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To Bag the Ban or Ban the Bag: Analysing a shifting discourse in Canadian online news during the pandemic year, 2020

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dc.contributor.authorAllen, Heather
dc.contributor.otherMcMahon, Rob (Supervisor)
dc.date.accessioned2025-05-01T01:48:58Z
dc.date.available2025-05-01T01:48:58Z
dc.date.issued2021-06-01
dc.descriptionPlastics pollution is an existential threat to the environment, and in particular to the world’s oceans. Pre-pandemic, a global response to this crisis was gaining traction, with news media reporting large scale policy implementation. For example, in Canada, the federal government made an announcement in 2019 that it would implement a nationwide single-use plastics ban by 2021. A disruption to this response occurred at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a shifting Canadian news media discourse reflecting recommendations to increase consumption of single-use plastic bags and to ban reusable bags from stores. In order to understand how the human health crisis may have been used to push back on reusable bag use and promote single-use plastic, and to understand subsequent implications for policy change and environmental action, I conducted a two-part longitudinal analysis consisting of a critical discourse analysis of exemplar texts and a larger framing analysis of Canadian online news articles. Ultimately, the aim of this communications study was to understand how the representation of claims-makers, journalistic norms of practice, underlying worldviews and the pandemic itself may have contributed to a shifting discourse about the single-use plastic bag issue over time.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7939/r3-v6h0-a692
dc.language.isoen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
dc.subjectSingle-use plastics
dc.subjectSingle-use plastic bags
dc.subjectReusable bags
dc.subjectBans
dc.subjectBan delays
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subjectEnvironmental communication
dc.subjectFraming analysis
dc.subjectCritical discourse analysis
dc.subjectPlastics pollution
dc.subjectPlastics industry
dc.subjectEnvironmentalism
dc.subjectSocial constructionism
dc.subjectOnline news
dc.subjectMedia
dc.subjectMedia studies
dc.subjectPandemic
dc.subjectCOVID-19
dc.titleTo Bag the Ban or Ban the Bag: Analysing a shifting discourse in Canadian online news during the pandemic year, 2020
dc.typehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_93fc
ual.jupiterAccesshttp://terms.library.ualberta.ca/public

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