We too are green: Public relations, symbolic power and the Tasmanian wilderness conflict

Abstract

This paper asks how the incorporation of public relations and marketing strategies into political debate over Tasmanian wilderness, and, 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 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.