A Thesis Submitted to the Central European University, Department Of
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A thesis submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in part fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Science Factuality of Truth: An Alternative Look at Popular Environmental Documentary Film Narratives CEU eTD Collection Milos MILICEVIC May, 2010 Budapest Erasmus Mundus Masters Course in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management MESPOM This thesis is submitted in fulfilment of the Master of Science degree awarded as a result of successful completion of the Erasmus Mundus Masters course in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (MESPOM) jointly operated by the University of the Aegean (Greece), Central European University (Hungary), Lund University (Sweden) and the University of Manchester (United Kingdom). Supported by the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus Programme CEU eTD Collection ii Notes on copyright and the ownership of intellectual property rights: (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. (2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Central European University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. (3) For bibliographic and reference purposes this thesis should be referred to as: Milicevic, M. 2010. Factuality of Truth: An Alternative Look at Popular Environmental Documentary Film Narratives. Master of Science thesis, Central European University, Budapest. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University. CEU eTD Collection iii Author’s declaration No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. Milos MILICEVIC CEU eTD Collection iv CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY ABSTRACT OF THESIS submitted by: Milos MILICEVIC for the degree of Master of Science and entitled: Factuality of Truth: An Alternative Look at Popular Environmental Documentary Film Narratives Month and Year of submission: May, 2010. Documentary film has become an important arena for the construction of concepts and meanings in the environmental field. Although this is often not the case, many people still believe in the factuality of documentary films and their ability to convey an objective view of the world. While such films have already received academic attention, most research from an environmental point of view has focused on the science in such movies or alternatively on their rhetorical effectiveness with little attention paid to how such narratives construct environmental problems in relation to broader sociopolitical realities. This research aims to fill this research gap and by exploring the narratives of An Inconvenient Truth and Home discusses the consequences of the different ways of constructing environmental problems in relation to sociopolitical realities. The effects of differing rhetorical contexts and purposes in the two analyzed films suggest that these will have a severe impact on the outcomes of the communication. But as the conclusions will show, the two analyzed films are also reflecting the growing divide in the environmental discourse- one between environmentalism calling for sweeping social transformations and neoliberal environmentalism seeking to solve the problems within current political and social systems. CEU eTD Collection Keywords: An Inconvenient Truth, Home, rhetoric, ethos, logos, pathos, social, neoliberal v Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor Tamara Steger who has provided me with useful guidance and unconditional encouragement throughout the process of conceiving and writing this thesis. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to Koen Vanhoutte and Gábor Halmai for their useful advices and feedback during my writing. Many aspects of this thesis have come to light during long discussions and time spent with some of my MESPOM colleagues whom I would like to offer here my warmest gratitude for their various insights and for just being there: Lauren Othon, Purnima Ashok Kumar, Jelena Stanic, Monica Coll-Besa, Soultana Stylanidou, Kayoung Kim and many others. I would also like to thank all the people I’ve met during the MESPOM program for valuable experiences and wonderful moments during these last two years. Last but not least, I would like to express my gratitude to my family who has always supported me in every way possible. CEU eTD Collection vi Table of Contents Chapter 1 – Introduction.................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Research objectives .......................................................................................................... 3 1.2 Scope of the Study ............................................................................................................ 3 Chapter 2 – Methods ......................................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 3 – Theoretical framework and literature review.................................................................. 9 3.1 On ‘environmental’ and ‘social’ issues...................................................................................... 9 3.2 On ‘neoliberalism’ and ‘environmentalism’ ............................................................................ 13 3.3 Public sphere(s) – a place for action! ...................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 4 – OVERVIEW AND SYNOPSIS OF THE FILMS ................................................................................ 20 4.1 An Inconvenient Truth............................................................................................................ 20 4.1.1 Synopsis of An Inconvenient Truth................................................................................... 22 4.2 Home..................................................................................................................................... 25 4.2.1 Synopsis of Home............................................................................................................ 27 CHAPTER 5 – RHETORICAL ANALYSIS OF AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH AND HOME .............................................. 30 5.1 Ethos of Narrators.................................................................................................................. 30 5.1.1 An Inconvenient Truth..................................................................................................... 31 5.2.1 Home .............................................................................................................................. 35 5.2 Logos - Narrative logic............................................................................................................ 39 5.2.1 An Inconvenient Truth..................................................................................................... 39 5.2.2 Home .............................................................................................................................. 43 5.3 Pathos – The Emotional Appeal.............................................................................................. 48 5.3.1 An Inconvenient Truth..................................................................................................... 49 5.3.2 Home .............................................................................................................................. 51 Chapter 6 – Discussion..................................................................................................................... 55 6.1 An Inappropriate Solution to an Inconvenient Problem .......................................................... 56 6.2 A Home We All Share… .......................................................................................................... 61 Chapter 7 – Conclusion.................................................................................................................... 65 CEU eTD Collection References:...................................................................................................................................... 68 vii Chapter 1 – Introduction The environmental problems faced by our 21st century societies are, just as they’re growing in their gravity, becoming a Big Story, receiving increasing coverage by the media, and even finding their place in popular culture (Daniels and Endfield 2009). Based on the research of how the media influenced, indeed shaped political elections, an agenda-setting theory was developed telling us that the issues declared most important by media-consumers will be the issues that the media cover widely and heavily (McCombs