Social change in The Australian's media representation of corporate news reporting on two environmental organizations (Greenpeace & Landcare) in the millennium

Landcare and Greenpeace are two organisations synonymous with the\ud environmental movement, although each holds different ideological and\ud strategic positions regarding politics, tactical approaches and organisational\ud structure. Despite their nuances, Landcare and Greenpeace hold comparable\ud membership numbers in Australia, with close to 130,000 members each\ud (Greenpeace, 2006; Landcare, 2003) and are widely recognised by the\ud Australian public. According to Brulle (1996), an historical approach to\ud examining the actions of environmental organisations best elucidates\ud organisational differences and processes of change. This paper draws upon\ud critical theory to explain and analyse how two environmental organisations,\ud through their activities, are portrayed as agents of social change in\ud contemporary mass media outlets. Following Webb and Cary’s (2005)\ud identification of the need for research into natural resource management and\ud Landcare to incorporate qualitative methodologies, an in-depth qualitative\ud analysis of 33 of the 424 corporate and environmental news articles published\ud in The Australian between 2000 and 2005 is presented. How collective action\ud and issue identification vary by organisation is prioritised, along with critical\ud reflection on media as an institution actively managing communicative authority,\ud shaping ideology and creating social change. By highlighting the political\ud ideology media representation of environmental action displays, this research\ud establishes parameters for reframing existing arguments about the\ud representation of environmental organisations in contemporary Australia