(Week 10) Media and the environment 4: communication by environmental NGOs

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Dear Colleagues,

on Friday we will discuss

Media and the environment 4: communication by environmental NGOs

Please find the reading below.

Before class, please send a link about a case you consider important in the area of emvironmental NGO communication. It could be an article or tv program about an NGO action, or the footage of an NGO action. In class we will discuss the cases.Then we watch the ending epizode of the documentary Earth 2100.

Please also remember we agreed that the first draft of the e-waste paper is due this week. Then we should read and comments on the first drafts, so you’ll have a chance to finalize by the end of the semester.

Best regards,

Miklos

 

(Week 10) Media and the environment 4: communication by environmental NGOs

How do environmentalist or preservationist NGOs (non-governmental organizations like Greenpeace, WWF) use the power of television, the press and the Internet to disseminate information, create public awareness, and activate social and environmental change? What kind of strategies journalists and editors could develop vis-à-vis NGOs as news sources?

Reading:
DeLuca, Kevin Michael. 1999. Image Politics: the New Rhetoric of Environmental Activism. New York: Guilford Press, (Ch. 1) 

Optional:
Bob, Clifford. 2005. The marketing of rebellion: insurgents, media, and international activism. New York, NY:Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-13, 178-195.

McAdam,D., McCarthy, J.D. and Zald, M.N. (eds.) 1996. Opportunities, mobilizing structures and framing processes—toward a synthetic, comparative perspective on social movements. In: McAdam, D., McCarthy, J.D. and Zald, M.N. (eds). Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-20.

Case studies:
Before class, please send a link and a few lines of comment about a case you consider important in the area of emvironmental NGO communication. It could be an article or tv program about an NGO action, or the footage of an NGO action. In class we will discuss the cases.

(Week 9) Media and the environment 3: documentaries, nature films and journalism

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Dear Colleagues,

this Friday we will discuss envioronmental documentaries. Please find the reading below.

Before class, please kindly send to the class mailing list a paragraph about an environmental movie you like, explaining why you like it. If the trailer or an excerpt of the documentary is available online, please also include the link.

In class, you are asked to briefly introduce the documentary and the trailer/excerpt. We will discuss what kind of environmental discourses the documentaries use and how can journalists cover these documentaries in newspapers or other media.

Thank you.

Best,

Miklos

Week 9.  Media and the environment 3: documentaries, nature films and journalism

How does the documentary genre engage the environment? What could be journalists’ strategies regarding environmental documentaries?

Reading:

Kellner, Douglas. 2010. “Real Disaster Films: From an Inconvenient Truth and Environmental Documentarties to Animated Allegories” and “Allegories of Catastrophe: Sociel Apocalypse in Disaster, Horror and Fantasy Films”. In: Cinema Wars: Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush Cheney Era. West Sussex, UK: Wiley-Blackwell 71-80 and 80-97.

Reading

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Dear Colleagues,

please find attached a short article for our class,

Lu, Sheldon H. 2009. Cinema, Ecology, Modernity. In: Lu, Sheldon H.and Jiayan Mi. Chinese Ecocinema in the Age of Environmental Challenge. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp. 1-14. 

Best regards,

Miklos

 

Readings for Week 8: Media and the environment 2: fiction films and journalism

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Dear Colleagues,

Next Friday (Week 8 ) in the first part of the class we will discuss

Media and the environment 2: fiction films and journalism

Before the class, please send me a paragraph or two about a fiction movie that you think have relevant environmental content (story, discourse, etc). How could journalists and other actors in environmental communication utilize such movies for awareness raising?

Please find the readings attached.

In the second class we discuss any updates you may have on the e-waste project.

Best regards,

Miklos

 

Media and the environment 2: fiction films and journalism

How do eco-disaster movies like The Day After Tomorrow (2004), sci-fi adventure blockbusters likeAvatar (2009), or documentary/drama/animation hybrids like The Age of Stupid (2009) represent environmental issues and shape public perceptions? What could be the roles of cultural journalists and films critics in raising awareness and contribute to environmental action?

Readings:

Ingram, David. 2000. Green screen: environmentalism and Hollywood cinema.

Exeter: University of Exeter Press, pp. 1-24 and 179-182. (Other chapters are optional.)

Lu, Sheldon H and Jiayan Mi. 2009. Chinese Ecocinema in the Age of Environmental Challenge. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, pp. 1-14. (To be sent seperately.)

Optional:

DeLoughrey, Elizabeth and George B. Handley. 2011. Introduction: Towards an Aesthetics of the Earth. In: DeLoughrey, Elizabeth and George B. Handley (eds.) Postcolonial Ecologies: Literatures of the Environment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 3-43.

6. Media and the environment 1: news journalism and social media

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Dear Colleagues,

this Friday (Week 6) in the first part of the class we will  discuss

6. Media and the environment 1: news journalism and social media  

For the Friday class, please suggest

a) a link to a good case of how social media could be utilized by environmental journalism; or

b) an outstanding environmental journalist in your country.

In class, please discuss (in about 2 minutes) briefly this social media/journalism case, or the journalist (what/and how s/he covers).

Please find the readings attached and on the class website, http://jmsc.hku.hk/courses/jmsc6045fall2011/

In the second class we discuss the e-waste project.

Best regards,

Miklos

6.    Media and the environment 1: news journalism and social media

Mainstream news on the environment on commercial television, the Internet and the press. The emergence of environmental “beat” in the media. Environmental journalism: problems, challenges and ethical issues. How do social media users can set environmental agendas and citizen journalism affect standard/can be utilized in institutional practices of journalism?

Readings:

Wyss, Bob. 2008. Covering the environment: how journalists work the green beat. New York: Routledge. Chapters 15 (Fairness and advocacy) and 16 (The future of environmental advocacy), pp. 231-257.

Cox, Robert. 2010. Environmental communication and the public sphere. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications. Chapter “New Media and Environment Online” pp. 167-173.

Ma, Yolanda. 2011. How social media can help environmental journalism.

http://www.majinxin.com/2010/11/21/how-social-media-can-help-environmental-journalism/

Optional:

Zhang, Jiang. 2011. Environmental journalism in China. In:  Susan L. Shirk (ed.) Changing media, changing China. New York: Oxford University Press.

Case study:

- Citizen Map at South China Morning Post: http://citizenmap.scmp.com/

 

For the Friday class, please suggest

a) a link to a good case of how social media could be utilized by environmental journalism; or

b) an oustanding environmental journalist in your country.

In class, please discuss (in about 2 minutes) briefly the social media/journalism case, or the journalist (what/and how s/he covers, and why it is relevant).

Week 5 readings and Christina Loh talk Thursday 6-8 PM

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Dear Colleagues,
1. as a reminder, on Friday in the first part of the class we will discuss key environmental concepts and discourses that are often used in the media, including “tragedy of the commons”, sustainability, ecological modernization, and deep ecology. Please find the readings below attached (also available on the website soon). Please read Chapters 8 and 9 of the Dryzek book (Ecological modernization, and Green consciousness). (As last week we had the India-China water talk, we have more limited time this week, so we may come back to green politics later.)
Then in the second part of the class we will discuss the e-waste class project as planned.
2. This Thursday (Sept 29) we will have Christina Loh discussing “The Environment and Public Policy – Dealing with the Hard Stuff” at HKU’s environmental public seminar series (Greent Drinks) in Global Lounge between 6-8 PM. For details, see
Christina Loh is the founder of the think tank/NGO “Civic Exchange”, former member of LegCo, and Hong Kong’s leading civic activist:
At the Greent Drinks event, there will also be three sustainability groups run by HKU students, Climate Chance,Greenwoods, and Humanity in Focus, recruting members.
Mandy Lai will cover Loh’s talk. We would need another class member to write an article about the three student groups’ and their activities. Please let me know if you are interested and would like to do this.The articles will be published on the HKU website http://www.sustainability.hku.hk, next to the articles on the movie screenings.
See you on Thursday 6-8 PM.
Best regards,
Miklos

 1.    Environmental discourses in the media

Shades of green: sustainable development, ecological modernization, deep ecology. Journalistic strategies regarding environmental discourses: objectivity, partisanship and advocacy.

Readings:

Dryzek, John S. 2005. The politics of the earth: environmental discourses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 162-227 (chapters 8, 9) on ecological modernization and green consciousness).

Optional:

Hay, Peter. 2002. Main currents in western environmental thought. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 72-93(on eco-feminism).
Login with HKU ID and password to access ebook.  (HKU Library ebook link)

Kollár, Eszter, Attila Fonyó, Miklós Sükösd.

2006. Discursive Strategies in GM Policy: A Theoretical Assessment. In Clements, Belinda (ed.) Probing the Boundaries of Environmental Justice and Global Citizenship. Oxford, UK: Inter-Disciplinary Press.  (Create account and search for book.  Free downloadable PDF)Sukosd, Miklos. 2001. Democratization, Nationalism and Eco-Politics: The Slovak-Hungarian Conflict Over the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros Dam System on the Danube. In: Petzold-Bradley, Eileen et al. (eds.) 2002. Responding to Environmental Conflicts: Implications for Theory and Practice. Dordrecht, Boston, London: Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 225-238.

Articles related to China – India Water Rivalry (RE: Talk on Asia’s New Battle Ground on Friday)

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Dear Students,

In our next Environmental Communication class, Brahma Chellaney, one of India’s leading strategic thinkers and analysts, a professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, and a former journalist, will give a guest talk about his new book: “Water — Asia’s New Battle Ground”.

Time: Friday, Sept 23 from 10-11 AM (We meet at 9:30 in EH 101 as usual, and then go to the talk together)

Venue: Foundation Chamber, Eliot Hall

Brahma Chellaney has served as a member of the Policy Advisory Group headed by the foreign minister of India, and as an adviser to India’s National Security Council. He has held appointments at Harvard University, the Brookings Institution, Johns Hopkins University, and the Australian National University. He is the author of five previous books, including

Asian Juggernaut: The Rise of China, India, and Japan.

About the present book: “The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow may be over water. Nowhere is that danger greater than in water-distressed Asia.” For more on the book: http://www.press.georgetown.edu/book/georgetown/water.

Readings
Related to Brahma Chellaney’s talk, please read these materials below:
1. article by Brahma Chellaney:
3. these reviews of his book:

http://www.waterpolitics.com/2011/09/03/water-asias-new-battleground/

This is his bio:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahma_Chellaney

Best regards,
Miklos

4. Basic concepts in political ecology

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Environmental challenges in the 21st century. The tragedy of commons; the meanings of sustainability; ecological footprint; environmental justice; and the rights of future generations.

Readings:

Hardin, Garrett. 1996. The Tragedy of the Commons. In: Sauer, P. and M. Livingston (eds.), Environmental Economics and Policy: Selected Classical Readings. Prague-Minneapolis, pp. 62-75.
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/162/3859/1243.full

Dryzek, John S. 2005. The politics of the earth: environmental discourses. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 145-161 (chapter 7 on sustainable development).

Civic Exchange Invitation

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Dear students,

I thought some of you may interested in the event below. Feel free to register if you are interested. You may mention you are a student JMSC and our Environemntal Communication class.  

Best,

Miklos
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Policy Tools for Green Growth – how to stimulate a green building economy
Rising global demand for energy from high carbon sources driven by economic growth is accelerating climate change, which will in turn compromise food and water security and hinder global sustainable growth. High carbon economies are not sustain-able. Shifting to a low carbon economy is at the heart of the solution.

The UK and Hong Kong governments recognise the importance of green growth to the economy and the opportunity this presents to businesses. Mr. Phil Wynn Owen, from the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change will be joined by speakers from the HK Government and business leaders to share experience on how to support green growth, and dis-cuss what policies can drive a green building economy.

Date: 19 Sep 2011
Time: 11:00 – 12:30
Venue: British Consulate-General, 1 Supreme Court Road

To reserve a seat, please RSVP to climatechange@bcg.org.hk
More info: http://ukinhongkong.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/12928783/policy-tools-event.pdf