ABSTRACT
Science and the public come together most urgently and acutely during episodes of public risk (Gregory & Miller, 2000). When landfills and factories are sited in areas where ethnic minorities and low-income citizens live, these residents can be exposed to more pollution than the population as a whole. This problem, which is at the center of the environmental justice movement, often pits civil rights concerns against economic development initiatives. As a result, environmental justice is typically a complex and emotionally charged community issue. Depoe (1997) asserts that a better understanding of this complex issue can be reached through research focused on the evolutionary development and the rhetorical appeals that help define the environmental justice movement. The present chapter focuses on the rhetorical appeals employed by industries that were the targets of advocacy groups active in the social justice movement in the 1990s. The concept of framing assists in this endeavor. As Nisbet explains in Chapter 2 of this volume, news framing drives the dynamics of many science controversies. For example, news coverage often highlights controversy and risk, as well as ethical dilemmas rooted in conflicting principles and interests. Furthermore, the way the news media frame the ethical stances of industries involved in environmental justice disputes can shape the outcomes of those conflicts, the health of disadvantaged citizens, and future industrial development. Thus, this chapter focuses on industry rhetoric as it is framed in the media coverage of the environmental justice movement. Further heeding Depoe’s advice, this chapter also turns to Kohlberg’s (1973) theory of moral development as a framework for evaluating the evolution of industry rhetoric in terms of the values and moral rationale used in industry decisions and reactions to community conflicts. The overall goal of this chapter, therefore, is to illuminate (1) the moral development of industry rhetoric and (2) the story frames evident in the news coverage of the environmental justice movement that emerged between 1994 and 2001.
