54094 A3 Assignment Guide Eenvironment project 代写
Assessment task 3: Environmental Communication Project
ASSIGNMENT GUIDE
Task: Students produce an environmental communication project, which incorporates analysis and critique of the communication of an environmental issue in the media or public policy. This may take the form of an extended research essay OR creative practice e.g. a public communication intervention, a piece of environmental journalism or a media production.
Weight: 50%
Length: 2000 words or equivalent across media (references not included)
Due: 9.00am Saturday 28 October 2017
Written work submitted to Turnitin by 9am on this date. Other work to be submitted on deadline by arrangement.
Weight/ Criteria
20 Originality of work
20 Depth and accuracy of research and investigation
15 Depth of critical analysis and reflection
15 Strength of argument
15 Clarity of expression and structure
15 Credibility, variety and quantity of sources
54094 A3 Assignment Guide Eenvironment project 代写
Final assignment can be conducted on any topic of your choice within the themes of the subject, pursuing relevant issues which arouse your passions or curiosity, refining and developing research questions literature, and material from your A1 Research Proposal. Whatever medium is chosen, originality, research, critical analysis and coherence are the key.
Practice-based environmental communication project
As an alternative to a research essay, you may produce a creative or practice-based project that responds to the questions and provocations below, or on another environmental question/issue of your choice. Your project should focus on the environmental issue of your choice, and set out to communicate the background and context of the issue, what is at stake, who the main players and interest groups are, and what outcomes they are seeking. As for the essay, it is essential that your project demonstrates your incorporates original research and critical analysis, sustained engagement with subject material, and that it does not simply review or regurgitate previous reporting or creative treatment of the issue.
Your project can be in any medium, and could be a) an extended piece of environmental journalism b) a short video, online documentary or audio piece c) a detailed proposal for a media campaign or public communication intervention, or any other project that you have discussed and negotiated with your tutor.
We strongly encourage you to approach your tutor as early as possible (eg during class work on A1) and discuss your proposed project with them.
1. Communicating Climate Change
There is vigorous debate amongst scientists, policy makers, activists, journalists, academic researchers and communications professionals about how best to communicate the reality of climate change and the need for urgent action. As Smith and Howe (2015) have argued recently, the communication of climate change is not simply a discourse about energy policy or scientific facts; it is also a “reflexive narration” which exists in a complex field of multiple, competing genres which they call the “social drama” of climate change.
With reference to range of readings, discuss the proposition that simply communicating the scientific facts about climate change is not enough to create a social and political basis for climate action.
Or
Climate change is caused by our everday use of energy from fossil-fuel combustion, and increasingly effects everywhere on the Earth, and yet for many seems a remote, invisible concern. Using particular examples, discuss and evaluate the strategies by which particular artists, photographers, film makers, activists and other public communicators have attempted to make global warming visible and immediate. How successful were these strategies? What were their limitations?
Indicative Readings
Philip Smith, Nicholas Howe, Climate Change as Social Drama. Global Warming in the Public Sphere. CUP, New York, 2015
Arnold, Annika, 2015 Narratives of climate change: outline of a systematic approach to narrative analysis in cultural sociology. Stuttgart, http://dx.doi.org/10.18419/opus-8740
Beck, U. 2010 “Climate for Change, or How to Create a Green Modernity?” Theory Culture Society 27: 254-66.
Capstick, S.B. & Capstick, N.F. 2014 “What is climate change scepticism? Examination of the concept using a mixed methods study of the UK public” Global Environmental Change 24: 389–401.
Hamilton, C. (2010) Why We Resist the Truth About Climate Change , paper given to the Climate Controversies: Science and politics conference, Museum of Natural Sciences, Brussels, 28 October
Princen, T., Manno, J.P., Martin, P.L. 2015, The Problem, in Ending the Fossil Fuel Era, MIT, Cambridge MA, pp 3-36
Philo, G., & Happer, C., (2013) Communicating Climate Change and Energy Security. New Methods in Understanding Audiences, Routledge, Abingdon
2. What is successful environmental communication?
Take an example of a campaign around an environmental issue – e.g. the Franklin Dam, anti-whaling campaigns, the campaign to stop use of hydrofluorocarbons – and analyse the reasons for its success. Who were the main actors involved? What role did scientific evidence play in the campaign? What communication strategies did the campaigners use? What role did the media play?
Indicative Readings
Cox, Robert (2013) Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere, 3rd edition, Sage, Thousand Oaks, California
Lester, L. (2010), Media and Environment: Conflict, Politics and the News Polity, Cambridge
Wiener, Gary, (2012) The environment in Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Greenhaven Press, Farmington Hills, MI *
Lytle, Mark H. (2007) The gentle subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring and the Rise of the Environmental Movement, Oxford University Press, NY
Weyler, Rex (2004) Greenpeace : how a group of journalists, ecologists and visionaries changed the world, Emmaus, Pa. : Rodale,
Defendant 5 30 mins 2014
http://uts.kanopystreaming.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/video/defendant-5
3. Protest as Environmental Communication
Public protests, whether in the form of demonstrations, non-violent direct action, or media “events”, have been an important means by which environmental movements have sought to communicate concerns and raise public awareness about environmental issues – from the anti-nuclear movement of the 1970s and the Franklin Dam protests of the early 1980s, through to the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling campaign, anti-logging actions in Tasmania, and the People’s Climate March and anti-coal protests of the early 21st century.
Take one case study of an environmental campaign involving public protest and analyse it. You should give some brief context and history about the issues at stake, the origins and aims of the campaign and the actors involved, and move on to analyse the communicative strategies employed to raise awareness in the public sphere and on the “public screen” (de Luca & Peeples, 2002). In particular, you should identify which groups, individuals or political interests the campaign sought to influence, and how effective it was in achieving its ends.
Lester, L. (2010), Media and Environment: Conflict, Politics and the News Polity, Cambridge Chapter 1: Media and Environments, Chapter 2: Conflicts and Risk
DeLuca, K, & Peeples, J. (2002). From public sphere to public screen: Democracy, activism, and the “violence” of Seattle. Critical Studies in Media Communication 19(2), 125-151.
4. Environmental communication and culture
Taking two or more examples – films, novels, artworks, TV series, or other cultural objects – analyse how they explore a particular environmental issue. How successful are they at communicating the complexities of an issue in a fictional or creative form? What strategies do they employ? What sort of public or critical debate did they generate? What is the value of this kind of communication vis a vis – say – a scientific paper, an academic article, a non-fiction book or documentary?
Indicative Readings
Krien, Anna (2012), Into the Woods. The Battle for Tasmania’s Forests, Black Ink, Collingwood, Victoria
D’Agata, John (2010), About a Mountain, Norton
Climate Wars (2010) BBC TV documentary series
(2010 / 3 x 48 mins / Documentary)
https://www.lib.uts.edu.au/goto?qurl=http://edutv.informit.com.au/watch-screen.php?videoID=29195
http://edutv.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/watch-screen.php?videoID=33394
http://edutv.informit.com.au.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/watch-screen.php?videoID=147474
5. Anti-environmental communication
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring catalysed the modern environmental movement and the "environmental state" (e.g the creation of US Environmental Protection Agency). It also spawned something like an industry devoted to ‘anti-environmentalist’ communication, with the aim of spreading disinformation, countering environmental scientists and activists, shaping public opinion and preventing legal restrictions on polluting or ecologically destructive industry.
Choose a particular issue, event or campaign which typifies this "anti-environmental communication" and document the organisations and actors involved and the rhetorical strategies they use.
Examples could include pro-coal campaigns, the promotion of "energy security" as a central policy issue for governments, the campaign against the carbon tax in Australia, and attempts to undermine the case for renewable energy (anti-wind energy campaigns, the blaming of the SA power blackout on renewable energy).
Organizations: neoliberal think tanks (IPA), mining and energy companies, Murdoch press, PR companies such as Burston Marstellar and its clients (eg. Union Carbide and the Bhopal Gas disaster)
Indicative Readings
Boykoff, M.T. 2011 Who Speaks for the Climate? Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oreskes, Nancy. Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming, 2010. (New York: Bloomsbury Press.)
Jacques, P.J., Dunlap, R.E. & Freeman, M. 2008 “The Organisation of Denial: Conservative think tanks and environmental skepticism” Environmental Politics, 17:3, 349-385
Proctor, R. (2008) ‘Agnotology: a missing term to describe the cultural production of ignorance (and its study). In Agnotology: the making and unmaking ofignorance, eds. Robert Proctor, and Londa Schiebinger. Stanford (CA): Stanford
Boykoff M. & Boykoff J. 2003 “Balance as bias: global warming and the US prestige press”, Global Environmental Change, 14(2): 125-13
6. Environmental Journalism
“Journalism about the environment and climate change sits at a complex of intersections between politics, business, science, nature and culture, in between, the individual and the common but also in between the local, regional and global levels. […]the question arises of whether traditional professional dichotomies between ‘‘objective’’ and ‘‘balanced’’ versus ‘‘advocacy’’ journalism are adequate in the face of such social and environmental challenges. This question is exacerbated by the fact that this is an area of reporting that is heavily dependent on journalistic translations of scientific knowledge. Taken together these aspects make environmental journalism an area ripe for clashes of various sorts.” (Bodker and Neverla, (2012) Introduction, Journalism Studies, 13:2, 152-156)
Take an example of environmental journalism on a particular issue or conflict and analyse how the coverage does (or does not) connect the local and the global, and reveal intersections between politics, business, science, nature & culture.
If possible, your analysis should review coverage of the particular issue across a range of media e.g. online, TV, radio, social media.
OR
Take an example of journalism on a particular environmental issue or conflict. If possible, your analysis should review coverage of the particular issue across a range of media e.g. online, TV, radio, social media.
With reference to a range of relevant scholarly literature, explore whether or not the coverage sets out to conform to journalistic norms of “balance” and objectivity, or assumes a position of advocacy. Which approach should environmental journalism adopt?
OR
“The proper study of Mankind is Man” - Alexander Pope, 1734
What is the “proper study” of environmental journalism?
Should it always attempt to frame environmental issues in terms of their impact on humans – in other words, an anthropocentric approach, such as measuring the bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef in terms of lost tourism income– or should it strive to focus on the rights and interests of other living beings – an “ecocentric” approach?
Can an ecocentric approach still effectively communicate environmental issues?
7. Climate change policy
A carbon tax or carbon price in some shape or form has now been introduced on most continents, including China, some states of the US, and within the EU. Since the Rudd government's proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) failed to pass through Federal Parliament in 2009, political support for a price on carbon in Australia has flagged, despite backing from independent inquiries such as the Finkel Review and many business groups. Tony Abbott’s incoming Liberal/National Coalition government campaigned against climate policy and in 2014 repealed the 2011 Clean Energy Act, including its provisions for a temporary ‘carbon tax’ – a reversal on climate policy some say is a unique globally . What is the rationale behind carbon pricing? Why is Australia lagging behind much of the rest of the world? Analyze the reasons for opposition to a price on carbon in Australia, identifying the major players in the campaign against it, and important shifts in public debate. How could public and political support for a carbon price be increased?
Chubb, Philip, Power Failure. The Inside Story of Climate Politics under Rudd and Gillard, Black Ink, 2014
https://www.carbonbrief.org/the-state-of-carbon-pricing-around-the-world-in-46-carbon-markets
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2016/12/08/factbox-carbon-taxes-and-emission-trading-schemes-around-world
8. The Anthropocene – The Human Age
In 2000 Paul Crutzen first proposed the idea that the Earth has entered a new geological era, the Anthropocene, in which humans have become a force shaping the geosphere and the biosphere of the planet. In 2016, an official expert group recommended to the International Geological Congress in Cape Town that the Anthropocene be recognized as an official geological epoch.
The Anthropocene has become a remarkably influential concept, both in the natural sciences, and the humanities. But how useful is it? Is it, as Finney and Edwards (2016) have argued a "political statement" rather than a scientific category? And if so, does its use in the humanities run the risk of depoliticizing and dehistoricizing the exploitation of both the natural environment and humans under capitalism, as Malm & Hornborg (2014) contend?
W. Steffen, J. Grinevald, P. Crutzen & J. McNeill (2011) The Anthropocene: Conceptual and Historical Perspectives, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol. 369, no. 84, 842-867.
Elaine Crist (2013) On the poverty of our nomenclature, Environmental Humanities, vol. 3, pp. 129-147, http://environmentalhumanities.org/arch/vol3/3.7.pdf
Malm, A. & Hornborg, A. 2014, The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative, The Anthropocene Review vol. 1 no. 1 62-69
9. Hope and despair – imagining worlds to come. Ecological utopia or dystopia?
Develop a detailed scenario for the state of the world and its climate and environment for some future date. Your scenario may contain fictional elements but should be based in projections from scientific literature and/or current debates in political, economic or social theory. It should seek to highlight and explore a particular environmental issue by projecting it in the future (just as Rachel Carson does in the opening chapter of Silent Spring).
A useful recent model may be:
Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, The Collapse of Western Civilisation: A View from the Future, Columbia University Press, 2014.
10. Indigenous futures
Indigenous peoples around the world have borne much of the brunt of ecologically destructive forms of resource extraction and remain on the frontlines of ‘neocolonialism’ in many lands. Notably, Indigenous people rarely talk about ‘the environment’ and ‘nature’ as separate from ‘society’ and ‘the economy’ as mainstream politics does, but rather assert what might be called a ‘cosmo-ecological’ ethic. Research a particular ecological/land conflict involving First Peoples, analysing the ways that they articulate their claims and resistance, reflecting what we can learn from this. In your answer you might consider the allied Earth Justice or Earth Law movement.
For example:
Wangan & Jagalingou people vs. Adani coal mine
Standing Rock Sioux vs. Dakota access pipeline
Lubicon Cree vs Athabasca Tar Sands
https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/melina-loubicanmassimo/awaiting-justice-%E2%80%93-indigenous-resistance-to-tar-sand-development-in-cana
Ijaw in the Niger delta vs. Shell, Chevron.
Yanomami vs. logging, ranching and mining in Amazonia (see Davi Kopenawa, The Falling Sky, in DRR)
11. We have the Technology – Global ecological erosion is attributable to a range of technologies (eg. Petrochemistry, fossil-fuelled machines etc) , but arguably ‘only technology can save us’ from the unanticipated side-effects of technology. Discuss in relation to evidence from a case study around a ‘technological solution’ such as green architecture, smart grids, renewable energy, space mining, algae biofuels, geoengineering, bioengineering for de-extinction etc.
12. Making the Environment Audible – Acoustic Ecology and Environmental Communication
The World Forum on Acoustic Ecology defines its mission as “listening to the soundscape, sharpening aural awareness and deepening listeners’ understanding of environmental sounds and their meanings; research and study of the social, cultural, scientific and ecological aspects of the sonic environment; protecting and preserving natural soundscapes and times and places of quiet”.
Taking a case study, explore how environmental communication grounded in the ideas and practices of acoustic ecology can bring environmental issues to public awareness in ways that other forms of communication (e.g. visual) cannot. How can sound “sharpen and deepen” our awareness of environmental issues? What are the limitations of such an approach?
Wrightson, K. An introduction to acoustic ecology. eContact! 5.3
http://www.econtact.ca/5_3/wrightson_acousticecology.html Truax, B. & Barrett, G.W. (2011) Soundscape in a context of acoustic and landscape ecology, in: Landscape Ecology 26: 1201. doi:10.1007/s10980-011-9644-9
Schafer, R. Murray, The Tuning of the World, (1977)
13. The Anthropocene
The “Anthropocene” has become a highly influential concept, both in the natural sciences and the humanities. Giving a brief account of its origins and meaning, discuss whether, how and why the “Anthropocene” is a useful way of communicating and illuminating the “planetary emergency” which we are now in.
Is the Anthropocene a call to action on climate change – or does it, as Malm and Homborg argue, obscure the gross inequalities in consumption of fossil fuels and responsibility for global warming, and thus represent an ideology which is “conducive to mystification and political paralysis”?
Malm A & Hornborg A , (2014) ‘The geology of mankind? A critique of the Anthropocene narrative The Anthropocene Review, 1: 62-69
Altvater, E., Crist, E., Haraway, D., Hartley, D., Parenti, C., & McBrien, J. (2016). Anthropocene or capitalocene?: Nature, history, and the crisis of capitalism. Pm Press.
http://www.gakindex.info/assets/jason-w-moore-anthropocene-or-capitalocene-nature-history-and-the-crisis-of-capitalism-3.pdf#page=167
14. Ethics of Environmental Communication
According to the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) Code of Ethics.
PR professionals have a “responsibility […] to the community as well as to their clients and employers” to “ not knowingly disseminate false or misleading information and shall take care to avoid doing so inadvertently”. Yet as the history of environmental politics shows, the interventions of PR firms have been crucial to the defeat of environmental campaigns, movements, and law. (e.g. see claims about Burson-Marstellar at activist sites http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Burson-Marsteller
https://corporatewatch.org/content/burson-marsteller-corporate-crimes). Analysing a particular case study, discuss the dilemmas and responsibilities of communication professionals (including in advertising and journalism) when it comes to the public communication of science and environmental policy matters.
15. Carbon Democracy
Tim Mitchell (2009) argues that the organisation of the 19th century coal complex was conducive to worker’s demands for social democracy, while the 20th century was characterised by a democracy-crushing oil imperialism. What are the strengths and limits of this argument? Evaluate and extend the ‘carbon democracy’ thesis by considering (a) the political power of contemporary coal, oil and gas industries over climate policy debates (for example in Australia, China, Russia, Canada, the Middle East or the US ) and/or (b) the potential for democratisation inherent in renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and algae-based biofuels.
16. The End of the World of the End of Capitalism?
Naomi Klein (2014) has argued that “we are left with a stark choice: allow climate disruption to change everything about our world, or change pretty much everything about our economy to avoid that fate. But we need to be very clear: because of our decades of collective denial, no gradual, incremental options are now available to us”. In a similar vein Frederic Jameson and Slavov Zizek have wondered why “‘It is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism”. What do you think? Discuss
Klein, Naomi. This changes everything: Capitalism vs. the climate. Simon and Schuster, 2015.
54094 A3 Assignment Guide Eenvironment project 代写
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