Post-Political Communication and Sustainability

Communication as pivotal part of the human condition plays an essential role in bringing sustainability-related issues onto society’s agenda. Sustainability communication does not represent a somewhat discrete and self-contained theoretical approach, but rather draws on a wide range of disciplines, their bodies of knowledge and their methodological approaches to illuminate the drivers and barriers of a broader and deeper societal engagement with the idea of sustainability. This chapter introduces students to the study of communication processes in the context of sustainable development. It suggests analyzing sustainability communication using a typology of three different communication modes: communication of, about and for sustainability. The typology is applied in an illustrative way from the perspectives of two particular subsystems familiar to students, the educational system as well as the media system. The chapter concludes with an overview of relevant literature in the field of sustainability communication. The recommended readings cover three different types of literature highly relevant to students’ future studies in this field: introductory readings, practice-oriented readings, and current research.

2021

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of how sustainability has been addressed in Environmental Communication scholarship and reflects upon key future challenges. It begins by tracing how over time sustainability communication has become a distinctive area of research in its own right. Early scholarship tended to focus on localized conflicts over environmental issues and mostly examined print media representations in Western countries. However, over recent decades, the scope has broadened and covered a greater range of issues and there has been a greater focus upon digital media. This reflects major shifts in the media landscape with the move to an increasingly networked society where there are multiple intersecting flows of information and the traditional roles of news sources and readers have become redefined. The sheer proliferation of news has encouraged a sound bite culture where images and celebrity gossip takes central stage and complex concepts such as sustainability tend to be marginalized. Much coverage of environmental issues has now migrated online. Digitalisation has encouraged a new attention economy and information overload can lead to cognitive dissonance. Moreover, the increasingly personalized information environment online tends to promote homophily and echo chambers. As the urgency of the issues has become more apparent over time there has also been an emerging interest among scholars in the ecological impact of the communication systems themselves, such as A. Anderson (B)

2017

Until the crisis of 2007, “sustainability” had steadily become a new positive social value. After the crisis, it seems to have become less important because of economic and political emergencies. The question of limited resources is still present, but its coverage in the media seems to have caused a decline in its presence in the social sphere. In addition, current studies show that the effective level of environmental awareness is beginning to decline. This article examines the evolution of environmental information and environmental communication management by investigating the possible effects of various environmental problems being subject to a continuous shift in focus. Based on a press analysis, we examine the debate about the virtues of different technologies and how these issues together are at the core of environmental uncertainty that undermines the centrality of sustainability. The argument of this article is based on data from different studies of the press that the auth...

The Palgrave Handbook of International Communication and Sustainable Development, 2021

have edited a most significant collection of essays for scholars and practitioners interested in the intersection of communication, international development, and the sustainable development goals. Comprehensive in nature and insightful in breadth, depth, and scope, this diverse volume will appeal to both the expert and the layperson.

Climate Change and Post-Political Communication, 2018

For many years, the objective of environmental campaigners was to push climate change on to the agenda of political leaders and to encourage media attention to the issue. By the first decade of the twenty-first century, it appeared that their efforts had been spectacularly successful. Yet just at the moment when the campaigners’ goals were being achieved, it seemed that the idea of getting the issue into mainstream discussion had been mistaken all along; that the consensus-building approach produced little or no meaningful action. That is the problem of climate change as a ‘post-political’ issue, which is the subject of this book. Examining how climate change is communicated in politics, news media and celebrity culture, Climate Change and Post-Political Communication explores how the issue has been taken up by elites as potentially offering a sense of purpose or mission in the absence of political visions of the future, and considers the ways in which it provides a focus for much broader anxieties about a loss of modernist political agency and meaning. Drawing on a wide range of literature and case studies, and taking a critical and contextual approach to the analysis of climate change communication, this book will be a valuable resource for students and scholars of environmental studies, communication studies, and media and film studies.

2016

My profound gratitude goes to my supervisor, Professor Ruth Teer-Tomaselli, whose timely guidance, comments and constructive criticism have made this work enjoyable and possible. Her scholarly support helped me get through the different stages of putting this work together. I am very thankful for her generous help in providing me with very good references whenever the objectives of this study needed them. I would like to register my acknowledgement and appreciation to the Centre for Communication, Media and Society in particular and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in general for granting me the opportunity to study at this premium university of African scholarship. The work has been strenuous, but the continuous encouragements, critical conversations and moral company of my beloved Rose kept me focused. Finally yet importantly, nothing can describe my indebtedness to my family, but I would like to thank them for their unwavering trust. Overall I glorify our Mighty God for his unfailing love and companionship throughout the course.

Sustainability issues are typically characterized by high complexity and uncertainty. In light of this, communication plays a crucial role in coping with these challenges. The previous debate on sustainability communication has largely focused on how to communicate sustainability issues to others. Sustainability communication, however, involves more than sender oriented communication to persuade others (-communication of sustainability‖); it also embraces processes of dialogue and discourse (-communication about sustainability‖). Based on this distinction, we develop a typology of communication modes, including communication for sustainability. Inspired by the notion of functional communication systems, we explore sustainability communication in six societal subsystems, applying the typology of communication modes. Drawing mostly on examples from Germany, we find a shift from -communication of‖ towards -communication about‖ sustainability in most subsystems. While communication subsystems have a tendency towards operational closure, a variety of interlinkages exist. We discuss three key areas of -opening up‖ communication subsystems, leading to transdisciplinarity, societal deliberation and governance, each meeting one of sustainability's core challenges.

International Journal of Humanities & Social Science: Insights & Transformations, 2018

The need to sustain our environment has become a matter of concern at the global circle. But how to create this awareness and drive certain programmes and policies to effect and behavior change on this issue depends on the communication strategies put in place to drive the purpose. Thus the need for Environmental Communication-a new transdisciplinary paradigm that involves the use of communication approaches principles and techniques to convey environmental information and data between people. The need for environmental sustainability with the help of environmental communication is what this research article suggests. The agenda-setting approach of the media can best be applied to achieve this goal. Communication is a vital tool that if properly applied can help to ensure environmental sustainability and promote healthy environmental best practices.

International journal of environmental sciences & natural resources, 2020

In this mini-review I will present a practical way how communication relates to sustainability and how communication can be used in various stages to increase sustainability and to accelerate the energy transition. The model, from A to Sustainability, details the various forms of communication, from information provision, to persuasion to dialogue.

Routledge eBooks, 2015

Resisting meaningful action on climate change: think tanks, 'merchants of doubt' and the 'corporate capture' of sustainable development 86