The Mainstreaming of Children’s Voices in Environmental Communication

Abstract

In this chapter, I shift my attention from the children’s media industry to the discursive practices of young people as environmental communicators. I argue that the growing role of child activists as spokespeople on the topic of climate change is destabilising traditional understandings of childhood that have kept children on the margins of ‘serious, adult’ discussions of such topics. This final chapter examines the representational politics of youth and childhood in relation to climate activism and argues that while mainstream media representations of youth climate activism seek to confirm the adult/child boundary, the young activists themselves often draw power from their ability to cross that boundary strategically and at will. Following an analysis of the brand narrative of Greta Thunberg and the discursive practices of other young climate communicators, the chapter demonstrates that such activism is drawing from, imprinting on, and intersecting with the images and stories produced by the children’s media industry itself.