Social Media and Oil in Southern California

Social Media and Oil in Southern California: Greenwashing Los Angeles chronicles the use of social media (old and new) to greenwash the petroleum industry in Southern California. As this research documents, oil–not Hollywood–is the key industry that drives the California dream.

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Social Media and Oil in Southern California: Greenwashing Los Angeles interrogates the politics of invisibility that permeates Southern California’s oil industry. Most residents are completely unaware that hospitals, schools, businesses, and homes are built among the thousands of active wells in Los Angeles County. Since the early 1900’s, the oil industry used social media to greenwash itself and obscure the material consequences of drilling and refining. From postcards to YouTube, social media has been a key tool in the arsenal of the fossil fuel industry. Jason L. Jarvis argues that oil–not Hollywood–is the key industry that drives the California dream. Scholars of communication, environmental studies, and rhetoric will find this book of particular interest.