Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts in Communication

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Communication

Advisor/Mentor

Dionne, T. Jake

Committee Member

Neville-Shepard, Meredith

Second Committee Member

TenHaaf, Rachel

Third Committee Member

Oliver III, William

Abstract

Within the modern era of performative inclusivity and widespread greenwashing, it is critical to examine popular media through an ecocultural lens to determine if said media is being handled responsibly as a social practice and if a discursive atmosphere is being created. This paper takes an ecocultural critical analysis of Disney’s worlds of Frozen and Moana, inspecting their treatment of the human, treatment of the more-than-human, and human/more-than-human relationships. This study finds that although both franchises have been broadly praised for cultural representation of Indigenous people groups, Disney’s failure to effectively acknowledge the intrinsic relationship between humankind and the more-than-human world speaks to a broad rejection of ecocultural reality, proliferates the false dichotomy between nature and culture, and informs viewers that taking action towards thoughtful sustainability is not necessary.

Keywords

environmental communication, critical media studies, ecocultural critical theory, nature/culture dualism, Disney films

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