University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2013-09-25 Environment, Communication and Democracy: Framing Alberta’s Bitumen Extraction Onscreen Takach, George Takach, G. (2013). Environment, Communication and Democracy: Framing Alberta’s Bitumen Extraction Onscreen (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/25922 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/1050 doctoral thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Environment, Communication and Democracy: Framing Alberta’s Bitumen Extraction Onscreen by George Francis Takach A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION AND CULTURE CALGARY, ALBERTA SEPTEMBER, 2013 © George Francis Takach 2013 Abstract This study in environmental communication addresses links among land, natural resources and people in a world shaped increasingly by global economic forces and pervaded by the power of pictures. Hosting what has been called the world’s largest industrial project, the bituminous (‘tar’/‘oil’) sands, Alberta has become an epicentre of the clash between economic growth mandated by extractive capitalism and its unsustainable ecological costs. A high-stakes, international public-relations battle has emerged, with independent filmmakers producing documentary films challenging Albertans’ environmental stewardship, and government and industry producing advocacy videos defending it. Situating this negotiation of Alberta’s place-identity in a discourse beginning in 2004—the year the US deemed the extraction of the sands to be economically viable—this study is inspired theoretically by the Canadian critical tradition, notably extensions of Innis’ ideas on communications into environmental studies, and methodologically by arts-based research (re)presenting diversities and complexities of voice, nuances of character and potential affect on audiences that would be diminished in conventional scholarly prose. Thus, this study proceeds in three phases: interviews with commissioning and creative principals of the films/videos; a critical visual framing analysis of that work, focusing on its creators’ positioning of Alberta and broader cultural, political and economic forces at work; and a synthesis and (re)presentation of my findings in a script for a hybridized documentary film. Five conclusions emerging from this study are: (1) place in a globally-recognized, resource-based economy is positioned and contested largely in response to events and to representations of that place originating beyond its borders; ii (2) in representing resource extraction and its effects, visual strategies focus on both the macro and the micro; (3) visual omissions or denials can be as significant in environmental discourse as explicit representations; (4) producers of films/videos use a wide spectrum of frames ranging from anthropocentric (e.g. denial, progress, money) to ecocentric (e.g. eco-justice, present-minded, ecocide); and (5) the significant costs, production time and distribution challenges of producing and exhibiting documentary films professionally favour presenting generalizations and drama over nuanced details in addressing complex issues like environmental concerns about resource extraction. iii Acknowledgements Appreciating that it takes a village to raise a PhD, I thank a vast and diverse throng of instructors, scholars, librarians, university administrators, learning colleagues and personal supporters for helping to realize this adventure, along with my munificent funders, the University of Calgary, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and MacEwan University. In particular, I thank my examination and candidacy committees, and recognize and laud the vision, wisdom and encouragement of my eminent supervisory committee, Brian Rusted, George Melnyk and Aritha van Herk, and the unwavering sustenance of my best friend, Bonnie Sadler Takach. Their remarkable teaching, intellect and creative work are as inspiring to me as I can only hope that this effort might be to others. iv Table of Contents Abstract............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents.................................................................................................................v List of Figures................................................................................................................... vii Epigraphs ......................................................................................................................... viii Chapter 1: The Problem....................................................................................................1 1.1 Situating the field of study.........................................................................................1 1.2 Mapping this work.....................................................................................................1 1.3 Context of inquiry......................................................................................................3 1.4 Prior foundations......................................................................................................10 1.5 Research goals .........................................................................................................11 1.6 Research questions...................................................................................................12 Chapter 2: Critical Theory, Place and Identity ............................................................14 2.1 Critical theory ........................................................................................................14 2.2 Innis and extensions...............................................................................................18 2.3 Place and place-identity .........................................................................................23 2.4 Conclusion: critical theory, Innis and place-identity .............................................28 Chapter 3: Environmental Communication and Visual Representations of Place ...30 3.1 Constructing the environment................................................................................30 3.2 Media representations of environment and place ..................................................36 3.3 Visuality and environmental communication ........................................................39 3.4 Conclusion: environment, place and visuality.......................................................44 Chapter 4: Arts-Based Research and the Environment...............................................46 4.1 Foundations of arts-based research........................................................................46 4.2 Arts-based research and environmental communication .......................................54 4.3 Conclusion: arts-based research and the environment...........................................58 Chapter 5: Research Methods ........................................................................................60 5.1 Identification of films/videos and participants ......................................................61 5.2 Interviews...............................................................................................................62 5.3 Visual framing analysis..........................................................................................67 5.4 Arts-based research................................................................................................77 5.5 Conclusion: methods and context ..........................................................................88 Chapter 6: Images of Alberta and the Sands ................................................................89 6.1 Visuality generally.................................................................................................89 6.2 Images of Alberta and natural-resource extraction................................................90 6.3 Framing Alberta.....................................................................................................97 v Chapter 7: Positioning and Contesting Alberta..........................................................110 7.1 Pay Dirt (2005)....................................................................................................110 7.2 Context I: the sands get more engrained (2006–2007) ........................................114 7.3 Tar Sands: The Selling of Alberta (2008)............................................................119 7.4 Context II: 1,606 dead ducks (2008)....................................................................123 7.5 Downstream (2008) .............................................................................................123 7.6 An Open Door (2009) ..........................................................................................127