The metanarrative of rural environmentalism: Rhetorical activism in Bold Nebraska’s Harvest the Hope

Abstract

The ongoing, decade-long fight against the Keystone XL Pipeline in the state of Nebraska has incorporated traditional levers of public relations such as media relations and lobbying but has also borrowed from the long-standing tradition of rhetorical activism within U.S. environmental history. Through Fisher’s narrative paradigm, a rhetorical analysis of Bold Nebraska’s Harvest the Hope music festival is provided to understand the role of symbolic appeals in building an environmental activism metanarrative or master frame. Such an analysis shows how the social movement organization communicates to its members and mass audiences through a non-traditional communication approach such as the benefit rock concert. As a site of public relations study, Bold Nebraska’s music festival activism draws from mainstream, alternative, and Indigenous cultural artifacts, symbols, and histories in contesting existing metanarratives. With its incorporation of historical ecological symbols and rhetorical tropes, Harvest the Hope helped attendees and audiences make sense of both the organization and the movement in which they found themselves a part of. By bringing rural and Indigenous communities together, it justified Bold Nebraska’s broader pipeline activism and helped audiences see the project through the lens of a broader, rural-based coalition.