Standing Rock and the #NoDAPL Movement

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     For my project I created a website to highlight the controversy of the North Dakota Access Pipeline running through the Standing Rock territory which is sacred to the Sioux people. The Construction of the North Dakota Access Pipeline threatens the drinking water of the Sioux people and subsequently their health. Environmentalists are concerned that the pipeline will also increase America’s oil infrastructure contributing further to climate change. I wanted to boost the voice of indigenous people and the best way I could do that was make a website with helpful resources. I was very inspired by Shailene Woodley’s article because she used her prominence as an actress to advocate for the Sioux people. I wanted to focus on the idea of clicktivism as it is safest to stay at our homes right now, and even after the pandemic most will not be able to protest in person due to being unable to travel. Clicktivism is the concept of taking action by clicking a link online (Pezzullo & Cox, 2018).

I decided to use the free platform Carrd.co to create my website because I liked the wireframe, or format, of the site. On my website I created a brief overview of the situation, and included links at the bottom of the page to take the viewer to different pages for more detailed information regarding the North Dakota Access Pipeline. I wanted to use hypermediacy, incorporating a lot of different media, to appeal to people who learn differently. On the website I included two petitions that would show support for the protesters and land reparations for indigenous people. Under the ‘videos’ section I included two educational videos that were meant to be shared on social media. The two organizations I found were for Indigenous people fighting for environmental rights. I found this important because Indigenous land is commonly a sacrifice zone, or area that attracts polluters (Pezzullo & Cox, 2018). I also created two letter templates that could be sent to officials to get them to protect the National Environmental Policy Act, and the Sioux people’s sovereignty. Lastly I included the articles that I read to educate myself at the beginning of this project. There are still many great articles out there about the situation and I encourage you to do additional research. 


I posted the website on Facebook and tracked how many people interacted with the post to measure the success. This website was made for like-minded individuals to find resources to help stop the pipeline. I also hope it would persuade empathetic people to take a stand, but the main target were people who are into environmental and social justice. My goal was to get around 20 people to interact with my post on Facebook and for 50 people to view the website. I set up Google Analytics on my website so I could check how many people saw my website. On Facebook I had 8 people share my post, and 16 people interact with it by liking the post. In total I had 33 users come to my website with 57 page views. Below you can see a screenshot of Google Analytics.


I realized through this project how hard it is to get people to take action. It reminded me of the deficit model and that even when the information is presented to the public they can find something they value more like scrolling through the rest of their social media feed. I leave you with the link to my website and hope that you take action to protect the Sioux people and the environment!


forstandingrock.carrd.co


References:


Pezullo, P. & Cox, R. (2018). Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere. Los Angeles, CA. Sage Publications, Inc.


Woodley, S. (2016, Oct 26). Shailene Woodley: The Truth About My Arrest. Time Magazine. https://time.com/4538557/shailene-woodley-arrest-pipeline/

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