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This paper asks how the incorporation of public relations and marketing strategies into political debate over Tasmanian wilderness, in particular the appropriation and deployment by industry and government of powerful symbols traditionally associated with the environment movement, challenges not only the always tenuously held power of the movement but also the power of the media. Drawing on textual analysis and interviews with journalists, activists and government and industry public relations specialists, it places recent developments into an historical context and is thus able to identify the nature and impacts of this ‘turn’ in the 30-year conflict. Specifically, it examines three key carriers of meaning for the environment movement — words, images and protest — and considers how their symbolic power can be harnessed by ‘authorities’ against both their traditional sponsors, the challenger groups, and their carriers, the news media.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Research Division:	Studies in Creative Arts and Writing
Research Group:	Journalism and Professional Writing
Research Field:	Journalism and Professional Writing not elsewhere classified
Objective Division:	Cultural Understanding
Objective Group:	Communication
Objective Field:	The Media
UTAS Author:	Lester, EA (Professor Elizabeth Lester)
ID Code:	42430
Year Published:	2006
Deposited By:	English, Journalism and European Languages
Deposited On:	2006-08-01
Last Modified:	2012-03-05
Downloads:	2 View Download Statistics