Exciting day ahead at the #ClimateChange conference. All set to live-blog #mec2011 at the swanky Executive Business Centre @BournemouthUni.

Live coverage team for #mec2011, all from the Media School: @jonnybristol @LouisSidwell @jetsetnick @gaiamuffin @shreshtha @angelicajopson

Incidentally, hope you like our new background and profile image @ClimateConf!

Less than an hour to go until the start of #mec2011 a big debate on #climatechange

Just setting up the @ClimateConf for the #mec2011 debate re: #ClimateChange #sustainability #activism etc! Stay tuned for #podcasts + more

Before the guests arrive. My, we are in one swanky venue for the #mec2011 @BournemouthUni http://yfrog.com/h3brpzij

And the @ClimateConf live coverage team, plugged in for the #mec2011 conference on #ClimateChange http://yfrog.com/h69ujehj

Early rise, plenty of shine. Check out first update on the live #mec2011 blog at #sustainability conference: http://bit.ly/gw6AhZ

It all kicks off in just over half an hour. First up will be the topic Global Issues/Local Contexts. Stay tuned for an intro vlog in a sec!

Welcome to #mec2011 meet the vloggers, bloggers and tweeters who are covering today’s debate on climate change http://twitpic.com/45xmsl

Visualising the conference – second update on the live #mec2011 blog with a couple of pics of the venue up before it gets busy. Enjoy!

It’s 09:30 am, people have started arriving and I have just had my first cup of tea. Things are picking up here at the #mec2011 conference..

A Flavour of the Day: Preview of the day. @EinarThorsen is currently opening the #mec2011 debate, Global Issues panel next bit.ly/fk3o14

Annika Egan Sjölander (Umeå University) is now going to explore “Why Media Matters: Democratic Handling of Complex Environmental Issues”

Role of mass media: to provide an arena for public discussion (public sphere) – mass media, itself an actor, offers a forum for deliberation

In nuclear waste field the media has played an important role to overcome the formal boundaries that the political process has formulated.

Media needs to be watchdog and review decision makers actions. Journalists need to be the voice of the people on the street, Sjölander says.

Opening Discussion: Live blog post updated http://bit.ly/fk3o14

Sjölander also highlighted the importance and struggle of converting consumers to biofuels, which Sweden is aiming to promote and improve

Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) now, covering ‘Television Coverage of Cancun Summit on Spanish TV’ #mec2011

Journalism becomes a social reality for readers, which in turn affects the political agenda, opening remark by Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan

Investigating TV news coverage of Cancun #ClimateChange Summit, Juan Carlos discovered that framing was almost 60% negative on first day!!

The final day, however, was the opposite – around 56% of coverage was positive! Juan Carlos concludes that #ClimateChange is not important…

…for TV media in Spain, and that the orientation of the news (framing) is strongly influenced by TV media’s editorial line.

Coverage of the Summit peaked on first day and the last day of the Cancun #ClimateChange Summit, Carlos found.

Resident #climatechange blogger @jetsetnick has a new post up from #mec2011 here’s the latest http://bit.ly/fk3o14

@alexlockwood speaking now, covering Affecting Environments: emotional experiences between media and place in the Save Our Forests campaign

Campaign for Save Our Forests a victory for social media, @alexlockwood found. 38 Degrees campaigns and Twitter campaigns very influential

Social media was so feted a scuffle broke out as to who should be credited for it!! The coalition was seemingly shocked at the huge outcry.

Benefits that Social Media afforded: Disconnected anger turned into meaningful campaigns and shared messages.. @alexlockwood says. #mec2011

@jetsetnick is hard at work http://twitpic.com/45xrnm reporting from #mec2011

Pieter Maeseele (University of Antwerp) next up, with ‘Mediating environmental change: choose conflict’ #mec2011

How can we assist in the creation of spaces for #conflict and #dissent to be expressed?, Maeseele asks.

Nothing will be reached if focus is on gaining scientific consenus as moment 1 scientist says “I disagree” consensus is lost, Maeseele says.

Relation to #society and #nature – technology dimension: Mastery over nature (tech progress) vs. #harmony with nature.

Central research question should be: “Whether and to what extent do news media facilitate democratic debate?” It is a reflexive circuit of…

…social actors <-> media citizens <-> and citizens. Focus should be on promoting #conflict rather than aiming for scientific consensus

Q: Is it going to be Twitter vs. Big Society? A: @alexlockwood – Yes! [laughter] #SaveOurForest campaign was an example of public consensus

A (continued): Big Society just sounds like the American Dream, just as ambiguous [!!]

News from the (freezing) #mec2011 newsroom. Fight still on with first bit of video of @einarthorsen‘s opening, but should have it up soon!

Protecting the Woods: New blog post up now, check it out http://bit.ly/fk3o14 #mec2011

Bit of trouble covering lively Q&A after first panel at #mec2011. Could delegates state name when they ask questions? Step in, chair, do!

Sjölander: We have a lot of research focusing on media and political events. I want to raise the question for the need to look over time.

..certain viewpoints.. stark comparison to Big Society ideal etc. Emotive discourse are sometimes excluded from “rational” debates in public

Q: Re: Big Society. Tho BS ideal is mainly smokescreen for #cuts, is it not also a viable and positive idea? Should we not have an ethical…

…and green alternative to BS? A: @alexlockwood Yes indeed, but a politically driven campaign doesn’t feel right to me. In many ways…

…the BS is already here. People already volunteer and work for public good. The debate is how can we make public ownership better and…

…not just accept it at face-value. Green co-operatives are already here. Campaigns are already ongoing. (e.g #SaveOurForests etc)

Short break now, be back in 15 minutes or so =] take it easy and engage on Twitter and check out the blog!! #mec2011

As the first panel ends, a pix from the past: Sjolander presenting earlier at #mec2011 http://yfrog.com/h6nlxfbj

Back from short break, up next is James Painter (Reuters Institute for Study of Journalism): Reporting from Copenhagen and Cancun Summits

Opening it up to the floor: Lively Q+A session. Live blog updated once more, take a look! http://bit.ly/fk3o14 #mec2011

Copenhagen: Who was there? Over 30,000 people registered. How much did it get covered in the media? Absolutely extraordinary event in terms…

…of number of journalists at the event. China and Brazil had more than 100 journalists each, for example. Represents a breakthrough in amount…

Listening to ex-BBC journalist J Painter’s talk at #mec2011. His stressed disclaimer he’s not part of BBC now gets chuckle from audience.

of coverage from “developing” countries. Around 2,000 members from nearly 250 Uni’s worldwide.. 280 professors attended!

You’d expect US, UK etc would lead in no. of articles published in print media, James says. However it was Brazil + India that led the way.

These media events are going to be drawn to personalisation, dramatisation, etc. As a result the actual #ClimateScience was under-reported.

Here’s the latest from the tweeters, vloggers and bloggers. http://twitpic.com/45yntp A tour of ‘mission control’ at #mec2011

Cancun Summit: very different context, lower expectations and much fewer heads of state attended. Different political positions compared to…

…Copenhagen. Mexico played a hugely significant role @ Cancun. NGOs and media kept apart from negotiators. Interesting hearing negotiators…

…saying they could come to agreements due to less hassle, James says. Cancun also had much less registered participants than Copenhagen.

What do @jetsetnick and @LouisSidwell think of #mec2011 so far? Watch here http://twitpic.com/45ypxw

Surprisingly, there was very little US coverage on networks. But what are the reasons for “climate fatigue”, James asks? Appears that…

…developing countries’ coverage of #ClimateChange Summits are more sustained than UK coverage, for example India’s coverage more stable.

James Painter details issues for future, including international differences, prevalence of climate denialism in recent years, and…

…framing in the media, changes within the media affecting coverage. #ClimateChange is a difficult subject to report on, James says, as…

…it’s difficult for journalists to report on, and for audiences to maintain interest in. The worst effects are also a long way off.

Rupert Read (University of East Anglia) on now with ‘The language that mediates positive environmental change – or environmental decay’

Framing #ClimateChange as #ClimateGate is detrimental and frames it as similar to #WaterGate, which is intentional of course, Read says.

Should practise truth and fact. #ClimateChange sounds too soft perhaps, almost nice, #ClimateChaos may be more accurate. Need to ensure…

…that framing doesn’t detract from important issues, and it is inappropriate to use neutral language free from emotional ties, for example.

Rupert Read says the term #sustainable has become too broad a term, and many people think #sustainable means sustaining the current system.

Analysing Copenhagen: New blog post up @ClimateConf blog http://bit.ly/fk3o14 #mec2011

Radical questioning of #development needs to be examined. Better quality of life needs to be a focus, + learning from the past, Rupert says.

The term #environment is not “us”, it is what’s “out there” – a better term would be #nature. However, even #nature doesn’t include “us”..

Rupert places a large emphasis in re-framing concepts and terms in organising our responses to large-scale and harmful events such as…

…#ClimateChange etc. It is language that mediates between us and reality, however essentially we are already *part* of reality and not…

…separate, and we need to remember that. Language can often make it seem that there is a distinction between “us” and reality when really…

…there is no distinction. So it isn’t just language that we need to question but mediation itself affecting our mindsets, Rupert concludes.

Q + A now. Q to Rupert: Where is the power, political economy etc? A from Rupert: I have a hypothesis of why there are more climate-deniers in…

…the developed world vs. developing world, and it may be because the developing world has a vested interest in maintaining such a state…

…of affairs. Re-framing is so necessary because of concrete things such as money, e.g. large companies lobbying etc. (summarised)

First #mec2011 #podcast is up now!! Check it out and let us know what you think. http://bit.ly/f0lYvu

Almost the end of the first panel at #mec2011, podcasts posted soon. Links @ClimateConf.

Rupert: [on MP expenses scandal] other countries said ‘this is small beer, you should come here to see corruption’

Mediating environmental change with Rupert Read, some nice pics up on #mec2011 live blog. http://bit.ly/fk3o14

Tony Hamilton Q: what would you think about stopping the term unsustainable living?

Rupert A: sustainable living is an improvement but not enough, we have to explicitly talk about future people

Jenny Alexander (BU) doing a sterling job keeping order at this lively Q&A #mec2011

People here from all over the world today, Sweden, Belgium, Chile, Sunderland, we’ve got them all! #mec2011

2nd #podcast up (AnnikaSjolander- Why Media Matter) http://bit.ly/ifD2nv +1st #podcast (WelcomeAddress- Einar Thorsen) http://bit.ly/f0lYvu

Rupert: Life becomes less meaningful if it looks like it’s going to come to an end

That’s it, lunch is called! We’ll resume at 1:05pm well done to @jetsetnick @louissidwell and @jonnybristol

Don’t forget to check the links, the #podcasts, the live blog and more!! #mec2011 will resume shortly…

@louissidwell is particularly looking forward to lunch http://twitpic.com/45yspq #mec2011

I’m sure I just saw Cyndi Lauper outside the Business School… #conferenceentertainment

Lunch is over and the #mec2011 conference room is slowly filling once again.. stay tuned for the next panel entitled #ClimateActivism

Dan Glass (Plane Stupid) now with ‘The Media is the Message’. Focus on aviation as main perpetuators of CO2 emissions…

People take direct action when ‘democracy’ fails them, Dan says. “We don’t have time for politicians to act”

BU’s Stuart Allan is chairing the afternoon session. He was my lecturer for News Theory last year. #mec2011

Pictures now of examples of direct action aimed at stopping aviation emission, airport expansion, etc. Stopping problem at it’s source..

Stansted airport occupation: All 50+ occupiers were under 21! Genuine concern @ the state of the future. Direct action creating media…

…strategies to promote message. Emphasis on the use of social media sites such as Twitter becoming very important in spreading activism.

@jetsetnick gives a tour of the plush new Business School during the lunch break at #mec2011 http://twitpic.com/45znas

Direct Action and the State: Police infiltration recently uncovered in UK media.. Police infiltrating environmental movement – State abuse?

Dan Glass once glued himself to former PM Gordon Brown #mec2011

Now Anita Howarth (Kingston University) ‘Whaling Wars of the Antarctic: The case of Sea Sheppard, ‘Eco-Terrorism’ and Multi-Media Activism’

FYI @jetsetnick has left for the day @gaiamuffin will be taking over the live blog http://bit.ly/fk3o14 #mec2011

The grey area is the protection of endangered species in de-territorialised international waters, Anita says. Once a species is declared…

…endangered it is presumed that they will be looked after. This isn’t always the case in areas such as international waters, as stated.

Implications for the whaling wars of Antarctica: It is difficult to “parachute” journalists into the region, or to set up a base there.

@SeaSheperd, a conservation society, has been able to use GPS and radar-connected helium balloons to find and track Japanese whaling ships…

But the most dominant formats that @SeaSheperd have used are New Media and TV: the reality TV show ‘Whaling Wars’. With New Media, they…

…have utilised YouTube and other formats with great effect while print/broadcast journalists have a hard time *getting* to those regions…

…so the narrative is presented mainly through imagery taken by @SeaSheperd with great effect.

Annika Egan Sjölander (Umeå University) once again with: ‘The Missing Public: A Sought-After Ingredient + Constrainted Entity…

…in the News Discourse on Environmental Risks’. Aim is to analyse role of citizen voices and representations of the public.

Representatives of ‘the public’ need to be heard in discourses more.. Sjölander identified 3 dominant forms of public participation:

1. Public as an anonymous collective e.g. public opinion 2. Passive/reactive voice, and 3. the active voice (most rare)

Swedish nuclear waste news discourse: any country using nuclear power for civil/military purposes have problems taking care of waste…

Sweden seen as “role-model” and ‘ahead’ in decision making process (with Finland) – to host a nuclear waste facility

‘Missing public’ is a sought-after ingredient. New Media can offer opportunities for participation. Issues of power always present though.

Maxine Newlands now, (University of East London) with ‘Where is the ‘Counter’ in Counter-Politics? #ClimateChange and New Media’

Premise of this paper is the ‘Climate Camp’ – combination of official hierarchical organisation/action e.g. Greenpeace.

Important to have a voice. Media tabloids often frame green activists as ‘militant’ or ‘eco-warriors’: negative frameworks, Maxine says.

In about 20 minutes time is everyone’s favourite part of the day: Q&A #mec2011!

As panel 3 continues, here’s Pieter Maeseele’s paper on Mediating #environment change from morning #mec2011, in audio: http://bit.ly/eTmPeu

And if you’ve got a question that you want us to put to any of today’s speakers, do tweet in! #mec2011

Fences used at camp very symbolic, Maxine says – are they keeping people in or out? Containment, conformity, autonomous space…

Larry Pryor (USC/Annenberg School of Journalism & Communication) Not Yet a Butterfly: Climate Science Blogs as Emerging Spaces of Discourse

Why is the climate debate so fierce, Larry asks? Emotions are raised because we are talking about something that is irreplaceable, he says.

This apocalyptic message is “really dark” and emphasises vulnerability, which hasn’t done the cause much good. “The direction has to change”

But what is the counter to this, Larry asks? He believes it’s in the “blogosphere”. We have been ‘subjected’ to top-down gvt. Approaches…

…which have failed, he states. Mass media counts for less and less in the States. Great mistrust from the ‘top-down’ gvt. Approach.

Mass media represents the status quo, part of the elite conspiracy, Larry says. It’s not going to break free, it’s been colonised by the…

…fossil fuels industry. Change has to come from the bottom-up, from the ‘blogosphere’. Again stresses importance of #NewMedia+the internet.

Larry discusses the negative framing of the ‘blogosphere’ and growing gvt. involvement in said sphere, which can be a sinister element.

The bell rings: 3 mins left of Larry’s speech. His reply? “Thank you, I think the third ring is when the Holy Spirit comes..” [laughter]

Need for blogosphere to emphasise visual info, connect with people, bridge science with common sense. Great opportunities for scholars etc.

If you aren’t looking at #NewMedia, Larry says, you’re missing a very large area of discourse. 1 post in 1 day can accumulate 500+ comments!

Q+A: Rupert Read “I’m really disappointed that you didn’t mention the collective spirit at Climate Camp”

Maxine: “In fairness I only had 12 minutes and was only taking a snap-shot of the camp as a whole”

Rupert: “Your opinion has no basis”

Make sure you do check out the @ClimateConf live blog, got more #podcasts and posts up so have a look! http://bit.ly/fk3o14 #mec2011

Just come back from a mini-caffeine break, #mec2011 to resume momentarily.

This panel is entitled: The Power of Mediation. First up is Mat Hope (University of Bristol)

Paper is: The New York Times and the “Beleaguered People of Louisiana”: Communicating the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill as a Social Disaster

Purpose of study was to see how New York Times ‘framed’ the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and what the implications were for this.

The spill as a ‘social’ disaster: Around 85% of the time the NYT framed the disaster as a ‘social’ event. Human element of the story rose.

The ‘executive responsibility’, Hope describes how the framing in NYT focused mainly on the executive vs. BP or legilsative responsibility

Conclusions? The ‘human story’ is *still* the most reported – story of ‘society’ vs. ‘nature’. Focus on loss of ‘way of life’, Hope states.

Environment seen as ‘extension’ of social life- something we can ‘control’. The environment is seen as social entity, not a natural entity.

Hope states that it is important to show narratives and their implications. Emphasis on ‘environmental’ implications rather than social.

Now we have Ulrike Heine (Justus-Liebig-University Giessen) with ‘Reconsidering Photo-Journalism in the Face of Climate Change’

Heine describes how landscape and panoramic photographs play a crucial role in photo-journalism documenting #ClimateChange

Sjolander, Coghlan, @alexlockwood and Maeseele answer the audience of #mec2011. Audio from morning session: http://bit.ly/hdiup8

Heine says we must acknowledge the contextual framing of images and their importance.

Found it slightly difficult to hear Heine at the back of the room, unfortunately!

Now we have Jenny Alexander from @BournemouthUni with ‘Advertising and Climate Change’

Alexander currently examining Act on CO2 gvt. initiative adverts aiming at anxiety-promotion.. received over 1,000 complaints from public!

Said Act on CO2 advert can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w62gsctP2gc

Next examining in the Plane Stupid (2009) advert in the same vein.. also received complaints resulting in its removal but still on Youtube..

And that can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMnzSvZP_kE

And next the 1010 climate change commercial, also controversial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnddMpzPsM

But what is the value of advertising environmental change? Knowledge about the environment comes mainly from mass media/TV, Alexander found.

Ads are a form of popular culture, occupying narrative space and collective imagery/collective consciousness. Can we do something different?

Michael Goodman (King’s College London) on now, with ‘Star/Poverty Space as Poverty-tainment’ #mec2011

(Christine Barnes couldn’t make it but also worked with Goodman with the paper)

Don’t forget to check the live #blog for #podcasts and updated posts on today’s #mec2011 conference! http://bit.ly/fk3o14

Celebrities are aligning themselves with campaigns and they are used to promote/sell/develop products, campaigns and the like

The business of celebrity-driven business is just that: a business, Goodman argues.

It is the images of celebrities in spaces/places of poverty/crisis that are the most important in circulation of the Poverty-tainment.

They are our proxies to understanding poverty-stricken spaces/places, Goodman says.

Debut of poverty and humanitarian crisis over, they have made it to the ‘mainstream’ celebrity-filled media. A ‘growing market of emotions’.

Q+A now. Q: Problem with environment, people switch off from it. If you just have serious tone, people won’t engage with it. You remember it

A (Mat Hope): Greenpeace etc have been doing publicity stunts for a long time, now I think we’re ready for more sophisticated debates.

Mat: I agree with you but think we’re ready for sophisticated debates now also.

Mat > Alexander: It’s the ‘drip-drip’ of many messages and constant intervening that helps to change public perception (summary)

Quick back-paddle to let you know the post on Reconsidering photojournalism in the face of #mec2011 #climat… (cont) http://deck.ly/~iWvzv

Q: Does it do more bad than good to use celebrity/commercial/’glossy’ reporting+ads to promote change which may require radical engagement?

A: Heine: Photographers are informing people, [photos] get out of your hands eventually, what [people] do with it is important.

Interesting panel + Q+A session, went quite quickly so sorry we couldn’t cover it all. Short coffee break and will be back soon.

Back again. Now time for the final panel before the closing address entitled: ‘Conservation, Media and Pedagogy.’

First on the panel is John Blewitt (Aston University) with ‘Researching the Public Pedagogy of Environmental and Conservation Media’

Focus on WildScreen films and awards ceremony, and the impact filmmakers can have on the environment.

Filmmakers have to balance making films for money and for righteous causes. Some films/docs may never be shown. Balance is necessary.

Margarida Sardo and Emma Weitkamp – Scientific Evidence and Environmental Policy Making: A Portuguese Case Study

Case study of Portugal, focusing on understanding the role of environmental consultants. Are they the ‘forgotten mediators?’

Findings: 1. Role of environmental consultants within the policy-making cycle. 2. Barriers to including science within policy-making cycle.

Environmental consultants play a key role, working with local+national gvts being able to be brought into policy-making cycle ‘at any point’

Environmental consultants are key mediators between scientific research and policy-makers.

There are barriers however, Sardo says: Policy-makers don’t find research easy to understand, insufficient money to incorporate research.

Timing of the policy-cycle also is a potential barrier. Better mediation can be sought, however.

Some of these results can be country-specific, Sardo says. But environmental consultants’ importance should not be overlooked.

Paul Stevensup now (Bournemouth Uni) with: ‘Sustainable wellbeing: Linking the personal and the planetary’

Eudaimonic wellbeing is rising in importance: Finding meaning in life, Stevens says.

The “ecopsychology approach” embeds us in our environment – “We too are Nature”

Most of the focus, Stevens says, is on the ‘Now’, e.g. “Are you happy now?”, rather than “Will you be happy in 10 years?”

Stevens states that, essentially, if people are “well”, sustainability will follow. Things that make you feel ‘well’ are linked to nature.

Natural environment actually helps people with mental illness. The environment is inherently linked to our own ‘wellbeing’, and our futures.

Sy Taffel (University of Bristol) now up with: Media, Materiality and the Environment: Exploring the Ethics and Sustainability of Hardware

Thinking of Environmental cycles – e.g looking @ nitrogen system, Taffel says, there’s no clear input or output. Linked to #sustainability.

“There is a series of ethical challenges surrounding the material consequences of the hardware that underpins digital culture.”

In 2007 an IT research/analysis group predicted that global IT/comm. technology industry was responsible for 2% of global CO2 emissions.

As technology expands, so does its environmental and ecological impact. E.g. 81% of the energy used by a PC is used in PRODUCING it.

Planned obsolescence in current tech = short life span due to upgrade culture/profit motive. Modern phones have a 12/24 month “lifespan”.

E-Waste is damaging ecologies worldwide, primarily due to toxic substances used in modern technologies.

Way forward? Re-design life-cycle of tech, Taffel says. Need to take inspiration from existing bio-cycles such as nitrogen cycle.

Finally, we have #FairTrade coffee, clothes etc, but perhaps we need #FairTrade computers? (etc)

Now up we have Julie Doyle (University of Brighton).

Paper: ‘What’s the Environment got to do with Media Studies?’: Exploring the Possibilities and Challenges for Curriculum Development in HE’

“Where is ‘the environment’ within Media Studies?” Doyle asks. Students don’t always relate it to the discipline.

Linking #MediaStudies with the #environment: to analyse the way in which the environment is constructed and contested

…examining the roles of #science, #media and #culture in the communication of #environmental issues. Need to get Media students engaged.

After all, the #media is often the link between the public and #environmental issues, and #MediaStudents need to be actively engaged.

Way Forward: Incorporate discussion of #environmental issues and #sustainability within existing modules, explicitly or implicity.

Encouraging interdisciplinary teaching/research, sharing good teaching practices and encouraging self-reflexive practises, Doyle suggests.

The question should be: “What HASN’T the #environment got to do with #MediaStudies, Doyle concludes. Food for thought =] #mec2011

New #blog posts + #podcasts up on the live #mec2011 @ClimateConf blog, so check it out, share, retweet, comment, enjoy. http://bit.ly/fk3o14

Brilliant and insightful presentations today @mec2011. Now for the ‘closing address’ with some invited speakers =] first up is Adrian Newton

And here’s Adrian Newton (Bournemouth University) formerly the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP).

Role of #scientists and mediation is important. Scientists are becoming increasingly #media-savvy and starting to lead discourse themselves

@SusyGiordano Look into alternative and environmentally safe options, or pass it on to someone else? There’s always #sustainable options

Julie Doyle now (Uni of Brighton) and author of the forthcoming book ‘Mediating Climate Change’.

Emotion links to meaningful engagement. The importance of language cannot be overlooked either, linked to ‘framing’ and #media coverage too.

Language has power, and debates on how we communicate #environmental issues are always prevalent. #wellbeing and #hope central to debate.

Making #conflict the focus of media discourse, + how we do that is important also, Doyle says. And what actually *is* #activism and #action?

Doyle says we need to think about issues of #power and #ethics as individuals and communities, which is important in a wider context.

Neil Gavin, (University of Liverpool) and Chair of MeCCSA Climate Change, Environment and Sustainability Network speaking now.

We’ve looked at #media in every form, old and #NewMedia, international contexts, Gavin says. It’s very interesting and thought-provoking.

Praising #mec2011 for providing discourse, inspiration, a forum for debate….. The #networking dimension to this is also very important.

That’s it, @ClimateConf #mec2011 has officially come to a close. Thank you to all the speakers who attended today, and the organisers.

For summary posts of talks, pics and videos and podcast, see our blog at: http://bit.ly/fk3o14

This version has been lightly edited for clarity and to exclude retweets. Complete coverage @ClimateConf

The live coverage of MEC 2011, including this Twitter feed, was brought to you by BU journalism graduates and students: Angelica Jopson @angelicajopson, Gaia Manco @gaiamuffin, Louis Sidwell @LouisSidwell, Nicholas Summers @jetsetnick, Stephen Johns @jonnybristol, and Shreshtha Trivedi @shreshthatrivedi.

Thanks also to Saeed Rashid @saeedrashid and Paul Hughes.

Welcome address

WelcomeAddress – Einar Thorsen

Einar Thorsen, Bournemouth University

Global Issues/Local Contexts

AnnikaSjolander – Why Media Matter

Why Media Matter: The Democratic Handling of Complex Environmental Issues
Annika Egan Sjölander, Umeå University, Sweden

JuanCoghlan – TelevisionCoverageofCancun
Television Coverage of the Cancun Summit on Spanish TV
Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

AlexLockwood – Affecting Environments
Affecting Environments: emotional experiences between media and place in the Save Our Forests campaign
Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland

PieterMaeseele – MediatingEnvironmentalChange
Mediating environmental change: choose conflict
Pieter Maeseele, University of Antwerp, Belgium

Global Issues – Local Contexts Q&A
Q&A: Panellists respond

Plenary Session

James Painter – ReportingFromCopenhagenandCancun

Reporting from Copenhagen and Cancun – issues and realities
James Painter, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford and formerly BBC World Service

Rupert Read – The Language that Mediates Positive Environmental Change
The language that mediates positive environmental change – or environmental decay
Rupert Read, University of East Anglia (Norwich) and Green Party Councillor

Plenary Panel Q&A
Q&A: Panellists respond

Climate Activism/Citizen Conversations

Dan Glass – The Media is the Message
The Media is the Message
Dan Glass, Plane Stupid

Anita Howarth – The Whaling Wars of the Antarctic
The Whaling Wars of the Antarctic: The case of Sea Sheppard, ‘Eco-Terrorism’ and Multi-Media Activism
Anita Howarth, Kingston University

Annika Egan Sjolander – The Missing Public
The Missing Public – A Sought-After Ingredient and a Constrainted Entity in the News Discourse on Environmental Risks
Annika Egan Sjölander, Umeå University, Sweden & Anna Maria Jönsson, Södertörn University, Sweden

Maxine Newlands – Where is the counter in counter-politics
Where is the ‘Counter’ in Counter-Politics? Climate Change and New Media
Maxine Newlands, University of East London

Larry Pryor – Not Yet A Butterfly
‘Not Yet a Butterfly’: Climate Science Blogs as Emerging Spaces of Discourse
Larry Pryor, USC/Annenberg School of Journalism & Communication, US

The Power of Mediation

MatHope – Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill
The New York Times and the “Beleaguered People of Louisiana”: Communicating the Deep Water Horizon Oil Spill as a Social Disaster
Mat Hope, University of Bristol

[Podcast for Ulrike Heine not available by request of author.]

Reconsidering Photo-Journalism in the Face of Climate Change
Ulrike Heine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany

JennyAlexander – Advertising and Climate Change
Advertising and Climate Change
Jenny Alexander, Bournemouth University

Micheal Goodman – Poverty-tainment
Star/Poverty Space as Poverty-tainment
Michael Goodman and Christine Barnes, King’s College London

Power of Mediation Panel Q&A
Q&A: Panellists respond

Conservation, Media and Pedagogy

Researching the Public Pedagogy of Environmental and Conservation Media
Researching the Public Pedagogy of Environmental and Conservation Media
John Blewitt, Aston University

Margarida Sardo – Scientific Evidence and Environmental Policy Making
Scientific Evidence and Environmental Policy Making: A Portuguese Case Study
Margarida Sardo and Emma Weitkamp, University of the West of England, Bristol

Paul Stevens – Sustainable Wellbeing
Sustainable wellbeing: Linking the personal and the planetary
Paul Stevens, Bournemouth University

SyTafel – Media, Materiality and the Environment
Media, Materiality and the Environment: Exploring the Ethics and Sustainability of Hardware
Sy Taffel, University of Bristol

Julie Doyle – What’s the Environment got to do with it
‘What’s the Environment got to do with Media Studies?’: Exploring the Possibilities and Challenges for Curriculum Development in HE
Julie Doyle, University of Brighton

Closing Address

Conference Closing Remark
Adrian Newton, Bournemouth University, formerly the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Member of the British Ecological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society

Julie Doyle, University of Brighton and author of the forthcoming book Mediating Climate Change (to be published in 2011 by Ashgate)

Neil Gavin, University of Liverpool and Chair of MeCCSA Climate Change, Environment and Sustainability Network

18:28
Environment and media studies

Gaia Manco

Students think that environment is not central to media studies – but it is.

Julie Doyle of the University of Brighton says media studies curricula are now more environmentally-aware. At different stages, the curricula explore the problems of communicating environmental issues in the mainstream media, climate change interpretations looked at, etc.

Academics must transfer their theories into practice, reconsidering their way of teaching or researching (eg: reducing airplane travels to conferences).

Doyle: ways to move forward with the mediation of environmental issues include incorporating environment within modules through discussions and analysis, encouraging interdisciplinary teaching, sharing good practices, and encouraging self reflexive practices.

18:14
Media should campaign for fair-trade computers

Shreshtha Trivedi

Sy Taffel of Bristol University raises the issue of hardware sustainability in his presentation titled ‘Media, Materiality and the Environment: Exploring the Ethics and Sustainability of Hardware.’

He gives the example of nitrogen cycle. In an environmental cycle there is input or output; it is self-sustainable and can go on for billions of years. But an industrial process is linear, resulting in huge accumulation of matter. Basic materials used in this industrial process are toxic lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium — all extremely harmful.

Taffel says how our idea of ‘development’ is causing so much suffering in the world can be gauged from this example: Colton, used in capacitors in smartphones, is the cause of a major conflict in Congo. Congo is the world’s major producer of Colton, and its high demand has triggered a massive conflict there, leading to 5.4 million deaths, not to mention slave labour and destruction of forests.

The manufacturing of micro-electronics is not only about environmental right, but human rights as well, he says. Developed countries have outsourced this toxic procedure to sweatshops in developing countries like China and Malaysia.

The consumerist culture and short life span of electronics is due to the ‘’upgrade culture and profit motive of the makers’’. Even recycling of these micro-electronics is not helpful, as they need manual de-assembling, which results in the poisoning of the ecosystem, Taffel says.

Conclusion? Depend not on recycling. Instead, pay attention to effective designing. Like fair-trade coffee, media should campaign for fair-trade computers.

17: 58
We too are nature: why sustainability is good for your health

Gaia Manco

Paul Stevens from Bournemouth University in his presentation ‘Sustainable wellbeing: linking the personal and the planetary’ speaks of how sustainability and wellbeing are linked.

Stevens says sustainability in environmental terms is the carrying capacity of supporting ecosystems, but the most widespread definition is the one mediated by economics: maintaining the capacity to provide non-declining wellbeing over time.

Wellbeing is defined as quality of life, and can be hedonic, i.e. going towards shortterm pleasures, or eudemonic, i.e. aiming at long-term pleasures linked to a sense of meaning of life.

The ecopsychology approach tries to solve the opposition between sustainability, which is set in the future, and wellbeing, which is a matter of here and now. According to ecopsychology, however, we cannot separate us from environment as “we too are nature”.

The emergent sustainability links sustainability and wellbeing by demonstrating that protection of nature is actually beneficial for our current wellbeing, Stevens argues.

17:42
Podcasts post lunch

Dan Glass – The Media is the Message

Dan Glass: The Media is the Message

Anita Howarth – The Whaling Wars of the Antarctic

Anita Howarth: The Whaling Wars of the Antarctic

More to come. Watch out particularly for the lively Q&A session of the Climate Activism/Citizen Conversations panel!

17:28
Between the scientist and the policymaker

Shreshtha Trivedi

Margarida Sardo presented her study on ‘Scientific Evidence and environmental policy-making: A Portuguese Case Study’.

The researcher from University of West of England, Bristol emphasised the role of environmental consultants as mediators in policymaking.

Her study aimed to find out whether environmental consultants in Portugal could become like science journalists – understanding and relaying scientific knowledge to public. Portugal was taken as a case study because it a “small European country where environment is only though in terms of EU legislation”.

The questionnaire was specifically designed to target environment consultants and the findings underlined the role of consultation within policymaking, barriers to scientific evidence, and how to overcome those barriers.

The role of the environment consultant was to work with national and local government, having the versatility to fit in during policymaking as well as in the execution of the policy. The scientific evidence used by consultants are books, academic papers, and direct contact with scientists. So it can be said that environment consultants are mediators between scientific research and policymakers in Portugal.

But what are the barriers in Portugal? These could range from policymakers not always finding research easy to understand, to research taking too long, to the Portuguese scientific community not properly engaging with policymakers.

Environment consultants can overcome these barriers by not only having good communication skills, but also speaking the language that policymakers use, besides being pragmatic and patient with them. Sardo concluded by saying that environmental consultants can act as a mediator between the scientific community and policymakers, though this may not be true in all countries.

17:20
Podcast: Q&A Plenary Session

Plenary Panel Q&A

James Painter and Rupert Read answers questions from the audience

17:10
Filmmakers caught between business and social objectives

Gaia Manco

Presentation by John Blewitt, Aston University, titled ‘Researching the public pedagogy of environmental and conservation media’.

Filmmakers need money to make films, therefore have to be part of a business world they do not always agree with. They are caught between their profession, which is an economic activity, and their objectives of social change.

But as they are part of a business system, producers must find the right balance between financing and principles. Filmmakers have to balance making films for money and for righteous causes. Some films/documentaries may never get shown, but balance is necessary, Blewitt stresses.

16: 50
Podcast:  The language that mediates positive environmental change — or environmental decay

Rupert Read – The Language that Mediates Positive Environmental Change
Green Councillor and University of East Anglia academic Rupert Read’s presentation from the Plenary session earlier in the day.

16:40
Podcast: Reporting from Copenhagen and Cancun

James Painter – ReportingFromCopenhagenandCancun

James Painter, in audio. From the pre-lunch Plenary session.

16:20
Poverty-tainment goes mainstream

Shreshtha Trivedi

Michael Goodman of King’s College London says that celebrities these days show competitive compassion: they are politicised celebs, either through freelance or endorsement through charities.

Cynics say celebs are partnering with campaigns and charities to build their own brand. Celebrities becoming the voice of downtrodden has led to celebritisation of development. It is now acceptable to donate to a charity and think you are doing your bit. This has now become ethical consumerism.

Celeb development is a business venture, Goodman says. Photoshoot of the star in poverty and then textual description in publications creates star poverty space.

Celebritisation of process must involve press, so people can see their emotional side. Photo-op is most important. Goodman spoke of what Chris Martin said in Coldplay: “Nobody has to listen to me if they can see me.’’ Matt Damon travelled to Rwanda and was active on Facebook and Twitter, so he could be seen as ‘doing development’.

The case of Lindsay Lohan was most bizarre, he said. She tweeted about saving 40 girls from sweatshops in Delhi – and she wasn’t even there!

Three important points, according to Goodman:

• To build authenticity, celebs need knowledge, so they travel to those places to understand the situation.
• Also, to prove authenticity, people present there should bear witness of what they are doing, their emotional side.
• Circulation of content is ensured afterwards to prove that they aren’t a part of “hedonistic celebrity consumerist culture”, and this proof reaches maximum people.

Pertinent question, according to Goodman: should we allow the ‘publicity-hungry, compassion celebrities’ to flourish? Or should we contain them? Or maybe this is not possible in the times of these profit-hankering commercial media, who want gossip and controversies all the time.

15:50
Is there any happy ending? The strategy of environmental marketing

Gaia Manco

In her presentation on ‘Advertising and Climate Change in the UK’, Jenny Alexander of Bournemouth University spoke of social environmental advertising as the newest form of social marketing. She presented a series of controversial televisual ads, which sought to promote environmental change. Whether it is the gloomy story on CO2 or the dying polar bears seen in the Plane Stupid advert, the provocative TV adverts are made by conventional marketing agencies, which have clients such as Starbucks or  Mercedes, she said — and such adverts create a wave of reaction and media coverage thanks to to the controversial content.

But where is the limit? In the last advert Alexander showed, two kids are  literally blown up by their teacher for not wanting to play their part in reducing climate change.

Environmental advertisement is likely to continue as the audience now enjoy it as popular content, especially if interactive, she said.

15:35
Reconsidering photojournalism in the face of climate change

Shreshtha Trivedi

According to Ulrike Heine of Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany, the understanding of photojournalism is changing. It is an agent of social political message.

Photojournalists now choose presentations that are uncommon. There is an extensive shift in their perspectives. The photographer’s main role is still to document people, but landscape and panorama have become important too.

Captions by photographers are also quite different, she says. Some give 2-3 line captions, others give a copy blog, which is way longer and contains statistical information. Most of the introductory text is written by photographers themselves. So photography journalism is different form artistic ones, but it is still debatable whether photojournalists have abandoned their principle of being objective observers.

Heine says we must acknowledge the contextual framing of images and their importance.

15.00
It’s a story about society, not so much a story about nature

Gaia Manco

After a challenging debate and a cup of tea, Mat Hope from the University of Bristol captures the audience with a presentation on the news narratives of environmental disasters. He focuses on the Florida oil spill.

On one hand there is the “beleaguered people” narrative; on the other, the executive responsibility narrative. In fact, in media representation, the responsibility was put more on the executive and legislative group than on corporations and on BP itself.

“So where is that presidential boot?” he asks.

From the BP case study, we can see that the human interest of the environmental disaster is the most important news aspect, he says. In fact, it is a story about society, not so much about nature. It is the story about a loss of a way of life.

In the narrative of the oil spill, Mat says, you can see the short-termist nature of media reporting: journalists want to see the immediate story.

Mat presented the concept of ‘language of ecological modernisation’: we need to question the way we use the environment and less the reason why we use it.

13:15
Podcast: Q&A, Global Issues/Local Context

Global Issues – Local Contexts Q&A
Annika Sjolander, Juan Coghlan, Alex Lockwood and Pieter Maeseele answer questions from the audience. Audio from the morning session.

14.20

Blogs as the new environmental discourse

Gaia Manco

Larry Pryor, former environmetal journalist and scholar from the Annemberg School of Journalism and Communication, says that environmental blogs are a must, as they constitute a bridge between science and commonsense. Scholars must look at them. They’d miss a large segment of discourse if they didn’t consider new media.

14.15
Climate camp: The underdog who went mainstream

Gaia Manco

Presentation by Maxine Newlands

14:22
Podcast:  Affecting environments

AlexLockwood – Affecting Environments

Alex Lockwood’s paper on ‘Emotional experiences between media and place in the Save Our Forests campaign’ from the Global Issues/Local Contexts panel.

14:11
Podcast: Mediating environmental change: choose conflict

PieterMaeseele – MediatingEnvironmentalChange
As panel 3 continues, here’s Pieter Maeseele’s paper from the morning session, in audio

13.15pm
‘You can’t run away from climate change’

Gaia Manco

Dan Glass, Plane Stupid

Presenting the paper ‘The Media is the Message’, Dan Glass explains how through education and provocative interventions Plane Stupid is trying to explain to the UK population that they should fly less, and why.

When Glass received a prize from Gordon Brown he put in place a soft, creative and “stupid” media strategy, by double-shaking the Prime Minister’s hand: ”You can run away from my hand but you can’t run away from climate change.”

12:33 pm
Podcast: If the media can’t, who can?

AnnikaSjolander – Why Media Matter

In audio, Annika Egan Sjolander on Why Media Matter: The democratic handling of complex environmental issues.

WelcomeAddress – Einar Thorsen
Einar Thorsen’s opening address.

12.15pm
Rupert Read’s presentation in images

Nick Summers

Green Party Councillor and University of East Anglia academic Rupert Read spoke about the language used to portray environmental issues. Below are some of our favourite images of his talk.

11.51am
Analysing Copenhagen

Nick Summers

The potential of Copenhagen and its subsequent disappointments plague us all. James Painter, from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and formerly of the BBC World Service highlights the sheer volume of coverage that came out of the Copenhagen summit. The number of attendees, including journalists was far higher than any COP before it.

Brazil and India had the highest amount of coverage at the start and end of Copenhagen. In contrast, the UK was in fourth place; the USA, in a rather lowly seventh.  National organisations, including politicians, made up 68% of the quotations found  in the coverage of Copenhagen.

Painter says that unlike about Copenhagen, there were much lower expectations of a deal at Cancun. This was due to a very different political context at the time and was realised in a reduction of reportage. None of the UK TV crews attended, and there were only two reporters from all of the American broadcast companies combined. This resulted in a very limited coverage on US networks.

The reduction of environmental journalism is a concern for political progression. James Painter asks: “What are the reasons for climate fatigue amongst journalists, amongst editors and the general public, and what can be done about it?”

Painter argues that the mistakes of IPCC and the ‘climategate’ scandal have added to the endurance of climate scepticism. The effect of these events on the public and politicians can in turn affect the framing and coverage by the media.

Respected journalists have said that stories need to be reframed to emphasise energy problems and new business solutions. Climate change is a notoriously difficult subject to report and the topic is now fraught with controversy.  It’s difficult to predict how journalism concerning climate change will proceed in the future.

11.19am
Opening it up to the floor

Nick Summers

A lively Q&A session has been unfolding. Social media is a fantastic asset, but audience members are concerned with how these developments affect the role of the traditional press. Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan has highlighted the pressures that many news organisations are under and how this restricts the diversity of their output. Perhaps the personal and often emotional way of using Twitter and Facebook could be used to sidestep these editorial difficulties.

Peter Maeseele said: “I think the emotional is really important, especially in mobilising people to take action.”

The ideals of  ’the big society’  is under particular scrutiny. It’s been suggested that an adaptation of the model could perhaps be more successful. This view hasn’t been unanimously supported, but has certainly produced interest and critique from other members in the audience.

10.47am
Protecting the woods

Nick Summers

If you want to raise a revolution, Twitter is king. Alex Lockwood from the University of Sunderland begins with a series of screenshots showing the mobilisation of a campaign known as ‘Save Our Trees’. The use of Twitter may have baffled a few of the older attendees in the audience, but they are quickly reassured by a few amusing pictures of the Prime Minister. Good save.

Social and digital media is crucial for multiplying and amplifying the messages of the public. The importance of hashtags and retweeting is also being cited as increasingly important for future endeavours. The success of the ‘Save Our Trees’ campaign proves this.

Pieter Maeseele from the University of Antwerp, Belgium discusses how spaces for conflict can be created and expressed. Risk conflicts concerning society and science are the most important to environmental issues and refers to reflexive scientization.

Pieter Maeseele says: ”We cannot see them, we cannot smell them.” This makes it difficult to convey the scale of environmental risks. Maeseele says genetically modified food is a good example, highlighting the specificities of molecular biology and ecology. Unless you have a biochemistry degree, keeping up with the science behind these conflicts can be a tremendous task.

Environmental visions should be ideological. Maeseele argues that you cannot create a consensus for a concept such as climate change — it’s something that can simply never be achieved, for there will always be at least one scientist who disagrees. Risk conflicts are made up by a series of dimensions, made up by the spheres of society, economy and nature. Deeper still is a level of elements such as scientific progress, development, cost-benefit and economic progress. The GM debate should not be seen as a conflict, but a range of possible positive solutions instead.

Ultimately, Maeseele asks that reporting reveals the competing sets of assumptions and interests that underline environmental issues, rather than the simplistic idea of a scientific consensus.

10.25am
Covering the Cancun summit on Spanish TV

Nick Summers

Journalism becomes a social reality for readers, which in turn affects the political agenda. This is the opening remark by Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan, from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Juan has been investigating the framing of the Cancun summit by  TV channels in Spain.

There were 166 news items across the 13 days of the Cancun summit. Too much? Too less? Perhaps most interesting of all, almost 90% of the coverage came from public TV channels rather than private alternatives. Clips of the first day give a glimpse of the reportage, moving on swiftly to a wealth of visual data. The contrast between coverage on the first and last day is remarkable — an almost polar switch from negative to positive remarks.

Juan’s conclusions are bleak. Climate change is not seen as an important item for television media in Spain. The perspective is heavily influenced the news organisation’s editorial line.

9.51am
Opening the discussion

Nick Summers

Einar Thorsen took to the floor with an energetic introduction, setting the scene for what will hopefully be a lively morning. Panel chair Julie Doyle was quick to hand over to the first speaker of the Global Issues panel, acknowledging the time constraints that will most likely plague the symposium throughout the day.

Annika Egan Sjölander, from Umeå University in Sweden described the battle to convert consumers to biofuels and ethanol as a “huge task” in her home nation. The complexity of the issues and the lack of any one obvious solution often makes environmental problems difficult to handle. Sjölander highlights nuclear waste as a prime example. She adds that the mass media matters in order to articulate individual problems in relation to a wider field of environmental issues.

Annika Egan Sjölander says: ”There is a need to be able to articulate — and if we can’t do it, who can?”

In order to be free and self governing, citizens need to have enough information to formulate their own arguments and opinions. This in turn creates an arena of public discussion, providing crucial input for the political agenda. The role of the media as a watchdog and to critique the actions of decision-makers has also been touched upon.

Sjölander’s firsthand experience from working in Sweden is certainly enlightening.

9.20am
A flavour of the day

Nick Summers

With the start of the conference fast approaching, here’s a brief rundown of the event schedule. This way you’ll know exactly who’s speaking and when to tune in for those all important debate sessions.

After the welcome address, the presentations will kick off with the Global Issues and Local Contexts panel at 9.45am, chaired by Julie Doyle from the University of Brighton. We’re particularly looking forward to the segment on ‘Television Coverage of the Cancun Summit on Spanish TV’, explored by Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Other speakers include Annika Egan Sjölander, from Umeå University in Sweden; Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland and Pieter Maeseele, University of Antwerp in Belgium.

Once everyone has refuelled and taken a quick break, the plenary session will begin at 11.20am. James Painter, from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, will  debate some of the issues surrounding the reporting from Copenhagen and Cancun summits. It’ll be interesting to see the perspective of a journalist who was present at the events. This will be followed by Rupert Read from the University of East Anglia, exploring the language that can portray positive and negative environmental change.

Lunch at 12.20am, so we’ll be taking some time out to recharge our batteries and prepare for the afternoon ahead. Rejoin us at 1.05pm, when Stuart Allan, Professor of Journalism at Bournemouth University, will chair a panel on climate activism and citizen conversations. Climate science blogs, the role of the public and counter politics will be scrutinised in this early afternoon session.

Alex Lockwood, from the University of Sunderland, will take the helm from 2.55pm. The power of mediation will be examined through the coverage by The New York Times, photojournalism and poverty-tainment. Panellists: Mat Hope, University of Bristol; Ulrike Heine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen in Germany; Jenny Alexander, Bournemouth University; Michael Goodman and Christine Barnes, King’s College London.

The main debates will round off with a look at conservation, media and pedagogy. Highlights include a section on sustainable wellbeing brought forward by Paul Stevens from Bournemouth University, as well as potential for Higher Education curriculum development discussed by Julie Doyle from the University of Brighton.

As you can see, there will be much information on the mediation of environmental issues. Stay with us here on the live update for latest developments.

9.00am
Visualising the conference

Nick Summers

8.30 am
Early rise, plenty of shine

Nick Summers

Plush leather seats and dark wooden desks arc around a dominating overhead projector, setting the stage for Mediating Environmental Change: Exploring the Way Forward. The Executive Business Centre in Bournemouth will be playing host to a variety of academic speakers, environmental activists and researchers, and journalism lecturers.

Registration begins at 9.00 am, in 30 minutes. A sense of apprehension looms over the conference hall. Sound levels are checked, air conditioning is tweaked and vantage seats fought over by the bloggers covering the event. I’m already looking forward to my first injection of caffeine.

Details about socialising on Thursday and Friday evenings:

For those of you who would like to, the conference organising team (Einar and Jenny) propose that we go for a drink (and an optional bite to eat ) at the art deco Cumberland Hotel close to the seafront on Thursday evening. It is on East Overcliff Drive, 20 mins walk from Bournemouth railway station. You can print out directions via Google Maps. We’re not planning a spectacularly late one, as the conference is the next day, and suggest meeting there at 7.30pm.

On Friday, the conference finishes as 6.30pm and we are planning to eat at Dosa World after the event (circa 7.00pm) which is a canteen-style, reasonably priced, South Indian place. We’ve picked it because it is pretty close to the conference centre and to the train station.

If you would like to come along to either event, please could you e-mail Jenny BY THE END OF TOMORROW (WEDS) to let us know, so we can ascertain how many might be interested and co-ordinate.

The conference centre itself is ten minutes walk from Bournemouth railway station. There is also a taxi rank outside the station. If anyone needs a taxi number whilst in Bournemouth we suggest Warren’s Taxis 01202 555511.

We wish you all a safe journey here.

Kind regards,
Einar and Jenny (Conference Organising Team).

You can track the coverage by following @ClimateConf on Twitter, or getting involved with the wider debate by using the hash tag #mec2011. A feed of the tweets mentioning #mec2011 can also be found on the right hand side of this page.

Further analysis will be collated here on the blog, providing you with some valuable perspective on the discussions and presentations. The posts will be updated roughly every 15 minutes, making sure that you can keep up with the proceedings as it happens.

The event is scheduled to run from 09:00am, so expect the live blogging to start at roughly the same time.

Coverage is organised, run and documented by students of The Media School at Bournemouth University.
How emerging digital media is changing PR by Climate Conference

Environmental problems pose great challenges for late-modern societies. Broad involvement in decision-making processes and public participation are seen as ways to handle uncertainty and to create legitimacy for the decisions that need to be made. The (mass) media play a crucial role in these processes. Large-scale engagement in societal issues is hard to even imagine without support from media institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light to ‘classic’ arguments about the democratic roles of mass media and to discuss the relevance of them in relation to today’s society. The media landscape and the journalistic profession are undergoing dramatic changes. The trust in politicians and scientists has decreased, yet citizens depend more than ever on expert advice. What these circumstances mean for the democratic handling of contemporary environmental problems and why media (still) matter, will be explored further.

Keywords: media, democracy, environment, public participation

Television Coverage of the Cancun Summit on Spanish TV
Juan Carlos Águila Coghlan, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

To investigate trends in the framing of the news on climate change on different TV channels in Spain, the news during the Cacún summit were registered and analized. For the analysis of records, a testing protocol was developed, which identifies the channel, the program, the broadcast schedule for the ranking of the news in relation to the rest of news delivered in the report, the section to which ascribes the news, and the duration of the news itself. To analyze the content of the news itself, the full sentence of the story presentation is registrered, and determining the focus of the news by keywords, such as climate change, environmental crisis, greenhouse effect, and others.

Focusing on the “Off” of the piece of information, the elements of the construction of the discourse are determined, and the trend of the information as if it shows “agree”, “willingness to negotiate” or “confrontation”.

Keywords: Climate change, environment crisis, greenhouse effect

Affecting Environments: emotional experiences between media and place in the Save Our Forests campaign
Alex Lockwood, University of Sunderland

Of the nine boundaries proposed by Rockstrom et al (2010) as a checklist of planetary health, humanity has transgressed three: climate change, the rate of biodiversity loss, and interference with the nitrogen cycle.

Climate change is perhaps the most recognisably pressing of all nine categories. However, this paper will focus on the environmental journalism of biodiversity loss, and specifically the ways in which emotional frames are employed in the reporting and conveyance of such loss.

Much of the reporting on biodiversity has focused on individual species, charismatic mega-fauna and mega-flora (e.g. gorillas and the Amazon). This paper will turn to a smaller species—the British bee—and, drawing on the work of Lorimer on non-human charisma (2005), evolutionary and cognitive psychology, and affect theory, map out ways in which emotional responses are (or, are not) elicited in the reporting of species essential to ecological health, and the repercussions for pro-conservation behaviours.

Keywords: biodiversity, environmental journalism, emotion, bee, non-human charisma

Mediating environmental change: choose conflict
Pieter Maeseele, University of Antwerp, Belgium

This paper calls for the conceptual and empirical recognition of many debates on environmental issues as genuine “social conflicts”. Climate change, genetic engineering, nuclear energy, nanotech, etc., are examples of environmental debates in which we find contestation between various social actors based on competing risk definitions. However, these risk definitions are based not only on competing rationality claims in terms of how to interpret the science, but also on competing values and interests. Although there is always the expectation that these (often science-led) debates should be settled by referring to the science, we increasingly find that all conflicting parties call upon “sound” science to support their positions, leading to the conclusion that scientific research in these debates functions mainly as a material and discursive resource for these social actors in pursuing broader social, economic or political agendas. I will discuss the benefits of making this conceptual and empirical choice for conflict for the field of environmental reporting, not only for science and environmental journalism itself but also for media scholars studying science and environmental journalism. I will argue that it allows to draw conclusions not only on the contribution of news media to facilitating democratic debate and democratic citizenship, but equally on how to communicate these environmental issues better from the perspective of democratic politics.

Keywords: conflict, environmental debates, environmental journalism, democratic debate, democratic politics

Plane Stupid is often known for high-profile dare-devil media-orientated actions. But take a peek behind the scenes of the drama and you will meet hundreds, if not thousands, of people who have been building a movement based on creative media to tackle the daily reality of injustice and poverty to build a world for the greater common good. Recognising the complexities of direct action, the medium is as important as the message for Plane Stupid. We aim to embody the world we want to create and thus shift power structures in our organising to support people to get involved.

With growing recognition of the world’s interconnected problems, it is an increasing challenge to join the ever-tougher competition for a bigger slice of the public’s ‘mind share’. Because of this, Plane Stupid has strategically engaged with the independent and mainstream press over the years. This engagement is part of the foundations from which our creativity rests upon. In an increasingly changing environment, with growing protest cultures, how can media be used as a genuine form for empowering social change?

The Whaling Wars of the Antarctic: The case of Sea Sheppard, ‘Eco-Terrorism’ and Multi-Media Activism
Anita Howarth, Kingston University

This paper explores mainstream media constructions of the militant clashes between Sea Shepherd and the Japanese Whaling Fleet in the seas around Antarctica, some of the world’s most inaccessible waters. Despite this remoteness, the organization has succeed in providing images capturing its activities and those of the whaling fleet then distributed these to a wide range of media platforms. This paper is theoretically located between Epstein’s (2008) seminal analysis of discourses on whaling and De Lucca’s (1999) analysis of how activists discourses attract favourable coverage in the mainstream media. Empirically it explores how the ‘eco-terrorism’ of Sea Shepherd is constructed by these outlets in an era when ‘terrorism’ has come to be associated in the west with evil, gratuitous violence and unacceptable fundamentalism. The question is whether for some media, some forms of terrorism may be more acceptable than others and how has this acceptability been constructed.

Keywords: Whaling, militant activism, eco-terrorism

The Missing Public – A Sought-After Ingredient and a Constrainted Entity in the News Discourse on Environmental Risks
Annika Egan Sjölander, Umeå University, Sweden, &
Anna Maria Jönsson, Södertörn University, Sweden

There is a pressing need for more inclusive and deliberative environmental governance and communication. The news media shape the public discourse and influence who has access to the public sphere. What we call ‘the missing public’ is a common theme that runs across different empirical studies on environmental news. Citizens’ voices are generally rare. And when the public does appear in the news media it is clearly as a constrained entity, playing a predefined restricted role mainly framed by others.

The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of citizens voices and public representation in environmental news. We believe that two things are needed: 1) a more detailed taxonomy of the issues of public participation and framing in the environmental news discourse; and 2) a methodological approach that tries to synthesize the findings from the case studies that generally have been dominating the analyses of environmental news.

Keywords: environmental communication, public, citizen, news, power

Where is the ‘Counter’ in Counter-Politics? Climate Change and New Media
Maxine Newlands, University of East London

Environmental activist are shifting it’s place of protest, and engaging with the mainstream media in their own terms and in their own space. Through new technologies in communication, a new community is emerging, marking a ‘turning point’ in the relations of power between activists and journalists, from passive to active representation. Climate Camp activists are attempting to develop a counter-site by a) engaging with journalists, b) ‘building a movement’ and c) embracing new technology as a mechanism for empowering citizenship.

Yet, as this paper will argue, the creation of a ‘media tent’ and ‘citizen journalism workshops’ at the Camp for Climate Action (2009) is less a signal to create space for a new community; but more symbolic of normative behaviour. The building of fences around camps, and control of the media ‘on site’, signify the shift is less about control and more about conformity (in Foucauldian way). This paper will ask is engagement with the media a strategy to build an environmentally focused community, or simply a mode of compliance?

Keywords: Climate Camp, Foucault, New Media, Conformity, Eco-activism

‘Not Yet a Butterfly’: Climate Science Blogs as Emerging Spaces of Discourse
Larry Pryor, USC/Annenberg School of Journalism & Communication, US

The blogosphere enters the new decade at its usual confounding speed. Meanwhile theorists continue to deplore blogs as wastelands of polarization and short attention spans. It’s time to revisit that verdict. For example, comments on postings about climate change at news Web sites and independent blogs are defining a new realm of rhetoric with its own language, goals and systems of argumentation. Much of this is occurring without academic notice. An opportunity exists to explore this “believable frontier between nature and culture,” a space of controversy between the technical and public spheres. This paper proposes a method of analysis of climate discourse and collective intelligence. It will also contrast new media’s patterns of public engagement in climate science issues with the approaches being taken by Western governments that focus on a narrow set of motivations and confine deliberation within rigid political and economic boundaries.

Keywords: Blogs, Climate Science, Discourse, Democracy

This paper presents the results of a frame analysis of the New York Times’ reporting of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill of April, 2010. Applying a model of the framing process influenced by Goffman (1975) and Nerlich and Clarke (2000) (among others), the analysis looks at how a social-disaster narrative of the event was constructed, and how it developed over time. It looks at how the disaster was interpreted, who was held responsible and why, and how such reporting affects the public’s perception of their relationship with the environment. It is found that the New York Times primarily constructed a narrative around the ‘beleaguered people of Louisiana’, rather than focussing on the environmental fallout of the spill. Furthermore, they located blame most prominently with President Obama and his administration. Consequently, they promoted a narrative which further entrenches the public’s position as a ‘user’ rather than ‘inhabitant’ of their environment.

Keywords: BP oil spill, media narratives

Reconsidering Photo-Journalism in the Face of Climate Change
Ulrike Heine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany

In my paper I will argue that media reporting on climate change has been accompanied by a new understanding of photojournalism. Exchanging the role of an observer for an agent in the process, the photojournalist has been taking on the role of a climate activist.

To illustrate this shift I will analyse two projects: “Consequences” and “Solutions”. These photo documentaries were produced on the occasion of the COPs in 2009 and 2010. They consist of several series shot by photojournalists working for the picture agency NOOR. Examining climate change from multiple perspectives, these projects are meant as calls for action.

My analysis will be based on a comparative investigation of the projects’ visual and textual elements as well as on interviews that I have conducted with the photojournalists involved. I will discuss how the transformation is reflected in both, their work and professional self-imaging – and its interrelation with the topic of climate change.

Keywords: visualising climate change, photojournalism, media transformation, journalistic activism

Advertising Environmental Change?
Jenny Alexander, Bournemouth University

Advertising is the aesthetic communicative form of contemporary capitalism. Can it be used to address audiences as citizens? Can we promote a more sustainable world? This paper investigates examples of ad campaigns in the UK in the past two years, disseminated by the (previous) Government and campaigning organisations and concerned with environmental change, to consider the value, significance and modality of advertising environmental change.

Star/Poverty Space as Poverty-tainment
Michael Goodman and Christine Barnes, King’s College London

Bono has stated that ‘celebrity is a currency of a kind’. And, yet, how is this currency constructed, how does it circulate and to what effects? I argue here that, for almost all ‘caring celebrities’, being photographed or interviewed ‘in place’—those Othered places of poverty, disaster or conflict such as Darfur, India, the Congo and most recently Haiti—is paramount to the processes of creating celebrity currency in the fight against poverty and for environment/development in Africa and elsewhere. There are two main reasons for the constructions of these ‘landscapes’ of what we call ‘star/poverty space’ here: first, this celebrity tourism is designed to effect a spatial relations of care between the North and South, with the celebrity acting as ‘our’ active representatives in these places; the multiple juxtapositions and paradoxes of them/the Other, them/us, distance/closeness, in place/out of place, and glamour/poverty are developed to not only sell footage and magazines but to develop the capacities for ‘caring at a distance’ by media consumers. Second, the spectacular artefacts of these media-ted images and texts of celebrities in the other places of poverty serve to build the credibility and thus, expertise, of celebrities in order to facilitate the effectiveness and authority of their voice to the benefit of the charities and causes they front. Here, celebrities become our contemporary muses, paradoxically speaking privileged truth to/through privileged power through the contradictory creation and dissemination of ‘poverty-tainment’.

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This paper will explore the methodological implications of researching the public pedagogy of environmental and conservation media through interrogating the validity and applicability of the concept ‘public pedagogy’, the relevance of methodological approaches derived from media ecology in fashioning conservation awareness and a culture of concern, and the use and integration of image based learning within various social, political, educational, institutional and activist contexts. Taking Denzin’s discussions to interpretative interactionism, critical pedagogy and performance ethnography together with Deleuze’s work on the movement-image and Grodal’s and Munster’s work on embodied vision and information aesthetics as theoretical starting points, ‘Researching the public pedagogy…’ will examine the processes by which conservation and environmental media may perform critical public pedagogical functions in western and, to a lesser extent, non western cultures. References will be made to a range of film and television documentaries including The Cousteau Odyssey (US, 1977-1981,) Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1993, PBS/American Experience), Darwin’s Nightmare (2004,France/Belgium/Austria), Green (2009, Fr) and Petropolis (2009, Greenpeace Canada).

Keywords: public pedagogy, media ecology, research

Scientific Evidence and Environmental Policy Making: A Portuguese Case Study
Margarida Sardo and Emma Weitkamp, University of the West of England, Bristol

This study provides another angle on the vexed question of the role of environmental research in informing the policymaking process and it describes research undertaken to investigate the ways in which scientific evidence is used by environmental policymakers in Portugal. The research specifically seeks to understand the types of experts whose input is sought by policymakers and the opportunities and barriers to incorporation of scientific evidence into policy. Participants in the study were recruited from the Portuguese environmental consultancy sector. The data shows that, when working for policymakers, environmental consultants routinely use scientific evidence and regularly conduct literature research, using a variety of sources ranging from academic journals to technical reports and books. However, participants feel that policymakers do not always understand the importance and impact of including scientific research into the policymaking cycle. Barriers to working with policymakers were also identified throughout this research.

Keywords: environmental policymaking, consultants, communication, scientific evidence

Sustainable wellbeing: Linking the personal and the planetary
Paul Stevens, Bournemouth University

Whether in the popular media or in academic teaching, wellbeing and environmental sustainability are often presented as separate issues. At best, sustainable practices are acknowledged as having some beneficial side-effects on wellbeing (e.g., less air pollution means less respiratory ailments); At worst, the two are presented as mutually exclusive (i.e., sustainability necessarily means a lower standard of living). But an argument can be made for an opposite view: That if we focus on being well, we will find that environmental sustainability emerges from that state.Although there is ongoing debate in the area, there is general agreement (OECD, 2005) that there are three broad areas of key competencies needed for humans to progress towards environmental sustainability: (1) The ability to use a wide range of interactive media to acquire, organise and interpret data; (2) Engagement with heterogenous groups; (3) Be able to act autonomously, managing life in meaningful and responsible ways. Current strategies tend towards the creation of favourable learning enviromnments that help develop or acquire such competencies, yet at the same time, psychologists (Deci & Ryan, 2008) model wellbeing as that state which arises when individuals feel they have the qualities of competence, relatedness and autonomy. This suggests that intervention strategies aimed at improving wellbeing would also meet the goals of education for sustainability.

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Media, Materiality and the Environment: Exploring the Ethics and Sustainability of Hardware
Sy Taffel, University of Bristol

Recent analyses of the global information and communications technology industries estimate they are responsible for around 2% of anthropogenic CO2 emissions, a similar figure to the aviation industry.

While media studies has tended to focus on content, and to a lesser extent medium, this paper seeks to address a different set of issues raised by contemporary media practice: the material impacts of the hardware on which the digital revolution is predicated, on both the environment and society. From design choices based on upgrade culture and planned obsolescence through to the international trade in toxic e-waste, there is a series of ethical challenges surrounding the material consequences of the hardware that underpins digital culture, consequences which are far removed from the rhetoric of virtuality and post-industrialism. An ethically engaged, sustainable approach to media studies must address and explore the ways in which academic and pedagogical practices affect these issues.

Keywords: materiality, sustainability, hardware, ethics, environment

‘What’s the Environment got to do with Media Studies?’: Exploring the Possibilities and Challenges for Curriculum Development in HE
Julie Doyle, University of Brighton

While Media Studies research has been quite slow to engage with environmental issues, the teaching of environment and sustainability to students in this field has been even slower. This paper will offer some reflections upon recent experiences gained through incorporating issues of environment into UG and PG Media Studies teaching, as well as the development of a new degree BA (Hons) Environment and Media Studies (at the University of Brighton). In doing so, it will explore the challenges for engaging (often disinterested) students, the tensions between theory/practice, as well as the productive possibilities for interdisciplinary teaching and research in this area.

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For your convenience, please see below some information of particular relevance to those presenting.

The event is scheduled to run from 09:00 – 18:15, and the programme is now available.

Your paper should be 12-15 minutes. Please respect the other speakers by ensuring your paper does not overrun.

We also ask that your paper addresses the overall conference theme of “exploring the way forward”, either throughout or as a few thought provoking questions at the end.

Standard presentation facilities will be available, including PC with internet access and projector.

In order to minimise the handover time, we request that people wishing to use PowerPoint or other visual aids email these to Einar Thorsen by 3rd March at the latest. We will ensure these are set up and ready for your session.

Please note that we will be live blogging on the day and recording podcasts of each session. If you do not wish to be included in the podcast, please let us know.

If you have not yet registered, please do so using our online registration system. The symposium fee is £25 for all delegates. Vegetarian buffet lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Our website has information on travel to Bournemouth and accommodation.

On Thursday, 3rd March and Friday, 4th March, we hope to organise a group meal for those conference participants that are around. Please check our conference blog nearer the time for details. Any social activities like these are not included in the registration fee.