ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on international media coverage surrounding the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In doing so it provides insight into the framing of conflict over natural resource extraction processes, including who benefits, who does not, and, most significantly, who is considered a legitimate actor in relation to such processes. Although the damage caused by the oil spill was largely contained to US sovereign territory, the owner of the well – BP plc (BP) – is a multinational corporation, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. Given this international dimension, we investigate the ways in which disaster and harm are couched in the media, how this in turn is shaped by globalisation and national context, and ultimately what types of responses in risk management are most likely occur as a result of media framing.
