Abstract
Observation of Sea World – Gold Coast, Australia’s 2015 and 2018 onsite signage and live animal shows provides indication of a significant shift in legitimating rhetoric. The keeping of animals in captivity has become an increasingly contentious issue requiring zoos and marine parks to reposition themselves to remain viable as tourism enterprises to be sustained into the future. Recent protests by animal rights activists in Australia exemplifies the ideological challenges to the keeping of marine animals in captivity. To survive and thrive all organisations including marine parks must present an ideologically sustainable position which is consistent through their messaging and practices. Participant observation and discourse analysis are applied in this study to reveal the messaging employed by Sea World – Gold Coast, Australia in two separate years, and by doing so to identify the changes in legitimation framing over the period. Examples of onsite signage and live animal shows at the theme park, demonstrate that the legitimating discourses have shifted from its role in educating the public about marine animals and conservation in 2015, to highlighting its role as authorised, expert facility understood as a place of refuge to care for individual animals in 2018.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
