Image Politics

From Greenpeace protesters confronting whaling ships to activists occupying trees, radical environmentalists increasingly rely on attracting mass media coverage to gain visibility and public support. This book examines the use of "image events" as a rhetorical tactic, one that often supplants written or spoken arguments. Widely televised environmentalist actions are analyzed in depth to illustrate how the image event fulfils fundamental rhetorical functions in constructing and transforming identities, discourses, communities, cultures and world views.