Representing environmental harm and resistance on Twitter: The case of the TAP pipeline in Italy

Abstract

This research explores a new methodological path for doing green cultural criminological research via social media. It provides original case-study data and aims to stimulate further empirical and theoretical debate. In particular, the study explores how Twitter users have represented the harms related to an ongoing pipeline project in Italy (referred to as TAP), and the resistance to those harms. To these ends, it offers a virtual and visual ethnography of Twitter posts and posted images.

Social media as stakeholder engagement tool: CSR communication failure in the oil and gas sector

“…This amount was represented by 12 million euros for the Italian community's support, 32 million for the Greek community, and 14 million for the Albanian community. However, similar to what happened in other economic contexts this activity did not obtain the same legitimacy to operate from the local communities' perspective (Di Ronco et al, 2019; McQueen, 2018).…”

“Whenever there’s trouble, just yelp for help”: Crime, conservation, and corporatization in Paw Patrol

“…Similar to the findings of other green cultural criminologists (e.g. Brisman and South, 2012;Di Ronco et al, 2019), PAW Patrol misrepresents the threat that extreme heat, and climate change more generally, poses, particularly to marginalized individuals and communities (see, for instance, Dennis and Mooney, 2018;Singer et al, 2016). Moreover, various regions in the Global South remain particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, including rising sea levels, droughts, and floods.…”

“…Investigating how environmental matters are represented in media is critical because media can—and do—mislead the public regarding environmental issues like climate change and downplay the seriousness of various harms (Brisman and South, 2012; Di Ronco et al, 2019). It is important to document and expose these misrepresentations of environmental issues because they shape public perceptions, lawmaking, and regulation (see Brisman and South, 2012; Di Ronco et al, 2019; Stretesky et al, 2014). Indeed, scholars working in this field recognize that definitions of crime are socially constructed.…”

Green Criminology and Environmental Crimes and Harms

“…How we respond to environmental crimes and harms is, of course, closely related to the ways in which we learn about various environmental disasters or instances of habitual, ongoing environmental degradation and despoliation. While some knowledge or understanding is based on our direct experiences of environmental degradation and/or disaster (e.g., Natali, ), other recognition derives from mediated constructions, depictions and representations of environmental crimes, harms and risks in newspapers, film, television, on the Internet, and in other outlets (e.g., Brisman & South, , ; Di Ronco, Allen‐Robertson, & South, ). Here, the concern is less with the causes or extent of harms and more with what does this mean and how do we feel ?…”