded the same opportunities that Swedish teen Greta Thunberg has been given.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A. Child and Youth Studies

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Faculty of Social Sciences

Department dc:contributor.department

Department of Child and Youth Studies

Grantor

Brock University

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Hayes, Grayson

• climate change
• youth activism
• youth climate activists
• media representations of youth

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10464/15377

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:brocku.scholaris.ca:10464/15377