Climate Crisis, Youth and Media: a story analysis of Geo-Doc videos as agents for social transformations

dc.contributor.advisorTschofen, Monique
dc.contributor.authorAlsop, Dylan Wallace
dc.date.accessioned2024-11-07T11:11:48Z
dc.date.available2024-11-07T11:11:48Z
dc.date.copyright2024-08-13
dc.date.issued2024-11-07
dc.date.updated2024-11-07T11:11:46Z
dc.degree.disciplineCommunication & Culture, Joint Program with Toronto Metropolitan University
dc.degree.levelMaster's
dc.degree.nameMA - Master of Arts
dc.description.abstractThe last three decades have witnessed paradigmatic transformations in how youth engage in climate crisis advocacy practices. My thesis offers analysis of a United Nations-endorsed policy advocacy project, The Youth Climate Report (YCR). The project comprises short youth documentaries geo-positioned on a virtual map combined with an annual report submitted to United Nations Council of parties (COP) negotiations. Inspired by the project as an initiative of “Speaking Youth to Power” (Terry, 2024), my thesis seeks to better understand, celebrate, and contribute to this initiative and more broadly to youth climate crisis documentary multimedia. Recognizing that climate crisis is in part a storytelling crisis and drawing on selected scholarship in media studies (McLuhan, Williams), youth studies (Hall, Castañeda, Foucault), and climate studies (Callison, Hulme, Solnit), I reflect on ways in which climate crisis and youth are framed and formed in stories bound up with social power relations. I analyzed a sample of YCR Geo-Doc media documentaries—20% of those available, n=130—asking two questions: How do Geo-Doc videos story climate crisis? How do Geo-Doc videos story youth? My comparative analysis reveals four influential climate stories (Impacts, Humans, Resources, and Solutions) entangled with four stories of youth (as Witnesses, as Heroes, Inheritors and as Vulnerable). My conclusion follows a political stance in which I interrogate these eight stories and alternatives and the extent to which they reproduce pre-existing stories with associated power relations thereby supporting the status quo and/or offer new ways that resist and challenge these. These discussions are more normative, seeking to identify youth climate crisis stories that are underrepresented and now urgently needed.
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/42469
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectCommunication
dc.subjectClimate change
dc.subjectCultural anthropology
dc.subject.keywordsClimate Justice
dc.subject.keywordsYouth
dc.subject.keywordsDigital media
dc.subject.keywordsGeo-Doc
dc.subject.keywordsStory
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative enquiry
dc.subject.keywordsClimate crisis
dc.subject.keywordsYouth activism
dc.subject.keywordsUnited Nations
dc.subject.keywordsPolicy advocacy
dc.subject.keywordsSocial transformations
dc.subject.keywordsMedia studies
dc.subject.keywordsYouth studies
dc.subject.keywordsClimate studies
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental justice
dc.subject.keywordsDocumentary filmmaking
dc.subject.keywordsStorytelling crisis
dc.subject.keywordsSocial power relations
dc.subject.keywordsVulnerable youth
dc.subject.keywordsYouth climate report
dc.subject.keywordsCOP negotiations
dc.subject.keywordsGeographic documentary
dc.subject.keywordsSpeaking youth to power
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative analysis
dc.subject.keywordsComparative analysis
dc.subject.keywordsPower relations
dc.subject.keywordsSocial change
dc.subject.keywordsClimate justice
dc.subject.keywordsYouth mobilization
dc.subject.keywordsDigital media
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental advocacy
dc.subject.keywordsClimate impacts
dc.subject.keywordsHuman resources
dc.subject.keywordsClimate solutions
dc.subject.keywordsYouth as witnesses
dc.subject.keywordsYouth as heroes
dc.subject.keywordsYouth as inheritors
dc.subject.keywordsYouth vulnerability
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative politics
dc.subject.keywordsDocumentary genre
dc.subject.keywordsMedia representation
dc.subject.keywordsClimate documentaries
dc.subject.keywordsSocial media
dc.subject.keywordsDigital platforms
dc.subject.keywordsYouth-led movements
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental sustainability
dc.subject.keywordsParticipatory politics
dc.subject.keywordsAgeism
dc.subject.keywordsClimate communication
dc.subject.keywordsSocial hierarchies
dc.subject.keywordsEcological crisis
dc.subject.keywordsClimate narratives
dc.subject.keywordsVisual storytelling
dc.subject.keywordsYouth empowerment
dc.subject.keywordsNarrative criticism
dc.subject.keywordsSocial transformation
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental activism
dc.subject.keywordsYouth narratives
dc.subject.keywordsPower dynamics
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental degradation
dc.subject.keywordsYouth identities
dc.subject.keywordsMedia literacy
dc.subject.keywordsUN-backed initiative
dc.subject.keywordsYouth media
dc.subject.keywordsClimate breakdown
dc.subject.keywordsTransformative politics
dc.subject.keywordsYouth storytelling
dc.subject.keywordsMultimedia advocacy
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental documentaries
dc.subject.keywordsParticipatory media
dc.subject.keywordsYouth documentary production
dc.subject.keywordsClimate crisis representation
dc.subject.keywordsDigital storytelling
dc.subject.keywordsCultural identity
dc.subject.keywordsYouth agency
dc.subject.keywordsYouth-led documentaries
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental media
dc.subject.keywordsSocial power
dc.subject.keywordsMedia genres
dc.subject.keywordsYouth climate media
dc.subject.keywordsActivist filmmaking
dc.subject.keywordsDocumentary analysis
dc.subject.keywordsDigital media representation
dc.subject.keywordsMedia discourse
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental narratives
dc.subject.keywordsYouth in climate crisis
dc.subject.keywordsDocumentary media
dc.subject.keywordsEnvironmental advocacy films
dc.titleClimate Crisis, Youth and Media: a story analysis of Geo-Doc videos as agents for social transformations
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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