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3 Advancing the environmental communication field: A research agenda

  • Alison Anderson
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Environmental Communication
This chapter is in the book Environmental Communication

Abstract

Environmental communication is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary area of study. This chapter briefly introduces the environmental communication field, including key questions and concepts, before going on to highlight major debates within the current research literature. Examples are drawn from Western (mainly European) and non-Western contexts. The chapter highlights major advances and identifies key remaining gaps and under-researched questions. It concludes by offering a new research agenda, particularly focusing on climate justice and the Global South. It argues that the field must rectify the Western bias which still predominates: there is an urgent need for more internationally comparative work and more research in under-represented countries incorporating indigenous perspectives. In addition, we need to go beyond simply examining framing and messaging and viewing communication as a matter of transmission of messages. Environmental communication research still tends to be media-centric and there is considerable scope to examine the strategic activity of environmental NGOs, industry, and policymakers in the battle to influence news agendas as well as public attitudes and behaviour. Also, the focus on the individual citizen underplays the role of structural constraints and power dimensions. We need to go beyond studying single texts, behaviours, or discourses without situating them within their wider socio-political contexts.

Abstract

Environmental communication is a rapidly expanding interdisciplinary area of study. This chapter briefly introduces the environmental communication field, including key questions and concepts, before going on to highlight major debates within the current research literature. Examples are drawn from Western (mainly European) and non-Western contexts. The chapter highlights major advances and identifies key remaining gaps and under-researched questions. It concludes by offering a new research agenda, particularly focusing on climate justice and the Global South. It argues that the field must rectify the Western bias which still predominates: there is an urgent need for more internationally comparative work and more research in under-represented countries incorporating indigenous perspectives. In addition, we need to go beyond simply examining framing and messaging and viewing communication as a matter of transmission of messages. Environmental communication research still tends to be media-centric and there is considerable scope to examine the strategic activity of environmental NGOs, industry, and policymakers in the battle to influence news agendas as well as public attitudes and behaviour. Also, the focus on the individual citizen underplays the role of structural constraints and power dimensions. We need to go beyond studying single texts, behaviours, or discourses without situating them within their wider socio-political contexts.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface to Handbooks of Communication Science series V
  3. Contents IX
  4. Introduction
  5. 1 Rethinking environmental communication scholarship 1
  6. Part I: Research field
  7. A: Development and challenges of environmental communication
  8. 2 Environmental communication as a field for investigation and action 23
  9. 3 Advancing the environmental communication field: A research agenda 47
  10. B: Epistemologies and research paradigms
  11. 4 Rhetorical approaches to environmental communication 71
  12. 5 Exploring the potential for quantitative environmental communication to support social change 89
  13. 6 Ethnographic iterations and seeds of possibilities in environmental communication research 109
  14. 7 Environmental communication as epistemological struggle: Knowledge, ideology, and political ecology 129
  15. 8 Post-foundationalism and post-politics in critical environmental communication scholarship 147
  16. Part II: Perspectives
  17. A: Arenas
  18. 9 Tweeting on a rapidly warming planet: Environmental communication social media research 171
  19. 10 Negotiating the norms of science communication: Blogs by climate scientists and journalists 191
  20. 11 Analysing climate change communication in African countries: Scales, frames, and claims-makers in media from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya 215
  21. 12 Climate change coverage under the lens of alternativeness 241
  22. B: Voice
  23. 13 Sourcing matters: Voices in progressive alternative media 259
  24. 14 Voice and environmental communication: Indonesian women’s conservation advocacy 283
  25. 15 Communication in youth climate activism: Addressing research pitfalls and centring young people’s voices 303
  26. 16 The more-than-human world in environmental communication: Attunement for transformation 323
  27. C: Place
  28. 17 The authority of place 345
  29. 18 Re(integrating) the public in “public” participation processes in East Sikkim, India 361
  30. 19 Representing Amazonia: Perspectives from the Global North and the Global South 383
  31. Part III: Futures
  32. A: Social change: Constraints and possibilities
  33. 20 A communication perspective on societal transformations towards sustainability 409
  34. 21 When resiliencies collide: How Luhmann’s theory of social systems can be utilized to think through climate resiliency planning 429
  35. 22 On wolves and commons: Steps towards local deliberation and social learning in wildlife management 449
  36. 23 Environmental communication, social practices, and food system transformation 463
  37. 24 Low-tech energy for essential, accessible, ecological transitions 483
  38. B: Open questions
  39. 25 Investigating the untapped potential of disagreements 501
  40. 26 Embracing grief in a climate-changed world: Learning to cope with loss and companioning with Earth 521
  41. 27 Deep sustainability and the tyranny of duality 539
  42. Conclusion
  43. 28 Reclaiming openness in ways of knowing 553
  44. Author biographies 559
  45. Index 567
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110789553-003

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Preface to Handbooks of Communication Science series V
  3. Contents IX
  4. Introduction
  5. 1 Rethinking environmental communication scholarship 1
  6. Part I: Research field
  7. A: Development and challenges of environmental communication
  8. 2 Environmental communication as a field for investigation and action 23
  9. 3 Advancing the environmental communication field: A research agenda 47
  10. B: Epistemologies and research paradigms
  11. 4 Rhetorical approaches to environmental communication 71
  12. 5 Exploring the potential for quantitative environmental communication to support social change 89
  13. 6 Ethnographic iterations and seeds of possibilities in environmental communication research 109
  14. 7 Environmental communication as epistemological struggle: Knowledge, ideology, and political ecology 129
  15. 8 Post-foundationalism and post-politics in critical environmental communication scholarship 147
  16. Part II: Perspectives
  17. A: Arenas
  18. 9 Tweeting on a rapidly warming planet: Environmental communication social media research 171
  19. 10 Negotiating the norms of science communication: Blogs by climate scientists and journalists 191
  20. 11 Analysing climate change communication in African countries: Scales, frames, and claims-makers in media from South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya 215
  21. 12 Climate change coverage under the lens of alternativeness 241
  22. B: Voice
  23. 13 Sourcing matters: Voices in progressive alternative media 259
  24. 14 Voice and environmental communication: Indonesian women’s conservation advocacy 283
  25. 15 Communication in youth climate activism: Addressing research pitfalls and centring young people’s voices 303
  26. 16 The more-than-human world in environmental communication: Attunement for transformation 323
  27. C: Place
  28. 17 The authority of place 345
  29. 18 Re(integrating) the public in “public” participation processes in East Sikkim, India 361
  30. 19 Representing Amazonia: Perspectives from the Global North and the Global South 383
  31. Part III: Futures
  32. A: Social change: Constraints and possibilities
  33. 20 A communication perspective on societal transformations towards sustainability 409
  34. 21 When resiliencies collide: How Luhmann’s theory of social systems can be utilized to think through climate resiliency planning 429
  35. 22 On wolves and commons: Steps towards local deliberation and social learning in wildlife management 449
  36. 23 Environmental communication, social practices, and food system transformation 463
  37. 24 Low-tech energy for essential, accessible, ecological transitions 483
  38. B: Open questions
  39. 25 Investigating the untapped potential of disagreements 501
  40. 26 Embracing grief in a climate-changed world: Learning to cope with loss and companioning with Earth 521
  41. 27 Deep sustainability and the tyranny of duality 539
  42. Conclusion
  43. 28 Reclaiming openness in ways of knowing 553
  44. Author biographies 559
  45. Index 567
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