The Convergence of Eco-Activism, Neoliberalism, and Reality TV in Whale Wars

Abstract

a strange convergence arose in 2007 as Animal Planet, a subsidiary of Discovery Communications, hired Marjorie Kaplan as president and general manager to rebrand network's image and boost its ratings. Following on heels of popularity of Discovery's Deadliest Catch, a fishing show where crews encounter rough seas and salty personalities, Animal Planet was charged with creating highoctane, human-interest stories that could raise viewership for station.1At same time, Paul Watson, founder of nongovernmental organization (NGO) Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, was conceptualizing how his group's direct actions against illegal Japanese whaling in Southern Ocean might make good television. Watson, who has remained one of savviest activists in mobilizing video and film around animal rights campaigns since he first worked with Greenpeace in early 1970s, reflected, The biggest show on Discovery at time was about a bunch of men going into very rough waters in very remote areas and catching crabs. I said, 'Well, you know, we can go into even more remote waters, even rougher waters with worse weather conditions, and save whales' (Goh).As a result, in November 2008 Whale Wars premiered on Animal Planet. Within a year, it became network's most-watched show and helped raise viewership by over 15 percent (Crupi 6). Along similar lines, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society halved Japanese whaling during series' first four seasons and forced Japanese to temporarily stop whaling by February 2011 (Oliver). All in all, it appeared that good television and effective activism could coexist.In this article I investigate some of ways in which Sea Shepherd and Paul Watson employ a spectacle-driven activism in order to popularize their anti-whaling message and produce fodder for a reality television series. In particular, I locate two central themes and accompanying desires that connect certain anarchist-inflected brands of direct-action activism with commercial television: (1) reassertion of patriarchal authority and hierarchy in a seemingly feminized neoliberal age; and (2) attempt to establish a nonalienated life where work, leisure, and nature seamlessly interconnect. Whale Wars provides an interesting moment where a certain strain of direct action, activist media-making, and commercial television production converge. Unlike most research that contrasts radical media against commercial productions, an analysis of first five seasons of Whale Wars will explore how certain elements of each feed into one another and, more specifically, will demonstrate how reality television mobilizes a belief in a spectacle-based activism that simultaneously promotes and undermines such animal rights campaigns. Overall, Whale Wars demonstrates promises and pitfalls when such activism gains access to commercial mass distribution.2Image Events and Neoliberal Citizenry of Reality TelevisionAs Kevin DeLuca notes, groups such as Greenpeace, Animal Liberation Front, and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society rely primarily on direct-action image events to sustain, popularize, and build upon their activism. In a society of spectacle where one is awash in a constant sea of imagery, animal rights campaigns have used dramatic direct-action stunts in order to garner media coverage that challenges the hegemonic discourse of industrialism and received meanings of ideographs progress, nature, humanity, reason, and technology (DeLuca 51-52). Activism and spectacle suddenly become coterminous. Media coverage serves not as a byproduct of such activism but as a key ingredient in organizing it, popularizing its message, and hopefully forcing those who abuse animals and/or earth to stop under global public pressure and scrutiny.This type of image-based activism has been on ascendency since 1970s. As Hans Magnus Enzensberger observed back in 1970, [t]he question is therefore not whether media are manipulated, but who manipulates them. …