Kerrie Foxwell-Norton

The vast majority of the world’s population lives on or near the coast. These communities are an extraordinary and largely untapped resource that can be used to mitigate planetary disaster and foster environmental stewardship. Repeated waves of scientific fact and information are not inciting action, nor apparently producing enough momentum to change voting behaviour towards a progressive environmental politics. A critical coastal policy, underpinned by a deeper understanding of environmental communication, can offer something new to this status quo. Environmental Communication and Critical Coastal Policy argues that more science and ‘better’ communication has been largely responsible for the lacklustre response by citizens to environmental challenges. Foxwell-Norton asserts that the inclusion of a range of local meanings and cultural frameworks with which experts could engage would better incite participation in, and awareness of, local environmental issues. The value and possible role of ‘geo-community media’ (mainstream, alternative and social media) is examined here to illustrate and support the key argument that meaningful local engagement is a powerful tool in coastal management processes. This is a valuable resource for postgraduates, researchers and academics across environmental science and management, policy studies, communication studies and cultural studies.

The vast majority of the world’s population lives on or near the coast. These communities are an extraordinary and largely untapped resource that can be used to mitigate planetary disaster and foster environmental stewardship. Repeated waves of scientific fact and information are not inciting action, nor apparently producing enough momentum to change voting behaviour towards a progressive environmental politics. A critical coastal policy, underpinned by a deeper understanding of environmental communication, can offer something new to this status quo. Environmental Communication and Critical Coastal Policy argues that more science and ‘better’ communication has been largely responsible for the lacklustre response by citizens to environmental challenges. Foxwell-Norton asserts that the inclusion of a range of local meanings and cultural frameworks with which experts could engage would better incite participation in, and awareness of, local environmental issues. The value and possible role of ‘geo-community media’ (mainstream, alternative and social media) is examined here to illustrate and support the key argument that meaningful local engagement is a powerful tool in coastal management processes. This is a valuable resource for postgraduates, researchers and academics across environmental science and management, policy studies, communication studies and cultural studies.

Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives recognizes that climate change is more than an environmental crisis. It is also a question of political and communicative capacity. This book enquires into which approaches to journalism, as a particularly important form of public communication, can best enable humanity to productively address climate crisis. The book combines selective overviews of previous research, normative enquiry (what should journalism be doing?) and original empirical case studies of environmental communication and media coverage in Australia and Canada. Bringing together perspectives from the fields of environmental communication and journalism studies, the authors argue for forms of journalism that can encourage public engagement and mobilization to challenge the powerful interests vested in a high-carbon economy – ‘facilitative’ and ‘radical’ roles particularly well-suited to alternative media and alternative journalism. Ultimately, the book argues for a fundamental rethinking of relationships between journalism, publics, democracy and climate crisis. This book will interest researchers, students and activists in environmental politics, social movements and the media.

Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives recognizes that climate change is more than an environmental crisis. It is also a question of political and communicative capacity. This book enquires into which approaches to journalism, as a particularly important form of public communication, can best enable humanity to productively address climate crisis. The book combines selective overviews of previous research, normative enquiry (what should journalism be doing?) and original empirical case studies of environmental communication and media coverage in Australia and Canada. Bringing together perspectives from the fields of environmental communication and journalism studies, the authors argue for forms of journalism that can encourage public engagement and mobilization to challenge the powerful interests vested in a high-carbon economy – ‘facilitative’ and ‘radical’ roles particularly well-suited to alternative media and alternative journalism. Ultimately, the book argues for a fundamental rethinking of relationships between journalism, publics, democracy and climate crisis. This book will interest researchers, students and activists in environmental politics, social movements and the media.