‘We want kids, not nukes’: a critical discourse analysis of newspaper representations of children in anti-nuclear movements in Taiwan, 1987–2019

Abstract

Environmental Sociology has addressed gender, racial, and class dynamics within environmental movements, but the involvement of children, particularly in East Asia, remains under-researched. This article examines the representations of children in the news articles of Taiwanese anti-nuclear movements. With critical discourse analysis, the study examines 154 newspaper articles from two major newspapers published between 1987 and 2019. This article characterizes the representations of children in the news in three types: as slogans, as silent participants, and as defenders of rights. The paper shows that children have been reported in the news articles since the inception of the anti-nuclear movements, but their opinions were only recently reported. Dismissing children’s voices in the news articles could be related to undermining children’s capacity and agency to form views. The shifting representations of children in the news articles symbolize evolving power relations between children and adults, which are fluid, dynamic, and diverse rather than static. This article calls for a reflection on how children are represented in mass media and how the representations reveal the underlying presumption of children by adults.