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ElizaHuber-WeissMay17,2017NatureofDataFinalPaper
“Protectors”or“Protesters”:TextanalysisoftheportrayaloftheDakotaAccessPipelineinnationalandindigenous
newspapersIntroduction InDecemberof2014,EnergyTransferPartners,aDallas-basedenergycompany,
appliedtothefederalgovernmentofTheUnitedStatestobuilda1,200milepipeline
carryingoilfromNorthDakotatojoinupwithanexistingpipelineinIllinois.ByMarchof
2016,allfourstatesthroughwhichthepipelinewouldpassapprovedtheaction,andthe
ArmyCorpsofEngineersmadeplanstostartconstructionthatsummer.Theseplanswould
bethestartofoneofthelargestenvironmentalandsocialscandalsof2016,commonly
referredtoastheDakotaAccessPipelineprotests("ATimelineoftheDakotaAccess
Pipeline,"2017).
Whiletheproposedrouteofthepipelineskirtedtheactualreservationlandofthe
StandingRockSiouxtribe,itpasseddirectlyunderLakeOahe,fedbytheMissouriRiver,
andthewatersourceforthereservation.StartinginAprilof2016,afterthefinalstate
approvalhadgonethrough,membersofthistribeestablishedaprotestcampatthepoint
wheretheCannonballandMissouriRiversmeet.Thiscampwasbuiltontheideaof
peacefulprotestforthesakeofindigenousrightsandenvironmentalprotection,andwould
growtothousandsofpeopleinpopulationoverthecourseofthefollowingmonths,largely
duetosignificantsocialmediaactivityandtheinvolvementofpublicfigureslikeShailene
WoodleyandMassachusettssenatorElizabethWarren.Over600peoplewerearrested
overthecourseofthecamps.
InJulyof2016,theStandingRockSiouxtribesuedtheArmyCorpsofEngineers,
claimingtheyhadnotbeenconsultedintheprocessofdecidingwhere,when,andifthe
pipelineshouldbebuilt.ConstructionwastemporarilystalledinDecemberof2016dueto
acallfromtheAssistantArmySecretaryforCivilWorksformoreenvironmentalimpact
assessmenttobecompleted,andforalternateroutesavoidingLakeOahetobediscussed.
However,onJanuary24th,newpresidentDonaldTrumpsignedanexecutiveorder
advancingtheconstructionoftheDakotaAccessPipeline.OnFebruary22nd,thefinal
protesterswereremovedfromthecampsbyauthorities,andonMarch27th,2017,oilwas
pumpedintothepipelinethatnowrunsunderLakeOahe("ATimelineoftheDakotaAccess
Pipeline,"2017).
TheDakotaAccessPipelineconflictrepresentsthedisconnectbetweenindigenous
culturesandtheUnitedStatesfederalgovernmentandcorporateinterestthathasexisted
fortheentirehistoryofthiscountry.However,the#noDAPLmovementgenerated
significantpublicawarenessaboutindigenousrights.Newspapers,onlinenewssources,
andtelevisionnewssourcesacrossthecountrycoveredtheconflict,interviewingtribal
leadersandpeopleinvolvedintheprotests.Socialmediapresencesentirelyfocusedon
alertingthepublicabouttheconflictemerged,creatingsuchtrendinghashtagsas
#noDAPL,#indigenousrising,and#waterislife.
ThestoryandconditionsofDAPLmakeitafascinatingcaseinwhichtostudythe
similaritiesbetweentraditionalmediasourcesandsocialmediacommunicationsin
representingthevoicesofindigenouspeoples.A2012Australianstudyofindigenous
representationinnewsmediafoundthatwhilemanymediaanalystshavefounda
“narrowing,sensationalizing,orshuttingdownofpublicdebate”regardingindigenous
issuesinmainstreammedia,theinvolvementofindigenousactivistsinmainstreamnews
mediacanalsohavethelargesteffectonpolicyadvancements(McCallum,Waller,&
Meadows).Thisstudywillthereforeexaminetherepresentationofindigenouspositionsin
thetop-readnewspapersintheUnitedStatesascomparedtorepresentationsinboth
indigenousnewspapersandonsocialmediacampaignsaswayofevaluatingthe
similarities,thedisparities,andthepotentialimpactthesefeaturesmayhavehadonthe
trajectoryofthestoryoftheDakotaAccessPipeline.
Methods
Thisanalysisinvolvedathree-partapproach:1)textanalysisofarticlesaboutthe
DakotaAccessPipelineinnationalandindigenousnewssources,2)spatialanalysisto
determinethelocationsofgeotaggedFlickrphotosasrelatingtotheirproximitiesto
reservationlands,and3)textanalysisoftagsandcaptionsforthesephotostodetermine
similartrendswiththeresultsofnewspapertextanalysis.
Newspapertextanalysis
ToapproximatethenationalnewsrepresentationofDAPL,thetopthreemostread
newspapersweredeterminedbasedonmediadatafrom2015.Indigenousnewssources
werefoundusingtheProQuestEthnicNewsWatchdatabase.Thesearchterm“Dakota
accesspipeline”wasusedforbothscrapingprocesses.ThetimeframewassetfromAugust
2016tothepresent(April4th,2017),asAugust2016sawthebeginningofalargespikein
thefrequencyofarticlesmatchingthesesearchterms.Thetextofthesearticleswas
compiledintotwoseparatetextfiles,onefornationalnewsandoneforindigenousnews.
FollowingthedataanalysismethodsofAbe(2015),thesetextfileswereanalyzed
usingRandVoyanttoperformbothwordfrequencyanalysesandkeywordincontext
(KWIC)analyses,usingthree-wordbuffersandaseriesofstopwords.Thewordsforthe
KWICanalysiswerechosenbasedonpopularhashtagsandtrendingnewstopics,soasto
drawparallelswiththesocialmediadata.Thekeywordsanalyzedwere:Life,Indigenous,
Tribe,Trump,Oil,Protest,andSioux.Thetwocorpuseswerecomparedbothqualitatively
andquantitatively(percentsimilarity)forthesimilarityinthetopicsdiscussedandthe
waysinwhichdifferenttermswereused.
FlickrAnalysis
FlickrwasscrapedusinganAPIcodeandRStudio.Sixtaggroupswereusedfordata
collection:DakotaAccessPipeline,DAPL,NoDAPL,YesDAPL,StandingRock,and
IndigenousRising.Eachofthesegroupscontainedanumberoftagsusingavariationon
thosephrases.SpatialdataonthelocationsofreservationlandsthroughouttheU.S.was
downloadedfromanArcGISonlinedataplatformandloadedintoArcMap10.4.Thislayer
wasthengivena5-milebuffer,andpostsfromwithinthesereservationswereidentified,
andcomparedwithpostsfromoutsidethereservationzones.
Results
Thetop50wordsinbothcorpusesrevealedsimilaritiesinsomeexpectedwords,like
“Dakota”,“Access”,“Pipeline”,“Standing”and“Rock”(Figures1aandb).Thesewordswere
allremovedfromfurtheranalysisforthisreason.However,comparisonofthetwo
corpusesdidrevealsomeinterestingdifferencesaswell.Whilethenationalnewscorpus
containsmanywordsrelatingtonationalaffairs,like“president,”“Obama,”“Trump,”and
“administration,”theindigenouscorpushasmanymorewordsrelatedtothefightfor
indigenousrights,like“community,”“rights,”“support,”and“indigenous”(Figure2).
Figure1a.Top50wordsinthenationalnewscorpusgeneratedfrom
searchingforarticlescontaining“DakotaAccessPipeline”in
theWallStreetJournal,theNewYorkTimes,andUSATodaypublishedbetweenAugust1st,2016andApril1
st,2017.Stopwords
like“a”,“the”and“and”w
ereremoved.Analysisw
asdoneusingRandJupyterNotebook,andthevisualwascreatedinExcel.
Figure1b.Top50wordsintheindigenousnewscorpusgeneratedfrom
searchingforarticlescontaining“DakotaAccessPipeline”
intheEthnicNewsW
atchdatabasepublishedbetweenAugust1st,2016andApril1
st,2017.Stopwordslike“a”,“the”and“and”w
ere
removed.Analysisw
asdoneusingRandJupyterN
otebook,andthevisualwascreatedinExcel.
pipeline dakota standing rock water access north oil
people sioux corps project protest
constructiontribe camp army
native river
companyenvironmental
tribes land law tribal
reservationamerican state
missouri sacred day
federal energy
Figure2.Vendiagramcomparingthetop50mostfrequentwordsinthenationalcorpusandtheindigenouscorpus.Stopwordswereremoved.AnalysiswasdoneusingRandJupyterNotebook.
Figure3.Comparisonoftherelativefrequenciesoftheterm“protectors”and“protesters”inthenationalandindigenousnewssources.FrequencylistsgeneratedbyRanalysis,figurecreatedinExcel.
Alsoofsignificantimportancewasthepresenceof“protesters”inthetop50wordsinthe
nationalnewscorpusandof“protectors”inthetop50wordsintheindigenousnews
corpus.Lookingattherelativefrequenciesofthesetermsinbothcorpuses,itisclearthat
nationalnewssourcesrarelyevenusedtheword“protectors”(Figure3).Theseresults
werealsobackedupbytheFlickranalysis,whichfoundthatinpostsforcertaintaggroups,
thepostscomingfromwithinreservationareascontainedthereferenceto“protectors”
whiletheonesfromoutsidereservationareasdidnot,insteadusingtheword“protesters.”
TheseresultsshowadisparityintheportrayalofthepeopleinvolvedintheNoDAPL
movementbetweenthenationalnewssourcesandtheindigenousnewssources,backedup
byadisparityinsocialmediapostingscomingfromwithinoroutsideofreservationareas.
TheKWICanalysisfoundthatthetermwiththemostsimilarcontextbetweenthe
twocorpuseswas“Oil”with53%similarity,andthetermwiththeleastsimilarcontextwas
“Life,”withonly9%similarity(Figures4aandg).However,someofthetermshavehigh
similaritywithintheirtop5words,whichshowsasurprisingalignmentofnationaland
indigenousportrayals.Thisalignmentisbestshowninthewordcloudfor“Indigenous,”
whichshowsverysimilartopterms(Figure4b).Somecommondifferencesthroughout
theseKWICanalyseswere:1)acknowledgementofindigenousnetworksintheindigenous
newspapersthatwerelessacknowledgedinthenationalnewspapers,and2)thesacred
andpeacefulnatureofthecampswasmoreemphasizedintheindigenousnewspapersthan
thenationalnewspapers.Thesethemesareparticularlyevidentinthewordcloudsfor
“Protest,”“Tribe,”and“Sioux”(Figures4d,eandf).WedidnotfindtheKWICanalysesof
“Trump”or“Oil”tobeveryrevealing(Figures4candg).
a b
c d
e f
g Figure4,a-g.Wordcloudsrepresentingthemostfrequenttermswithina3wordbuffercontextofthetopterminorange.Wordcloudsboxedinorangerepresenttheanalysisofthenationalnewssources,wordcloudsinbluerepresenttheanalysisoftheindigenousnewssources.Topwordsaredisplayedbeloweachcloud.AnalysiswasdoneusingRandVoyant.Inadditiontonormalstopwords,“Standing,”“Rock,”“Dakota,”“Access,”and“Pipeline”wereremovedfromtheanalysis.Fortheanalysisof“Trump,”“Donald,”“Mr,”and“President”werealsoremoved.
Discussion
Themostpowerfulfindingofthisanalysiswasthetrendinthefrequenciesofthe
terms“protesters”and“protectors.”Indigenouspeoplesinvolvedinthemovementagainst
theDakotaAccessPipelinehavesaidthattheyare“protectors,notprotesters”(Gyeneset
al.,2017).Thisreflectsaconsciousdecisiontodepictthemselvesinapositivelight,fighting
forsomethingtheydeserve,ratherthanagainstsomethingthatshouldbedone.Andyet,
themainstreammediahascontinuedtousethewordprotestersoverthewordprotectors,
aresultsupportedbothbyourstudyandtheresultsofananalysisperformedby
researchersforMediaCloud(Gyenesetal.,2017).Thisstudyfocusedontextanalysisofa
widerangeofnewssources,andfoundthatinmainstreamnewspaperslikeTheWallStreet
Journal,theterm“protectors”wasneveradopted,whereasother,moreleft-leaningnews
sources,likeDemocracyNow,didadopttheterm,althoughtherewasneveradefined
choicewithinthesemediasourcestouse“protectors”astheofficialterm.
Theprevalenceofthesetwotermswithinthetwocorpusesmattersbecausethey
revealapatterninmattersofsovereigntyandagencysurroundingindigenousrights.By
favoringthephrase“protesters”over“protectors,”nationalmediaislabelingthesepeople
assomethingtheythemselvesdonotidentifyas.Onecouldevendrawparallelswiththe
initiallabelingofNativeAmericanpeoplesas“Indians”byfirstEuropeansettlers.Whilethe
matterofwordchoicemayseemlikeasmallone,thelanguageusedinthesenewsarticles
isrepresentativeoftheminimalpowergiventoindigenouspeoplesinthiscountry.The
Gyenesetal.studyfoundthatthefrequencyoftheterm“protectors”asbeenontherisein
recentmonths,eventhoughthemediaattentiontoStandingRockhasdeclined.However,
thistrendmostlikelysuggeststhatthemostdedicatednewssourcesaretheonesmost
closelytiedtoindigenousgroups,andthereforewithamuchsmallerreadershipthanthe
nationalnewsmedia.Perhapsitistimetoexaminethelanguagethatthenationalmedia
usesforitsabilitytoperpetuateproblematicpowerstructures.
Theothersignificanceofthedifferencebetween“protectors”and“protesters”isthe
wayittranslatestothereadersandthelargerpublic.“Protesters”impliesthatsomethingis
beingstopped,inhibited,bytheiractions.Ithasarestrictiveconnotation.“Protectors,”on
theotherhand,hasheroicconnotations.ItpaintsthoseagainsttheDakotaAccessPipeline
notasagainstdevelopment,butforsafedrinkingwater.Ananalysisofnewspaperarticles
inNigeriasurroundingthetopicofterrorismfoundthatthetermsusedwithinnews
articlescouldactuallyplayaroletoeither“arrestoraggravateasituationespeciallyina
crisissituationorchaoticatmosphere”becauseofthenationalperceptionoftheactorsand
theactors’ownreactiontosuchlabels(Ebim,2017).Thedecisionsmadebythemedia
aboutthelanguagethatgoesintosuchemotionalandsensitivecoverageastheDakota
AccessPipelineconflictmustthereforebedeliberateandawareoftheirimpact.Sentiment
analysisofthesetextcorpusesmaybealogicalnextsteptodeterminejusthowmuchthe
differencebetweentheuseof“protesters”and“protectors”affectsthetakeawaythatthe
readergetsfromthearticle(Shapiro,Sudhof,&Wilson,2017).
Thefindingsofthisstudyrevealthepoweroftextanalysistoapproachalarge
amountofdataandpullsignificantandinterestingpatternsoutofit.Theindigenousnews
corpusincorporated135articles,andthenationalnewscorpuscontained133.Wewere
abletopulloutpatternsthatmatchedthefindingsofothertextanalysisresearch,aswellas
supportedfindingsfromthesocialmediaanalysisportionofourproject.Whilethereareof
courselimitationstothesekindsofanalysesthattakebigdataandtrytosimplifyand
condense,therearealsosignificantbenefitstobeingabletovisualizethetrendsinasetof
datathatmightnotbeeasypicturejustfromreadingthetext.Theseanalysestherefore
enrichabodyoftextwithmeaningthatmighthavebeenmissedotherwise.
Textanalysisisarelativelynewfieldofsocialscienceexploration,especiallyusing
programslikeRandVoyant.However,thereareasignificantnumberofstudiesexamining
itsusefulnessandapplication.WutichandGravlee(Wutich&Gravlee,2010)layouta
spectrumofapplicabilityoftextanalysismethods,fromexploratorytoconfirmatory,with
eachofferingitsowncontributiontoanunderstandingofthebodyoftext.Themethods
usedforthisresearchfallbetweenexploratory,sincethisisanewbodyoftextandthese
methodswerenotasextensiveastheycouldhavebeen,andconfirmatory,becausethe
findingsarebackedupbypreviousresearchandotheranalyses.Thelimitationsoftext
analysis—suchasbiasincollectionandinterpretationofdata—areacknowledgedinmost
studiesthatutilizethesemethods(Dilling&Berggren,2015).Inthisstudy,wecouldhave
chosendifferentormorekeywordsthatmighthaverevealedotherpatternsthathavebeen
missed.Wealsocouldhavecollectedfrommorediversenewssources,likefromonline
siteslikeTheHuffingtonPost.However,wefeelthattextanalysisherehasofferedus
valuableinsightintotheportrayaloftheDakotaAccessPipelineconflictbythemedia,and
thewaysinwhichthatportrayalissignificanttotheunderstandingofindigenousrights
withintheUnitedStates.
Conclusion
Thisstudytooktwobodiesoftext,onegeneratedfromarticlesfromthetopthree
nationalnewspapersinthecountry,onegeneratedfromarticlesfromindigenous
newspapers,andanalyzedtheirdepictionsoftheDakotaAccessPipelineusingtextanalysis
methods.WordfrequenciesandKWICanalyseswereusedtodeterminewhatwasbeing
talkedaboutineachcorpusandhowthosetopicswerebeingaddressed.Wefound
significantresultsindicatingthatthenationalnewssourcesportrayedactivistsinvolvedin
theconflictas“protesters”despitetheirdesiretobecalled“protectors.”Theseresults
suggestthatthereisadisconnectbetweenindigenouscommunitiesandthepublic
awarenessofthemthatisperpetratedbythemedia.Theseconclusionstherefore
contributetoalargerdebateontheuseoflanguageinshapingpublicperceptionsandthe
sovereigntyofindigenousgroupswithintheUnitedStates.
Thesynthesisoflargedatasetsintosuccinctanddirectstatementsisinherentlya
processthatinvolvesoversimplification.However,italsoaprocessthatinvolves
deliberate,justifiabledecisionsonhowtoproduceconclusionsinwhichareaderwillhave
confidence.Thisanalysisrevealedasignificantdifferenceintheuseof“protesters”versus
“protectors”innationalandindigenousnewsmediareferencingtheDakotaAccessPipeline
conflict.Thisfindingallowsustoexaminetheroleofmediainskewing,shaping,and
classifyingissuesbasedonthelanguageused,andhowthatlanguagecanhaveanactive
partincontributingtoorbreakingdownestablishedpowerstructures.
WorksCited
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Ebim,M.A.(2017).“Terroristsortags”?ContestedidentitiesinmediaportrayalofmilitantsinNigeria.Mgbakoigba:JournalofAfricanStudies,6(2),142-154.
Gyenes,N.,Sehat,C.M.,Fish,S.,Shah,A.,Kaiser,J.,Villareal,P.,...Zuckerman,E.(2017).Fightingfor,notfightingagainst:MediaCoverageandtheDakotaAccessPipeline.
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