Wildlife tourism in times of crisis: A critical discourse analysis of media coverage during the Covid-19 pandemic

Julia Wester , Caitlin Reisa , Catherine Macdonald

Tourism is a growing, if controversial, approach to wildlife conservation. Constructed on neoliberal ideological assumptions, tourism-as-conservation-strategies can reinforce social inequalities and patterns of historical oppression. This model of conservation and economic development is also vulnerable to global market trends and disruptions. In this paper we use content and critical discourse analysis to examine media coverage of wildlife tourism in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic as a case study of dominant discourses in a moment of crisis (n = 237). Findings reveal consequences of media practices for the production and reproduction of dominant neoliberal ideological understandings of wildlife conservation. Through this examination we reveal a variety of beliefs, assumptions and power dynamics inherent in tourism-as-conservation-strategies. In particular, we discuss implications of the ways in which agency and specificity are granted or withheld from particular groups and how nuance and complexity are collapsed. Results highlight the limitations of dominant discourses to deal with the inherent complexity in these social-ecological systems.