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The Green Web: Evaluating Online News Communities and Their THE GREEN WEB: EVALUATING ONLINE NEWS COMMUNITIES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTALISM By Stian Himberg Roussell A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Social Science: Environment and Community Committee Membership Dr. Anthony Silvaggio, Committee Chair Dr. Nikola Hobbel, Committee Member Dr. John Meyer, Committee Member Dr. Mark Baker, Program Graduate Coordinator July 2019 ABSTRACT THE GREEN WEB: EVALUATING ONLINE NEWS COMMUNITIES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTALISM Stian Himberg Roussell In the past news and media were disseminated through channels that were difficult for consumers to communicate with. Now a new form of news dissemination is taking place on the internet where communication between consumers and producers exists. Crowdsourced social media sites, where users elect and vote on articles and comments to represent a topic, are creating new forms of news dissemination which heavily alters media content and community discussions. This study was conducted in order to better understand how crowdsourced social media platforms affect users’ perception of environmental topics, issues, and problems. It focuses on the crowdsourced social media platform Reddit evaluating the top 100 articles within the subreddit titled r/environment. The methods used in this study include secondary data analysis, archival research of online forums, and social network analysis. Most articles analyzed discussed the topic of politics, including President Trump and his administration’s environmental policies, as well as a lack of transparency related to environmental policies in general. Many of the comments responded to these articles by discussing politics. Findings also included a perception that monetary and social capital must be present for individuals to facilitate widescale, meaningful environmental change. Issues such as ecological changes ii only accounted for 2 percent of overall crowdsourced articles. Overall this study found an encouraging message in the articles and comments indicating support for global environmental activism. More research on how communities interpret environmental news is needed to broaden our understanding of peoples’ interpretations of environmental policies and their representation in crowdsourced and legacy media. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my parents, Dr. John Roussell and Dr. Cathrine Himberg for their endless support and unconditional encouragement throughout my life, but especially throughout my college experience. I would like to thank my committee chair, mentor, and friend Anthony Silvaggio for years of guidance at Humboldt State University where I learned my passions and interests with regards to Sociology and especially Environmental Sociology. I would like to thank my grandparents and my aunt, Mommor, Humme, and Tante Lise for their support and love throughout the creation and writing of my thesis. A special thanks to my best friend and business partner Jonny Trimboli for allowing me to drive his car to defend my thesis in person. Finally, I’d like to thank my cohort and all of my friends I’ve made throughout my college career who have encouraged me to pursue my passions no matter how difficult the road gets. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 2.0: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................... 10 2.1 Communication and Changing Media Landscapes ................................................ 10 2.2 Social Media as a News Dissemination Tool ......................................................... 15 2.3 Reddit: An Influential Crowdsourced Online Community ..................................... 19 2.4 Conclusion: The Gap .............................................................................................. 25 3.0 METHODOLOGY AND THEORY........................................................................... 26 3.1 Theoretical Frameworks for Coding Environmental Journalism ........................... 28 3.1.1 Conservation and wildlife management ........................................................... 29 3.1.2 Wildlife initiatives ........................................................................................... 30 3.1.3 Reforming of society environmentalism .......................................................... 31 3.1.4 Eco-philosophies .............................................................................................. 33 4.0 METHOds ................................................................................................................... 35 4.1 Study Site ................................................................................................................ 35 4.2 Social Network Analysis ........................................................................................ 36 4.3 Content Analysis ..................................................................................................... 37 4.4 Coding Process ....................................................................................................... 38 v 5.0 RESULTS ................................................................................................................... 40 5.1 Environmental Articles ........................................................................................... 41 5.2 Social Network Analysis ........................................................................................ 43 5.3 Timeline of Articles ................................................................................................ 45 5.4 Comments on Articles ............................................................................................ 46 5.5 Politics .................................................................................................................... 48 5.6 Comments within Political Articles: ....................................................................... 53 5.7 Management of Energy Resources ......................................................................... 56 5.7.1 Fossil fuels ....................................................................................................... 57 5.7.2 Policies ............................................................................................................. 58 5.7.3 Renewables and consumption .......................................................................... 59 5.8 Comments on Management of Energy Resources .................................................. 60 5.9 Environmental Movements ..................................................................................... 62 5.10 Environmental Movements Comments ................................................................ 64 5.11 Wildlife Preservation ............................................................................................ 66 5.11.1 Endangered species ........................................................................................ 67 5.11.2 Policies ........................................................................................................... 68 5.12 Comments on Wildlife Preservation: .................................................................... 69 5.13 Environmental Pollution ....................................................................................... 70 5.13.1 Human ............................................................................................................ 70 5.13.2 Water .............................................................................................................. 71 5.13.3 Air .................................................................................................................. 72 5.14 Comments on Environmental Pollution ................................................................ 72 vi 5.15 Media Related ....................................................................................................... 74 5.16 Comments on the Media ....................................................................................... 75 5.17 Ecological Shifts ................................................................................................... 76 5.18 Ecological Shifts Comments ................................................................................. 76 6.0 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................. 78 6.1 Social Network Analysis ........................................................................................ 78 6.2 Politics, Policies, Transparency and the Trump Effect ........................................... 80 6.3 Management of Energy Resources, Dominant Voices, and Policies ...................... 83 6.4 Environmental Movements ..................................................................................... 85 6.5 Wildlife Preservation
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