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A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Media Texts Pertaining to Fracking in North Dakota’s Bakken Region

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2015, Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, Mass Communication (Communication).
This research broadly investigates mediated discourse and knowledge construction among media outlets commonly identified as "traditional" and "new." Specifically, this research represents a case study of fracking in the Bakken shale region of North Dakota. Using qualitative, interpretive methods this dissertation considers what knowledge(s) are constructed, upheld, and silenced in mediated representations of fracking in the Bakken. This dissertation draws upon a poststructural definition of discourse, which views knowledge and meaning as constructed realities, rather than Real in an objective sense (Castree, 2001, 2014; Foucault, 2010/1972; Hall, 1997). Although the power and resources required to produce discourse is unequal, taken-for-granted ways of thinking and doing are nevertheless always open to challenge from relatively less powerful sources. This is consistent with Foucault’s (1995/1975) conception of power as circulatory and disciplinary, rather than oppressive. Data for this research come from a mix of “traditional” and "new" media sources. Some scholars argue that these distinctions become less important in a converged mediascape (Jenkins, 2006). Nevertheless, this research proceeds from the position that (1) the productive norms of traditional and new media could result in distinct knowledges and claims to truth, and furthermore (2) current research continues to distinguish between the productive norms and types of knowledge constructed by traditional and new media (e.g. Geiger and Lampinen, 2014; Kim, 2015). Scholars argue that traditional media represent objective accounts of events, whose texts are undeniably powerful shapers of knowledge, and disseminated by a professional caste culturally sanctioned to report on events, i.e. journalists (e.g. Gerhards and Schafer, 2010; Lockwood, 2011). Alternately, scholars note that new media, e.g. blogs and social media aggregators, present the lay public and under-represented organizations with productive avenues to challenge the dominant discourses put forth by commercial, mainstream traditional media outlets (e.g. Atkinson and Rosati, 2009; Kaye and Johnson, 2011; Parker and Song, 2009) Scholars are currently split regarding new media’s potential to substantially offset established traditional media power (e.g. Tang and Yang, 2011; van Dijck, 2009, 2012). This research takes place within multiple environmental contexts: the United States recent increase in oil and gas development, oil companies’ global expansion of “unconventional” extraction practices such as hydraulic fracturing, and global climate change. Given our dependence on myriad forms of media for knowledge of these events, this project’s implications project beyond a regional case study of fracking in North Dakota.
Lawrence Wood (Committee Chair)
Jenny Nelson (Committee Member)
Roger Aden (Committee Member)
Harold Perkins (Committee Member)
253 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hough, B. J. (2015). A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Media Texts Pertaining to Fracking in North Dakota’s Bakken Region [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1438416315

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hough, Brian. A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Media Texts Pertaining to Fracking in North Dakota’s Bakken Region. 2015. Ohio University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1438416315.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hough, Brian. "A Comparative Discourse Analysis of Media Texts Pertaining to Fracking in North Dakota’s Bakken Region." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio University, 2015. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1438416315

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)