Forest bioeconomy in the media discourse in Spain
- PDF / 961,179 Bytes
- 15 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 29 Downloads / 189 Views
SOCIAL DIMENSIONS OF A FOREST-BASED BIOECONOMY
Forest bioeconomy in the media discourse in Spain Alexia Sanz-Herna´ndez Gerardo Soriano
, Encarna Esteban, Pedro Marco,
Received: 18 December 2019 / Revised: 5 May 2020 / Accepted: 21 August 2020 / Published online: 12 October 2020
Abstract Media can play a key role in shaping public opinion and setting a policy agenda by conveying and influencing public discourse. This article evaluates how the Spanish media has covered the topic of the forest bioeconomy and what kind of discourse it has produced and reproduced around it. For this purpose, we analysed the content of 204 national and regional newspaper articles. The results reveal the scarce penetration of the forest bioeconomy in media and some weaknesses in the narrative production and communicative dimension. The discourse is mainly constructed by governments with a limited presence of multiple stakeholders and an absence of conflict and divergent or alternative views. In addition, the discourse only addresses regional or local problems within the framework of an extended and dominant paradigm of economic growth considering the forest bioeconomy as an opportunity to combat fire, rural abandonment, smallholdings, and poor forest management. We conclude that media is not using its strategic potential and capacity as a public space. To become agents of change, the media should reflect a forest bioeconomy based on successful experiences of innovation and valorization, and adopt a transformative social vision that gives relevance to the interconnection between multiple stakeholders, forest multifunctionality and rural development. Keywords Communication strategies Forest bioeconomy Media coverage Narrative patterns Stakeholders’ vision
INTRODUCTION The bioeconomy is based on including applications from biology and their associated technological processes into
production processes and consumption patterns to promote sustainable development (Ingrao et al. 2018; Sanz-Herna´ndez et al. 2019). Implementing a bioeconomy model involves a broad integration of natural resources and associated sectors (e.g. agriculture, fisheries, biomedicine, forestry, bioenergy, etc.) into economic processes (Koukios 2015). However, a successful transition to this model also entails the consideration of sociopolitical and cultural dimensions in order to engage and involve stakeholders and society as a whole. The European Union established a Directive for promoting the Bioeconomy Strategy in 2012 (European Commission 2012). In parallel, several EU members have worked on their own plans to promote the creation of national bioeconomy systems in their countries. However, although a great deal of effort has been devoted to this new concept, implementing bioeconomy actions remains a challenge. In this context, Spain is one of 30 European countries that have shown an interest in developing a national bioeconomy strategy (Spanish Government 2016a, b). This interest is based on (a) the political concern in adapting to new global challenges a
Data Loading...
