| This study examines New York Times online news coverage after the Deepwater Horizon oil platform sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. I utilize literatures on the rise of neoliberalism, the political economy of news, sociology of news production, and media and environment. I suggest that the coverage did not connect the spill to economic context or a structural critique and many sources framed it as an isolated accident. However, the spill can be linked to economic policy that prioritizes profit over human or environmental health. Analysis of a sample of New York Times reports identifies practices inhibiting the presentation of in-depth structural economic issues, notably journalists' reliance on authoritative sources, especially BP and government. I employ frame analysis to consider the media representation of key stakeholders in the disaster. I determine that dominant frames reflect neoliberal ideology evidenced through individualization, promotion of business solutions and omission of alternate frames. |
