Greta Thunberg: The Image of the Activist and Silencing Strategies in the Right-Wing Media Cover Image

Greta Thunberg – obraz aktywistki i strategie wyciszania stosowane w prawicowych mediach
Greta Thunberg: The Image of the Activist and Silencing Strategies in the Right-Wing Media

Author(s): Jan Radomski
Subject(s): Social Sciences, Media studies, Communication studies, Sociology, Political Ecology, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Wydział Socjologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Greta Thunberg; climate crisis; critical discourse analysis; narrative; ecology;right wing;

Summary/Abstract: In recent years Greta Thunberg has become a symbol of the global climateprotection movement. The aim of the article is to analyse how this Swedish activist is portrayed in the right-wing media on the basis of press articles published between August 2018 and November 2020, and content appearing on social networks. The material shows that the central category used to describe Greta Thunberg is age, while the negativity of the narrative is supplemented by the category of disease. In accordance with the methodological assumptions of critical discourse analysis, the article aims to elaborate on the political purpose for which these categories are used. The article indicates three strategies employed in political disputes: chauvinist, liberal, and conservative. Studying how Thunberg is described seems particularly significant because the language used against her is not only an element of communication but is first and foremost a mechanism of the right’s political struggle against its ideological opponents.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: 20
  • Page Range: 173-201
  • Page Count: 29
  • Language: Polish