Loredana Loy

Overview

Loredana Loy is a Postdoctoral Associate, Disinformation, Animal Agriculture, and Climate Change, in The Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami. She is interested in the ways systems of power interact with cultural ideas and processes to shape climate politics. Her current postdoctoral research examines institutional and public responses to proposed climate action solutions, with a particular focus on opposition, obstruction, and backlash against these solutions.

Subfields

Environmental Sociology, Political Sociology, Culture and Media, Social Movements, Animals and Society

Dissertation Committee

David Strang (chair), David Alexander Bateman (Government), Ben Cornwell

External Advisors

Rachel Wetts (Brown University), Robert Brulle (Brown University)

Dissertation

The Evolution of a Debate: Political Dynamics and Framing Logics in Governmental Agencies’ Climate Change Discourse

My dissertation focuses on institutional mobilization broadly defined. It examines the way political contexts and the politicization of climate change have prompted governmental agencies’ climate advocacy and shaped the way these agencies framed the climate issue, and whether these efforts alleviated or exacerbated the problem of stalled climate action. I use quantitative text analysis and statistical methodology on longitudinal data derived from a content analysis of congressional testimonies over the span of four decades, as well as qualitative analysis on the primary text of testimonies.

Other Research

Societal Transitions

In this stream of research, I focus on systemic changes and the concept of transition as a macro-societal process. Specifically, this research looks at major systemic changes proposed and considered in response to the climate crisis. It examines the interaction between economic systems and cultural meaning systems and draws on the case of the movement for the transition to a plant-based consumption system. Within this framework I am interested in three areas: 1) the corporate and public backlash against suggested climate policy measures that aim at such transitions, 2) the contribution of social movements to the emergence of new transitional industries, and 3) corporate mobilization and resistance to the process of transition via pro-corporate legislation aimed at obstructing transition processes.

Publications

Peer-Reviewed Publications

James Painter, J. Ettinger, D. C. Holmes, Loredana Loy, J. Pinto, L. M. Richardson, L. Thomas-Walters, K. Vowles, R. Wetts. 2023. “Climate Delay Discourses Present in Global Mainstream Television Coverage of the IPCC’s 2021 Report.” Communications Earth & Environment. 4(1):1–12. doi: 10.1038/s43247-023-00760-2.

Loy, Loredana. 2022. “Experts and the Politicization of Climate Change in Congress. A Case Study of the Environmental Protection Agency (1983–2015).” Science and Public Policy. Online first: doi: 10.1093/scipol/scac020.

Brulle, Robert J., G. Hall, Loredana Loy, and K. Schell-Smith. 2021. “Obstructing Action: Foundation Funding and US Climate Change Counter-Movement Organizations.” Climatic Change 166(1–2):17. DOI https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03117-w

Manuscripts Under Review

Loy, Loredana. “The Primacy of Economics in American Climate Policy Debates: A Historical Perspective.” Under review at Environmental Communication.

Wetts, Rachel, J. Painter, and Loredana Loy. “The IPCC in the Hybrid Public Sphere: Divergent Responses to Climate Mitigation Solutions in Mainstream and Social Media.” Under review at Climatic Change.

Chapters

Loy, Loredana. Forthcoming. “About a Speech: The Media’s Reaction to a Celebrity Animal Advocacy Intervention.” In Activism on and off Screen. Edited by Claire Parkinson and Lara Herring. Sidney University Press.

Loy, Loredana. 2017. “Media Activism and Advocacy: What’s Film Got to Do with it?” In Critical Animal and Media Studies, edited by Nùria Almiron. London: Routledge.

Loy, Loredana. 2015. “Representations of Animal Advocacy in Film.” In Lives Beyond Us: Essays on the Film Reality of Animals, edited by Kristin Irving & Seb Manley. London: Sidekick Books.

Other Publications

Wrenn Corey, Loredana Loy, and B. Berry. 2020. “COVID–19, Animals, and Us: Human Supremacy as an Environmental Pathology.” ASA Footnotes 48(3).