ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses political discourses within media in an attempt to reveal Australia's understanding of its role in producing atmospheric pollution, and in taking or attributing responsibility for its impacts. It focuses on qualitative and quantitative computer-assisted textual analysis to identify and analyse media discourses of risk, responsibility and blame. The chapter examines mediated events that have occurred in relation to the Great Barrier Reef within the context of the transnational environmental, industrial and political pressures. Culturally, the reef is part of Australia's national identity, with Australians defining themselves as coastal dwellers 'living on the edge'. Both the spectacular nature of the Great Barrier Reef and the stresses under frame media texts that attribute responsibility across various institutional, political and geographic arenas. The chapter presents the results of the application of automatic semantic analytical tools to media reporting of environmental issues facing the Great Barrier Reef.
