Scapegoat Ecology: Blame, Exoneration, and an Emergent Genre in Environmentalist Discourse

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Environmental Communication

Abstract

This essay identifies and examines scapegoat ecology, an emergent genre in online environmental discourse. In scapegoat ecology, a public of environmentally minded individuals focuses attention and vitriol on a single person for being particularly harmful to the environment. This essay argues that such discourse deflects attention from more complex and systemic environmental factors and implicitly exonerates the broader community, assuring it of its own environmental commitments while excusing it from further ecological action. The essay describes the form and appeal of scapegoat ecology, then provides a series of illustrative case examples before highlighting the implications of such discourse for both environmental communication and broader social/political conversations.

Pages

152-164

html

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1500386

Volume

13

Issue

2

Publication Date

2019

Keywords

scapegoating, rhetoric, discourse, digital media, Yosemite

Disciplines

Environmental Sciences

Comments

This item is included in the Center for Climate, Society, & the Environment's Faculty Publications Bibliography.

Find more Climate Studies works by Gonzaga University faculty at the bibliography's home here.

ISSN

1752-4032

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