"Most effective agriculture, environment and natural resource management projects tend to be those in which community members, development practitioners or agriculture experts jointly identify research or development parameters and participate in the decision-making process. In these projects, commu
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nity engagement, consultation and participation occur from the very beginning and continue through the arc of the project. Here, the research and development process itself generates a situation of empowerment in which participants transform their view of reality enabling them to take effective action. This chapter delves deeper into participatory development communication, a branch of the development communication tree that takes a stand on empowerment as the key to sustainable development. The chapter reviews conceptual models associated with participatory communication, describes cases related to agriculture and natural resource management where the approach has been used to address challenges encountered by local communities and offers some thoughts for the future." (Abstract)
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"Despite recent intergovernmental commitments to advancing climate change education and communication (CCEC) internationally, there remains a lack of global data to enable tracking or target-setting on country progress. This article shares findings from an analysis of CCEC content in 377 submissions
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to the UNFCCC Secretariat. Submission types analyzed included National Communications reporting on recent activities, and Nationally Determined Contributions and National Adaptation Plans outlining future plans. Key findings about CCEC in primary to tertiary education, government, media, civil society, business, and public communications sectors are that: (a) while CCEC content appeared in submissions, little is currently suitable for monitoring purposes; and (b) there were notable gaps in CCEC activities, given a pronounced emphasis on cognitive knowledge over affective and action-oriented approaches. Regional variations were also found, with European countries on average including more content in relation to both Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) elements and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicator components. Recommendations for future UNFCCC submissions on the quantity and quality of CCEC are highlighted, as well as for research and research-policy collaboration to further monitoring of CCEC implementation and progress globally." (Abstract)
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"In recent years, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) has invested time and resources to better understand the results of the support it provides to journalists and media outlets. EJN already uses a suite of methods to gauge the impact of its efforts to improve environmental media, such as e
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valuating individual training and capacity development activities. In 2020, it commissioned a study that aimed to go a step further and support deeper learning on whether, how and why EJN’s work contributes to changes in the policies and practices of different actors. This report summarizes the study’s main findings, insights and recommendations [...] Key findings within EJN's control: EJN’s financial and mentoring support enables journalists with varied levels of experience to undertake reporting that they would otherwise find difficult. As a result, they can produce newsworthy stories on environmental issues. Research challenges mentioned earlier resulted in incomplete data, but it appears that stories supported by EJN are likely to achieve higher levels of engagement when published in local languages. Many stories published with EJN’s support are republished and shared through other news outlets and social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Levels of engagement appear to vary considerably across countries and distribution channels, however data explored by the study indicates they may be higher for local language media, particularly video." (Executive summary, page 9-10)
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"As connected platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and TikTok rise in popular use, communication strategies are forced to grow more condensed and to be transmitted primarily across digital screens. Online short-form video has consequently become a primary format for environmental communication, thou
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gh research on digital communication remains largely limited to frame analysis and discussions of print and still images. Filling a need in current scholarship on environmental media and aiming to further bridge humanities and communication research, this article offers a model for assessing environmentally themed short-form videos that complements communication studies’ focus on messaging rhetoric with humanities-based film and visual culture analytic tools for assessing the connotative aspect of aesthetic and narrative elements. Intending to offer an applicable framework for environmental messengers, we develop a genre system of short-form videos along cognitive and emotional axes that can be quantitatively identified according to formal practices, demonstrated through an examination of four environmental short-form videos." (Abstract)
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"A garment spends 2.2 years on average in a UK wardrobe. Fashion is among the biggest polluters, yet the media still promote throwaway fast fashion. The growing fashion public relations industry encourages and enables this media coverage. This policy brief identifies patterns in the way journalists
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and influencers cover fashion which contribute to unsustainable buying behaviours. Research recommends practical steps to improve media coverage to make consumption sustainable, by changing consumers’ understanding and reducing the pressure on them to buy ‘fast’ satisfaction. This brief is based on the original analysis of 1,000+ media artefacts in the UK – from magazines to newspapers, gossip weeklies to Instagram influencers." (Key messages)
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"An online survey was conducted in which participants were exposed to one of 16 mock emergency warnings about either a bushfire or a riverine flood and were then asked a series of questions relating to their demographic characteristics, message comprehension and effectiveness, threat appraisal, copi
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ng appraisal, protection motivation and maladaptive coping behaviour. Mock emergency warnings were developed using existing end-user emergency warnings to improve realism and maximise the usefulness of the findings, as well as building on previous QUT-conducted BNHCRC research (see Greer et al., 2019). A total of 2,482 Australians living across all states and territories were recruited to participate in the research. Participants were recruited by the Market Research firm Dynata. Approximately 150 participants responded to each of the 16 stimuli. Overall, the research results show that adding colours and/or icons to the Evacuate Now (Bushfire) message creates improvements, albeit small ones, in message comprehension, effectiveness, perceived probability and perceived self-efficacy. The other three messages showed no improvement (or loss) in message comprehension, effectiveness, threat appraisal, or coping appraisal as a result of adding colours and/or icons." (Abstract)
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"Peace journalism is a concept conventionally applied to reporting on violent conflict. In recent years, however, there has been increasing consideration of the possible links with other crucial subjects such as climate change and COVID-19 reporting. To date, such an extension of peace journalism ha
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s not yet been comprehensively considered in Australian scholarship on and about the Pacific Island region. This seeming lack of widespread engagement in the discussions about relevance and applicability of peace journalism in the region is part of the rationale for this article. The authors hope this article can inspire debate about the chosen approaches of Australian-based media scholars researching, writing and teaching about media in the Pacific." (Abstract)
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"This article reflects experiences and results from an environmental education and communication strategy (EECS) as part of a Lao-German development project of Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) over a 10-year period from 2011 to 2021. The article is divided into four parts. First
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, an overview of the project context and the media landscape in Laos is provided. Next, the conceptual framework of the communication strategy at the GIZ policy and project management level is presented. Subsequently, major features of the wide variety of environmental education and communication media productions and educational materials are highlighted. Another chapter summarizes the results of Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) surveys related to environmental awareness. Finally, monitoring and evaluation (M&E) and impact assessment results conclude lessons that can be learned from the project’s communication strategy." (Abstract)
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"A number of issues have been raised in this report that will help the media to improve on service delivery in disaster-related issues and to be prepared in disaster management. Not only the media has vowed to improve but also government institutions, humanitarian response organizations and media st
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akeholders have also pledged to play a part in supporting the media to carry out its role efectively in terms of accurate and timely reporting. Some of the important points raised in the consultation process were: National and district structures that are set by both government and nongovernment organizations have to involve the media in the planning, processing and implementing of national mechanisms that would help the media in carrying out their duties; the media need to be well-equipped with training and resources that would strengthen their professional capacity; there has to be a good rapport between the media and all government and non-government entities for efcient and efective reporting; there should be proper planning in disaster management amongst all stakeholders involved in this process to enhance coordination at all angles." (Conclusion, page 27)
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"[...] in this article, we present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for a panel of eight case studies (covering four continents) [Amazon rainforest, Brazil; Colombia; India; Bangaldesh; Egypt; Lake Manyara Basin, Tanzania; Baltic Sea, Germany; Isles of Scilly, UK] ] of communicat
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ions between project teams and local communities within the context of climate change or biodiversity loss. Our analysis develops eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, which we construct from the literature, in addition to Verran (2002) 's concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. Our study contributes to the (analytical) understanding of such communications, while also providing tangible insights for field work and policy recommendations. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can foster a more successful communication, although we find an apparent divergence between timing, complexity, and (introspective) effort of the project teams. While three case studies qualify for postcolonial moments, our findings show that especially the scrutiny of power relations and genuine knowledge co-production are still rare. We verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science; however, we also show that their sophistication cannot substitute other crucial factors. Instead, simple deconstruction efforts may suffice, while trust-building, proper time management, and an advanced awareness of the scientists are crucial. Lastly, we consider that reforming rigid and inadequate funding policies will help overcome significant barriers and improve the work in and with local communities." (Abstract)
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"This report analyses how governments are building climate and carbon factors into their broadband policies, looks at the consequences of inaction, and suggests policy recommendations towards a greener internet. We compiled publicly available documents for the national broadband plans from the 100 l
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ow- and middle-income countries where A4AI has measured internet affordability for the past three years. From these countries, we conducted a keyword search for their mentions of the environment, climate, energy, electricity, and sustainability. From these results, we contextually analysed each mention and compared keyword mentions and density across plans and conducted additional textual analysis. We found that environmental themes are infrequently mentioned and exist mostly within the margins of broadband policy, if at all. An environmental keyword appeared once every 6-7 pages, on average. Genuine targets and policy reforms were even less frequent. These issues are described as limiting factors (reasons why social and economic situations are not better today) or as future possibilities (positive assumptions about what could happen from greater internet access and ICT use). Frequently, these same words - the regulatory environment, sustainable business models, and the investment climates - were used beyond their original meaning to frame policy debates around systems thinking, and did not relate to climate factors at all. Energy was one of the most common environmental themes across national broadband plans. The countries that had most environmental references in their policies, such as Nepal and Peru, tied their ambitions for greater access to the internet with greater access to electricity. This matches with countries' development paths where internet access and electrification are concurrent efforts." (Executive summary, page 3)
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"Communication about biodiversity loss is insufficient and audiovisual stories can help to effectively communicate the problem. This research developed the optimum communication criteria for communicating effectively about biodiversity loss through audiovisual stories. We created our theoretical fra
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mework by combining contemporary research about audiovisual stories concerning science and studies on effective communication about biodiversity loss and conservation. Based on this framework and using relevant multimodal critical discourse analysis tools, we built an analytical model. We applied the model to the analysis of three contemporary audiovisual stories concerning biodiversity loss: Rang-tan: the story of dirty palm oil (Greenpeace International, 2018), “Dream” (Wildlife Conservation Film Festival, 2016, original quotation marks), and The Birdman (Fordesman, 2020). The research findings demonstrate that current audiovisual stories lack aspects of the optimum communication criteria and that conservation communicators have not yet made use of the medium's full potential. Ideally, this thesis has the potential to encourage further research on how to communicate more effectively about biodiversity loss." (Abstract)
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"How does Chinese central media represent Africa through its environmental news? This article argues that the way in which Chinese central media organisations have reported environmental issues across the African continent has altered from a reactive “charm defensive” towards the promotion of a
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developmental model: “Ecological Civilisation”. Based on a critical discourse analysis of headline African news published by the Xinhua News Agency, this research illustrates the emergence of this new, unexpected turn in Chinese representations of Africa, as well as highlighting the coherencies and tensions within this discourse. Questioning why this change in the emphasis of content has occurred, it investigates explanations at the macro-, mezzo-, and micro-levels of analysis, concluding that the evidence indicates that Xinhua’s content remains closely linked to the soft power goals of the Chinese Communist Party. However, the presence of risk discourses in some reports indicates that the hegemonic discourse is altering. This could potentially be the result of Xinhua’s own commercial objectives in Africa, or of the subjectivities of individual Xinhua journalists seeping into reports." (Abstract)
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"Wie gezeigt wurde, fällt, über den gesamten Produktzyklus hinweg betrachtet, die Herstellung der digitalen Endgeräte, bzgl. der Menge verursachter Treibhausgasemissionen, besonders schwer ins Gewicht. Für Nutzer*innen liegt somit der größte Hebel für eine Reduzierung der Emissionen im Kauf v
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on passgenauen Geräten bei verantwortungsvollen Anbietern und einer möglichst langen Nutzungsdauer. Doch auch während der Nutzung existieren zahlreiche und einfach anzuwendende Optionen für einen klimafreundlicheren Gebrauch – beginnend bei der Wahl des Stromanbieters, über die Anpassung allgemeiner Nutzungseinstellungen bis hin zu einer Reduzierung der versendeten und empfangenen Datenmenge, der Beseitigung bzw. Reduzierung von überflüssigem Datenmüll und dem vollständigen Ausschalten der Geräte. Auch wenn die Entsorgung von Endgeräten aus Klimagesichtspunkten nicht allzu stark ins Gewicht fällt, ist sie, aufgrund der vom Elektroschrott ausgehenden zahlreichen weiteren Umweltrisiken, dennoch von größter Relevanz und sollte ebenso umsichtig erfolgen." (Schlussbetrachtung, Seite 29)
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