How are demonstrations changing?
Posted November 20, 2014 2:07 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – With anti-pipeline protesters on Burnaby Mountain, marketing expert and SFU Professor Lindsay Meredith is commending them for their use of social media to garner support.
He says they’ve used the tool well enough to gain a lot of media coverage as well.
But Meredith feels image is still important. “Personal image always becomes an issue because if you’re looking at the so called rag tag crazed hippies, that makes it very very tough to get your message accepted by conventional middle class taxpayers for example,” says Meredith.
Meanwhile SFU Professor John Axsen from the School of Resource and Environmental Management expects movements like these to continue to grow.
“This disconnect between what citizens want and what different government industry stakeholders want so this conflict is quite unique to North America,” he explains.
Axsen says an organized and consistent message would be beneficial for organizers.
“I think there really is an opportunity here for people who are concerned about these projects to send a message saying this is a time that we need to put forward policy and a national and provincial vision about how it is we can possibly develop our energy and meet our own consumer needs while also meeting our environmental target.”
