Just “performance nonsense”?: How recipients process news photos of activists’ symbolic actions about climate change politics
06 juil. 2021
À propos de cet article
Publié en ligne: 06 juil. 2021
Pages: 61 - 78
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/njms-2021-0004
Mots clés
© 2021 Antal Wozniak, published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Figure 1
Dimensions of polysemy in visual frame processing
| perception & selection of elements | denotative |
| stylistic | |
| decoding of elements | denotative |
| stylistic | |
| affective | |
| frame elaboration (connecting elements) | associative |
| frame interpretation (overall meaning construction) | connotative |
Symbolic action photos used in analysis
| 1. wind turbine | Greenpeace & TckTckTck (Shayne Robinson for Greenpeace) | Volunteers of Greenpeace and TckTckTck raise a wind turbine at dawn on the beach in Durban during COP17. The volunteers and the wind turbine are visible only as silhouettes. | To “send a message of hope for the latest round of climate change talks [which] must be a new dawn for the international negotiations to agree a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty to avert climate chaos” ( |
| 2. lighting candles | WWF (Gerardo Garcia for Reuters) | Activists from the WWF light candles arranged in the shape of the Earth on the beach in Cancún during COP16 in preparation for a demonstration. | The WWF is “calling for a catch up plan to prevent climate change” after negotiations on a binding treaty for emission cuts failed at COP15 in Copenhagen ( |
| 3. drowning landmarks | Greenpeace (Eduardo Verdugo for Associated Press) | Greenpeace activists in the water hold cardboard models of famous landmarks from around the world during COP16 in Cancún. In the background, a beach and hotels are visible. | To “remind governments that the rising tide of climate impacts, be they economic, environmental or humanitarian will affect each and every one of us – rich and poor if leaders don’t make the choice in Cancun to take immediate action to combat climate change” ( |
| 4. balloon over Maya temple | Greenpeace (Prometeo Lucero for Greenpeace) | A hot air balloon by Greenpeace with the message “Rescue the Climate” floats over the ruins of the Mayan city of Chichen Itza and the surrounding forest in Yucatan. | “Greenpeace is sending the message that even the most advanced civilizations can collapse, and urges that if we do not act, climate change could have devastating consequences for humanity […] governments can – and must – set us on the path to a safe future – by making climate change history” ( |
| 5. ‘Hope?’ | Greenpeace & TckTckTck (Israel Leal for Associated Press) | Greenpeace and TckTckTck activists form the question “hope?” with their bodies on the beach of Cancún during COP16. | The action had a second group of activists “dressed as delegates [as they] swam out to sea and were ‘swept away’ by a sea of troubled talks” ( |
| 6. heads in the sand | Sierra Club (Agence France-Presse) | Activists from the Sierra Club with flags – representing countries, the World Bank, and the Shell Company – on their backs put their heads in the sand on the beach in Durban during COP17. Activists in the background who wear animal masks hold cardboards representing windmills and a solar panel. | To “highlight governments that continue to bury their heads in the sand and block critical action at the negotiations” ( |
| 7. message in a bottle | Oxfam (Reuters) | Volunteers from Oxfam place a giant inflatable bottle with the message “urgent – save lives in Cancun” at the beach of Cancún during COP16. Tourists are also visible. | The bottle also contained print-outs of selected messages from people having used “#tweet-bottle” on Twitter (not visible in the photo). The bottle was then displayed “outside the conference centre” to “send a message of urgency to government representatives meeting in Cancún” ( |
| 8. lion's head | Local children in Durban, Greenpeace & TckTckTck (Shayne Robinson for Greenpeace) | An aerial view of 1,500 children who form a lion's head on the beach in Durban during COP17. | To “send a message to the leaders of COP17: show some courage for the climate” ( |