Media coverage of radical environmental organizations: A case study of the Earth Liberation Front

The Earth Liberation Front is a radical environmental group that began pursuits of direct action in the United States around 1997. By using methods of direct action, the group is creating pseudo-events with media coverage to follow. This study seeks to understand, through a qualitative analysis of print media, how these direct actions influence environmental discourse in the mass media. The study found that while official sources were most widely accessed by the mass media for stories about the Earth Liberation Front, citizens and environmental NGOs were able to dominate a greater amount of news space. Additionally, these articles focused mainly on criminal issues, rather than the environmental issues the group was attempting to address. Sources speaking for the Earth Liberation Front were more likely than other sources to discuss environmental issues. When environmental groups are included in the coverage, they debate issues of legitimacy more often than environmental concerns.