Showcasing Environmental Justice Movements from the South: Comparing the Role of Media in Bangladesh

Abstract

Abstract

When we think about the role of media in social movements, we identify media’s representation of the core grievance of the movement, traction of the movement in the media and its role in helping the movement. Using two examples from Bangladesh’s recent environmental justice movements, I show the changing role of media coverage on the movements, given the political opportunity structures available and discuss the differences between the cases. Using newspaper data and social media interactions, I compare the dynamics of media’s treatment of two movements, one against a proposed open cast coal mine in Phulbari, Dinajpur and another protesting against the establishment of a coal-fired power plant near Sundarbans. For the first case, I analyze the role of print media and for the second, both print and social media. I argue that both old and new media served as stages showcasing contested meanings of development, environmental injustice in both cases. However, I also show that the differences between the contribution in motivating the resistances by old and new media is different. However, both types of media, when appropriated by the capitalist interests can become weapons against the marginalized more often than it works as a space for upholding their voices.