University of Cincinnati

U UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI Date: I, , hereby submit this original work as part of the requirements for the degree of: in It is entitled: Student Signature: This work and its defense approved by: Committee Chair: Approval of the electronic document: I have reviewed the Thesis/Dissertation in its final electronic format and certify that it is an accurate copy of the document reviewed and approved by the committee. Committee Chair signature: From prophecy to advocacy: A rhetorical analysis of Al Gore’s enactment of climate crisis management Kathleen P. Hunt B.A. Media Studies, UNCG 2007 Submitted to the Department of Communication in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication May 14, 2009 Committee: Advisor: Dr. Stephen Depoe First Reader: Dr. Suzanne Boys Second Reader: Dr. William Jennings Abstract The purpose of this study is to engage in a “rich…robust explanation of the communication practices that constitute, sustain, and transform environmental crises” (Schwarze, 2007, p. 92). In undertaking this task, I propose an analogy comparing Al Gore, an environmental activist, to a crisis manager in an organization. The focus of this study will be the ways in which Gore creates a sense of urgency while also mobilizing his audience to action. Combining the application of an organizational communication perspective, enacted sensemaking, with rhetorical analysis, this study seeks to build climate crisis communication theory. Traditional crisis management literature tends to limit analysis to the strategies used by managers to re-actively frame an organizational crisis. Al Gore represents a unique case study because rather than deemphasizing the crisis, Gore pro-actively constructs climate crisis through his public discourse. In this way, Gore enacts climate crisis management. Thus, this study represents an alternate application of traditional crisis management literature through the examination of the rhetorical techniques by which Gore continuously re-constitutes global climate crisis. Borrowing the crisis management terminology from crisis communication literature, I posit that Al Gore can be viewed as an activist crisis manager. Using Weick’s (1988) theory of enacted sensemaking as the primary theoretical lens, Gore’s 2006 documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, his 2007 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, and selected pages from the We Campaign website are analyzed as a sequence of public address, framing the crisis situation over time, while also constructing Gore’s crisis manager persona as well as the persona of his audience. iii iv Acknowledgments I am eternally grateful to my advisor, Dr. Stephen Depoe, for his constant help and encouragement not only during the process of writing this thesis but through my entire graduate experience. Dr. Depoe told me once that I had the potential to be a scholar, a title I never considered myself worthy of holding. This project is my effort to live up to that potential. Despite a barrage of emails, unannounced office drop-ins (on top of regularly scheduled weekly meetings), manuscript and class project ideas, and Ph. D. program advice, Dr. Depoe has been there every step of the way. In him I have found a life-long mentor and friend. I thank Dr. Boys for her invitation into a new field of research. Without her guidance I could not have completed this project. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their love and support through this process. Their constant re-telling of Al Gore jokes kept total exhaustion at bay while boosting my academic confidence. I am especially grateful for my love, Ben, whose patience knows no bounds. v Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………ii Acknowledgements……………………………………………………………………………..v Contents………………………………………………………………………………………..vi Chapter I: The Rhetoric of Al Gore: Contextual & Theoretical Perspective…...………………1 Purpose………………………………………………………………………………….5 Literature Review……………………………………………………………………….6 Crisis Communication and Crisis Management………………………………...8 Crisis as Process………………………………………………………………..11 Enacted Sensemaking…………………………………………………………..14 The Crisis Manager and Interpretation…………………………………………19 Crisis Perception and Naming………………………………………………….21 Environmental Communication as a Discipline of Crisis………………………24 Organizational/Rhetorical Approaches to Crisis Communication……………...27 Environmental/Rhetorical Approaches to Crisis Communication……………...31 Design of Study…….……………………………………………………………………37 Texts……………………………………………………………………………..37 Critical Method……………………………………………………………….....38 Research Questions…………………………………………………………...…40 Limitations……………………………………………………………………………….41 Organization of Thesis…………………………………………………………………...42 Chapter II: The Goracle: Apocalyptic Rhetoric in An Inconvenient Truth………………………45 Context…………………………………………………………………………………...45 vi Persona: Gore as Prophet………………………………………………………………..48 Sensemaking through Apocalyptic Topoi……………………………………………….57 Second Persona: Believers & Detractors……………………..…………………………71 Synthesis………………………………………………………………………………...74 Extension Text: The Climate Project Website…………………………………………..77 Chapter III: Declaring War on Global Warming: Al Gore’s Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech………………………………………………………………………78 Context…………………………………………………………………………………..78 Persona: Gore as Preacher……………………………………………………………….82 Sensemaking through Analogy…………………………………………………………..89 Second Persona: Penitent Sinners………………………………………………………101 Synthesis………………………………………………………………………………..105 Extension Text: Address to the 2008 U.N. Climate Conference……………………….110 Chapter IV: We Can Solve the Climate Crisis: Al Gore’s We Campaign website………………………………………………………………………………….114 Context…………………………………………………………………………………114 Persona: Gore Behind the Scenes………………………………………………………117 Sensemaking through Perpetual Potential……………………………………………...126 Second Persona: “We” & “They”………………………………………………………133 Synthesis………………………………………………………………………………..139 Extension Text: Repower America Initiative…………………………………………...143 Chapter V: From Prophecy to Advocacy: An Analytical Synthesis……………………………147 Research Questions……………………………………………………………………..147 Gore’s Shifting Persona…………….…………………………………………..148 vii Crisis Phases and Sensemaking………………………………………………...154 Construction Second Persona………..…………………………………………165 Contribution to Environmental Communication……………………………………….165 References………………………………………………………………………………………172 viii Chapter I The Rhetoric of Al Gore: Contextual & Theoretical Perspective This chapter introduces my rhetorical analysis of Gore’s enactment of climate crisis management. Gore’s political career and efforts as an environmental activist are presented as the contextual foundation for this analysis. From there, I explicate my purpose for undertaking the task of rhetorical examination of Gore’s public address. Pertinent literature from the fields of crisis management and rhetoric are reviewed. The study’s design, including presentation of texts analyzed, methods for analysis, and research questions, is provided. From here, limitations to my study are presented. Finally, I outline the remainder of this thesis with a brief description of each chapter. Context Al Gore has earned a notable reputation around the world for his enduring work combating global climate change. As a United States Congressman and then Senator, Gore worked to pass environmental legislation that included the Superfund Act of 1980. When Bill Clinton chose Gore to be his running-mate in the 1992 Presidential race, George H.W. Bush called Gore “Ozone Man,” adding that he “is so far out in the environmental extreme we’ll be up to our necks in owls and outta work for every American” (Remnick, 2006, p. 1). Despite this charge of environmental hysteria, Gore has demonstrated his passion and persistence by championing such environmental initiatives as the creation of the Global Climate Change Treaty at the 1992 Rio de Janiero Earth Summit, as well as the designation of the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah in 1996. It was actions like these that led The New York Times to call him “an environmental crusader” (Gibbs & Lyall, 1 2007). Carl Pope (2007), Executive Director of the Sierra Club, described Gore’s persona even more specifically when he commented: “…for years, he has accepted the role of Cassandra, the Greek prophet no one heeded. But unlike Cassandra, he did not sit by to watch fateful tragedy unfold” (salon.com). After the publication of his first book, Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit (1992), Gore received “ridicule from other politicians,” and it is speculated that this book “cost him votes” in his own Presidential election campaign (Hansen, 2006, p. 16). His second book and film of the same title, An Inconvenient Truth (AIT), received much wider exposure. Positive reviews lauded Gore’s effort and activism. Jim Hansen (2006) of the New York Times wrote, “Gore has put together a coherent account of a complex topic that Americans desperately need to understand. The story is scientifically accurate and yet should be understandable to the public, a public that is less and less drawn to science” (newyorktimes.com). The film was described by David Remnick (2006) of The New Yorker as “a brilliantly lucid, often riveting attempt to warn Americans off our hellbent path to global suicide” (newyorker.com). Remnick further extolled Gore as “admirable and acute” for his “moral judgment” throughout his career (newyorker.com).

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