Redalyc.ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Mètode Science Studies Journal ISSN: 2174-3487 [email protected] Universitat de València España Josep Picó, Maria; Pellisser, Nel·lo ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION Mètode Science Studies Journal, núm. 1, 2011, pp. 87-115 Universitat de València Valencia, España Available in: http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=511751285011 How to cite Complete issue Scientific Information System More information about this article Network of Scientific Journals from Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal Journal's homepage in redalyc.org Non-profit academic project, developed under the open access initiative ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNICATION Monograph coordinated by Maria Josep Picó and Nel·lo Pellisser ithin the fi eld of scientifi c communication, environmental issues have taken a prominent role in the last two decades. This fi eld has earned a special place in the media, thanks W to the public interest stirred up by environmental issues, especially the deterioration green wave of nature and the impact on health or the economy. Progress in information transmission systems, with widespread use of the Internet and devices that receive and playback contents, has led to the development and popularization of environmental stories through both informational and entertaining genres. This novel framework has provided new platforms from which scientists and researchers can publicize their work, though a greater effort must be made to adapt these contents to the wider public. Nonetheless, the development and growth of robust, rigorous and up-to-date environmental journalism has yet to overcome the problems derived from its being seen as an obstacle to our monograph current model of growth. Maria Josep Picó. Environmental Journalist and winner of the National Prize for Environmental Journalism. Science Policy Bureau of the University of Valencia. Nel·lo Pellisser. Reporter for the TV program Medi ambient on Canal 9 Dos and Professor of Audiovisual Communication of the University of Valencia. For this issue, M ÈTODE received the collaboration of the Valencian artists Francisca Mompó and Mira Bernabeu. The works of these artists complement the articles, written by various authors, throughout this monograph dedicated to environmental communication, thus providing an ar tistic vision of this fi eld of scientifi c communication. On the left, Francisca Mompó. Botanical Agenda , 2010. «Botanical» series. Gouache, collage on paper, 70 x 100 cm. 2011 MÈTODE Annual Review 87 Francisca Mompó. Double-folded , 2010. «Botanical» series. Gouache, collage on paper, 70 x 100 cm. FROM THE ECOLOGISTS’ STRUGGLE TO A GLOBAL PRIORITY THE EMERGENCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JOURNALISM Maria Josep Picó and Nel·lo Pellisser The environmental message has always held a place in the speeches of the masses. However, it was the ecologists’ declarations of the early sixties that mark the origins of journalistic expression as we know it today. Since then, the environmental issue has edged into the media little by little, now having become a priority on news agendas. Written communication, be it the printed word or on the Internet, as well as the audiovisual media, echo society’s growing interest in environmental issues. However, environmental journalism still faces certain challenges, which must be surmounted in order green wave to overcome inherent weaknesses, such as alarmism, superfi cial treatment and the conquest of prime- time television slots. The environment has come to occupy a place in the model came a decade later, with the work The Limits to news agenda, which it is not going to vacate. The path Growth (1972), coordinated by the Professor Dennis L. to achieving this position has been full of hurdles Meadows. That same year, the United Nations set up its and mishaps from the outset in the late 1970s. This, «Programme for the environment». Subsequently there unquestionably, is because it is one of the areas of have been diagnoses, protocols, European standards, journalism that levels most criticism at the bases of etc., as well as ecological protests and actions, which monograph the economic system and social model prevailing have not only improved environmental awareness in developed countries. The allies of environmental but also provided the counterpoint to information reporting have not been, until recently, giants wielding and opinions closer to mainstream development. Þ nancial clout or prestigious political leaders. However, Natural disasters brought ever closer to the global patent evidence of environmental deterioration and village thanks to the development of new transmission accidents, destruction of habitats and landscapes, technologies have also helped raise environmental loss of biodiversity or the impact of atmospheric journalism to the vital category, it now holds. emissions on our health, amongst Within the context of the other things, all demonstrate Earth Summit (1992), the end of the undeniable importance of the twentieth century witnessed environmental news reporting. «THIS VICTORY OF the Þ rst period of splendour This victory of environmental ENVIRONMENTAL CONTENT for environmental reporting in content in the struggle for space IN THE STRUGGLE FOR Spain, with the proliferation and time has been won gradually. of magazines like Geo (1989), SPACE AND TIME HAS BEEN Many voices, both individual Ecología y Sociedad (Ecology and collective, have achieved the WON GRADUALLY. MANY and Society, 1992), Ecosistemas current prominent position held by VOICES, BOTH INDIVIDUAL (Ecosystems, 1992), La Tierra environmental issues in the mass AND COLLECTIVE, HAVE (Earth, 1996) and Biológica media. Silent Spring (1962) by ACHIEVED THE CURRENT (Biological, 1997), although Rachel Carson was a pioneer work Quercus was already to be found in this struggle, while one of the PROMINENT POSITION HELD on the newsstands by 1981 and Þ rst warnings about the impact BY ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Naturaleza two years after that. of our industrial production IN THE MASS MEDIA» Similarly, daily papers started 2011 MÈTODE Annual Review 89 to issue supplements on ecology and the demand for specialised journalists grew. This period also saw the creation of the Journalists Association of Environmental Information (Asociación de Periodistas de Información Ambiental, APIA) and the Catalan Association of Scienti Þ c Communication, which both promoted the Environmental Information Group (Grupo de Informadores Ambientales, GIA). ■ THE EVILS OF SENSATIONALISM AND THE CLIMATE CHANGE BOMB Environmental news, however, has remained in no mans land hopping from section to section and ß irting with the business pages while environmental journalists have not become indispensable in the newsroom either. Specialization is one of the great future challenges, which we must tackle in order to put a stop to super Þ cial or unreliable treatment of news about nature and ecology or fall into the trap of trivial sensationalism. And, among others, the daily challenge of deciphering, with the utmost rigor, the complexity and uncertainty of the issue. Global warming has left an incalculable mark on environmental journalism, as a result of two main issues: global economic impact and the voice of the Þ lm industry. The publication of the fourth report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 represented its launch to fame, with a collateral effect: it eclipsed other environmental issues. The explosion did not happen in isolation, it was preceded by the British Governments Stern Report, which announced the negative effects climate monograph green wave change would have on the global economy, and the documentary An Inconvenient Truth , by American political leader Al Gore, which we will discuss later in the context of audiovisual reporting. The short-term success of contents labelled «climate change» Þ zzled out with the advent of the current © WWFÞ nancial crisis. Once again, the health of environmental © WWF The campaigns and actions led by environmental groups, both at a journalism has proven weak as, with a decline in local and global level, have promoted environmental communication advertising, environmental issues cannot compete with by raising public awareness about the need to conserve our politics, sports or economy. Not only that, prestigious environment. journalists trained in the environmental sector are also very vulnerable. One resounding case is that of the loss of The New York Times in ß uential environmental «THE POWERFUL AMERICAN, AS WELL AS science journalist Andrew C. Revkin at the end of 2009 and, a year earlier, the decision by CNN to cancel its EUROPEAN, AUDIOVISUAL INDUSTRIES section on science, technology and environment, and HAVE BEGUN TO INVEST IN BIG Þ re the whole team, including Miles OBrien. Closer PRODUCTIONS, CATERING FOR BOTH to home, the Pompeu Fabra University still runs its CINEMA AND TELEVISION» prestigious Master of Communication in Science, © Maria Josep Picó © Maria Josep Picó 90 Annual Review MÈTODE 2011 Environment and Health but last year, essentially for economic reasons, Columbia University decided to scrap its degree in environmental journalism, which it began to run back in 1995. ■ FROM THE PRINTED WORD TO THE INTERNET In the grip of the crisis, environmental journalism remains dormant. It cannot disappear, but nor can it gain ground in weightier sections, like economy. It cannot make progress in the specialization of journalists nor move towards the transversality it desires. Within this scenario, weekly or fortnightly supplements on science, health and