Resumen de Effectiveness of culture jamming in agenda building: an analysis of the yes men's Bhopal disaster prank
Nick W. Robinson, Gina Castle Bell
Activist organizations have attempted to build their media agenda through hoaxes as part of a broader strategy called culture jamming. To test the efficacy of this strategy, we conducted a content analysis of 114 newspaper articles about the Bhopal disaster, framed through agenda building theory (Cobb & Elder, 1971). The articles examined were published two years before and after a hoax perpetrated by the activist group The Yes Men. Six hypotheses and one overarching research question were proposed. Several 2 × 2 chi-square tests were conducted to determine the impact of the hoax on the media agenda by examining differences in frequencies of several categories, including mention of (a) Dow ownership, (b) ongoing health consequences, (c) death toll, and (d) additional legal redress bothbeforeandafterthe hoax. Results indicate that the Bhopal BBC hoax actually decreased the media's use of frames sympathetic to the victims of Bhopal. This surprising discovery suggests that culture jammers should alter their strategies if they hope to alter the media agenda in substantial and long-lasting ways. Several implications for culture-jamming strategies are proposed.
