Presentation short abstract

This study examines how opponents and proponents of copper mining in Panama use Instagram to frame extraction (through the rhetoric of nature, nation, and economy) and mobilize networks (including NGOs, activists, and influencers as well as state and corporate actors) to disseminate their messages.

Presentation long abstract

In recent years, Panama has been locked in a protracted conflict over the country’s largest copper mine, which is operated by the Canadian company First Quantum Minerals (FQM). In 2023, environmental activists launched a campaign to protest a new concession to FQM, using social media to mobilize opposition and to frame the mine as a threat to Panama’s natural environment and national sovereignty. After massive street protests, Panama’s Supreme Court invalidated the concession, shuttering the mine indefinitely. However, FQM and its allies in the Mulino government have since fought back, launching a social media campaign of their own to frame the mine as “green” and as an engine of economic growth and job creation.

Drawing on a dataset of Instagram posts and metadata scraped from civil society, government, corporate, and influencer accounts, I first examine the rhetorical and affective strategies employed by pro-extraction and anti-extraction actors, focusing on how they uses framings around nature, economic growth, and national identity to mobilize (or demobilize) the Panamanian public. I then draw upon social network analysis to map out the interconnected webs through which proponents and opponents of the mine disseminate and amplify their messages. On the anti-mining side, I focus on connections among Panamanian NGOs, environmental influencers, and their external allies across Latin America and the Global North, while on the pro-mining side, I examine the networks that link state and corporate actors, playing particular attention to the role of pro-mining influencers (many of whom are FQM employees) in disseminating pro-extraction messages.