The logic of competing information campaigns: Conflict over old growth and the spotted owl

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Abstract
This qualitative case study examines the nature of the competing information campaigns offered by environmental and timber industry groups as they conflict over the Northern spotted owl and “old growth” forests in the Pacific Northwest. Environmental advocacy literature is reviewed and background of the debate is provided. The competing information campaigns are shown to comprise a synchronous, spiral‐like logic of interaction in which antagonists mirror or match each other's rhetorical and communicative strategies. The study suggests that even in the absence of direct communication between disputants, the opposing political information campaigns are co‐created within a system characterized by necessity and constraint.