Communication Culture and Critique · 2021 · 35 citations · 23 references
Social SciencesGender StudiesAutism Spectrum DisordersMedia StudiesWhiteness StudiesClimate PoliticsMedia RepresentationClimate Activism NarrativesClimate Change CoverageClimate Change JournalismClimate Movement PoliticsCollective Action TheoryNews Media InfluenceWomen's Collective Action
Abstract In the 16 months before TIME magazine naming Greta Thunberg its Person of the Year, as her influence grew, so too did the news media’s attempts to make sense of her. This project analyzes profiles of Greta Thunberg to understand how journalists constructed the persona that has become “Greta.” We argue the paradoxical framing of Thunberg as exceptional and fierce and childlike contributes to an alternative construction of girlhood grounded in the positive portrayal of her Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) diagnosis. While featuring ASD as her “superpower” is potentially progressive, we argue foregrounding Thunberg’s whiteness and age cements her construction as the iconic voice of the climate crisis movement, potentially downplaying the need for collective action to end climate change.
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