https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0934-6580
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ABSTRACT
The US President Joe Biden redesignated Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah after former President Barack Obama designated it and former President Donald Trump reduced it in size. The designation, reduction, and redesignation of the monument, designed to protect Indigenous archaeological sites, catalyzed debate covered by local news. Protected areas in the United States face increasing threat from resource development, which can accelerate climate change. Using the frame matrix method to qualitatively analyze language in local news articles, this study increases understanding of political and cultural meanings associated with the monument. Frames of failure, validation, and authoritarianism defined designation; frames of loss, remediation, and resistance defined reduction; and a stability frame defined redesignation. Results highlight how symbolic devices (e.g., metaphors, catchphrases) used by opponents to reject the monument’s designation were then used by supporters to reject its reduction. This study gives insight into how local news reporting of conflict over public land protections can prioritize Settler over Indigenous metaphysics. By emphasizing subjugation of land to human control rather than interconnectedness between humans and nature, local news not only shapes perception of a protected area’s significance but may also impede climate change mitigation.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Thomas De Clerck and Cameron Shultz for their time and support during the study’s development. The authors would also like to thank the reviewers for their comments and insights.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
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Jared T. Macary
Jared T. Macary, M.A., is a PhD candidate in communication and media studies at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication (completion 2022). Macary has worked multi-nationally as a communications consultant and in public health for the US Food and Drug Administration and National Cancer Institute. Macary’s research focuses on the intersection of strategic, visual, and environmental communication with a focus on wildfire and climate change. Macary will be an Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications at Washington and Lee University’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Traci K. Gillig
Traci K. Gillig, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Washington State University’s Edward R. Murrow College of Communication. Dr. Gillig’s research interests are in the psychological, social, and structural factors influencing the well-being of youth, particularly those from marginalized groups. Gillig's work includes examining the effects of interventions, media representations, and interpersonal relationships on youth, as well as the effects of mediated representations of marginalized groups on the attitudes of broader audiences. Dr. Gillig earned a doctorate in communication from the University of Southern California.