Environmental Communication Research Articles

Algorithmically embodied emissions: the environmental harm of everyday life information in digital culture

This conceptual paper introduces the notion of algorithmically embodied emissions to highlight how everyday choices facilitated by commercial algorithmic information systems such as commercial search engines, social media and recommender systems contribute to the climate crisis and other forms of environmental destruction. The proposed concept is developed by integrating terminology from the fields of information studies, critical algorithm studies and environmental impact assessment, and by examining a strategic selection of examples. Through the examples, the authors show that semantic interpretation of queries as well as the information architecture involve normative dimensions with implications for the climate crisis and other forms of environmental destruction. The paper proposes a terminological framework that integrates conceptual considerations from environmental impact assessment, environmental communication, information studies and critical algorithm studies to articulate how algorithmic information systems are co-constitutive of environmental harm. The paper further suggest to extend environmental impact assessment to include algorithmic harms in order to take into account how responsibility and accountability are distributed among different actors with profoundly different conditions and opportunities to exercise them.

How to Live Safely with Bats? Ignorance(s) in post-Ebola Risk Communication (Guinea, Sierra Leone)

The 2013–6 Ebola disease epidemic in West Africa drove a surge of environmental communication campaigns in regions considered at-risk for Ebola, despite uncertainty about the disease’s transmission pathways from animals to humans. This article examines fractures in knowledge produced through the communication of an unstable truth about the risk of contracting Ebola from an animal source. It presents sources arising from efforts of risk communication in Guinea: excerpts from community outreach materials and documented scenes of verbal jousting between communication agents and their audience, in which the status of animals, and in particular bats, as the reservoir of the Ebola virus is an object of controversies between US infectious disease experts, Sierra Leonean and Guinean project employees and residents of Forest Guinea. Several types of ignorance structure community outreach activities: reductionism inherent to “risk behaviour” research, strategic ignorance in risk communication, ignorance as an epistemic marker of social status, and the socio-political uncertainty in which post-Ebola interventions take place. Using insights from the anthropology of ignorance and development studies, I argue that asymmetries in ignorances, plural and contingent, structure risk communication and its impotence in reforming local lifeways defined as “risk behaviours.”

Environmental communication network on Indonesian forest fires on Twitter in pandemic COVID-19 era

The study aims to reveal the communication network on Twitter about forest fires in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research method used is descriptive qualitative. The theory used in this research is communication networking. The analysis technique uses Social Networking Analysis or SNA. Conversation data on Twitter is pulled through emprit drones by entering keywords fire, forest, and land. The research findings show; Conversation volume was 617 conversations, with five actors mentioning the most, namely @VICE-ID, @BBCIndonesia, @totoroeksib, @GoldenMiru, and @ari_trismana with 16 conversations. Of the 617 conversations, 243 had negative sentiments, 368 had positive sentiments and 6 were neutral. The five words that appear the most in the discussion of forest and land fires are forest - hutan (with a small h) 459 times, land -lahan 147 times, Forest -Hutan (with large H) 80 times, disaster -bencana 60 times, and smoke -asap 56 times. During the 10 days of talking, there were 67 hashtags, with the top five being #hijabbugil, #eksibisionis, and # exhibition with 27 mentions, following #PreventedKarhutla with 16 mentions, and 13 mentions #KoperasiPerkuatPertuangan.

Strategy for Establishing Environmental Communication in Instruding Environmental Care Behavior at Adiwiyata School, Bekasi 7 Sma Negeri

Strategy for Establishing Environmental Communication in Instruding Environmental Care Behavior at Adiwiyata School, Bekasi 7 Sma Negeri

Language and Ecology In Silau Malela Society (Ecolinguistics Study)

This study focused on to ecolinguistics study that talks about the language and ecology in the Silau Malela society. This study was to find out how the people who lived in Silau Malela, merged into the environment to keep the balance between human and their environment. Ecolinguistics is an interdisciplinary study between ecology or environment and language (linguistics) which is expressed by the human. So this study was not focused on ecology, but it discussed language in life. This study used qualitative research by doing observation and interviewing the people who lived in Silau Malela. This research describes the relationship between human and environmental communication. This society is so familiar with their environment and they also keep the situation so that they can communicate to the surroundings such as their cows, dogs, and others (the pets) and plantations when they do their activities with their pets and plantation. They also gave the name for their pets and sometimes to their plantation so that they understood the meaning of their owner when they were talking to their environment.

How Can the Water Springs Be Sustainable?: An Overview of Cross-Time Environmental Communication Strategies on the Village-Owned Enterprise in Indonesia

This research has an interpretive social science paradigm which implies an exploratory form. The purpose of the study was to find out various potential efforts carried out by the management of the Barokah Village Owned Enterprise (BUMDes) as an environmental communication strategy for conserving the Sira Springs in Putukrejo, Malang Regency. The research data collection method was a combination of in-depth interviews, partisan field observations, and documentation. Analysis of research data is descriptive-qualitative and uses interactive analysis techniques as a reference. Application of triangulation includes size, time, and observer. The technique of collecting informant data is purposively against representatives of village government apparatus, BUMDes administrators, and managers of springs. The study results reveal that the environmental communication strategy of BUMDes Barokah as an effort to preserve Sira springs is currently achieving a Strengthening Strategy as Focht’s preposition strengthened by Tyson & Unson (2006). This is due to the decreasing controversy among them and the relatively high level of public and scientific consensus that has been achieved since the beginning of Sira resource management through the establishment of BUMDes. This strengthening strategy is mainly through Word of Mouth, special performances or events, and mass communication and new media involving the participation of the local community. They also relatively understand the axioms of environmental communication as explained by Jurin, Roush, & Danter (2010) in their daily practice. The potential efforts of the BUMDes Barokah management, together with the work unit groups under its auspices and the Putukrejo village community, which are closely related to local characteristics, are densely discussed in this article.

Source Credibility in Environmental Reporting of Two Different Media Landscapes

This research attempts to understand environmental communication taking place in countries with different political, socio-cultural contexts and organizational media levels. In this regard, the research's focuses on Pakistani and British print media systems, which have different organizational systems and contexts. Therefore, it is worth analyzing whether these organizational differences affect the way their news content in relation to the environment is being produced, with emphasis on the credibility of sources. A quantitative content analysis of two Pakistani and two British newspapers was conducted from the previous one decade through January 2007 to December 2016 by using a sample of 5315 environmental news stories published in four publications concerning from each country such as Dawn and Nation from Pakistan, whereas Telegraph and Guardian have chosen from the UK. The Significance of this quantitative study is based on the theoretical approach of agenda-setting and media source credibility. Assuredly, environmental reporting of Pakistani and British print media diverges in the context of source preferences in agenda-setting and media source credibility capacity. Subsequently, dominantly quoted news sources of environmental issues in Pakistani and British print media depict the environmental agenda of each country.

Environmental communication for the rice field conservation in Semende Darat Tengah, South Sumatra

Depreciation of paddy fields has become a common phenomenon due to the conversion of land functions from agriculture to non-agriculture. The reasons are due to economic factors, settlement development, or policy. In the Semende Darat Tengah of South Sumatra, the paddy fields remain, and even the areas are expanding. This study aims to identify and understand how environmental communication mechanisms are applied in local communities, especially in Semende Darat Tengah, South Sumatra, to preserve the existence of rice fields. Methodologically, this study was conducted through communication ethnography. The authors live and interact with the community and research environment. Data analysis is carried out during the research process by combining the ethical elements of the study. This study indicates that the ongoing environmental communication mechanism is based on knowledge and understanding of the prevailing customary order and knowledge of local physical conditions. This knowledge undergoes an internalization that occurs continuously, from the ancestor eras, since the settlement was formed. The internalization process can be seen from listening, comprehending, and performing activities that become a shared perception of the rice fields and the local environment. This internalization takes place in a variety of natural environmental communication settings. The three main aspects that build people’s perceptions are knowledge of the nuclear family level, interactions with neighbors and other communities, and the preserved traditional institutions.

Art-making for political ecology: practice, poetics and activism through enchantment

ABSTRACT Our world’s climate is changing. The ramifications of the current ecological age and the possibility of habitation in – if not strictly post-apocalyptic – very different living conditions than the present, has spurned a pressing need to address our place in a more-than–human frame. A disjuncture between the urgency for concrete action on climate change and the actions of a political class unconvinced and/or slow to move has catalysed the need for action and collaboration across disciplines. The article draws on several creative projects as a springboard for environmental discourse. Notably, it discusses British artist Kate Pattison’s work on glaciers, Eve Mosher’s High Water Line project, and a work involving a local urban river system. Environmental communication transmitted through artmaking may speak to the problem of inaction in a way that employs soft persuasion and affective poetics. This article intimates artmaking can be a type of activism through enchantment, which has the potential to awaken personal and communities’ interests, and thereby encourage them to consider a more eco-centrically holistic future.

Development of a Tool for Measuring Ecocentrism as an Outcome of Environmental Communication

Recent developments in Environmental Communication furthered the importance of tool development to measure practice with ecocentric orientation. This research aimed to develop a tool that can measure the level of ecocentrism. This research employed a descriptive research design, and a survey was used as the primary data gathering method. The ecocentric-driven environmental communication tool has undergone four phases: the development of indicators, generation of reliability evidence, and determination of limitations, and refinement of tool. The tool was administered to 225 fourth-year college students of De La Salle University-Dasmariñas (DLSU-D), a higher education institution that explicitly integrated ecocentrism in its curriculum. Mean, percentage, and frequency count were used to analyze the socio-demographic and environmental communication. Chi-square Likelihood Ratio was also used to analyze the relationship between environmental communication and ecocentrism. The novel output of this research was the identification of aspects of ecocentrism, namely, impacts of human activities on the environment, environmental awareness, sustainable practices, environmental stewardship, collective action, and compliance with environmental laws. The research was able to develop probing items for each aspect. It was recommended that the probing items be developed based on the specific environmental contexts.

The Dark Side of Environmental Sustainability in Projects: Unraveling Greenwashing Behaviors

Greenwashing behaviors (GWBs) are positive environmental communications in combination with poor environmental performance. Using fraud triangle theory, this study investigated the effects of three types of factors (pressures, opportunities, and rationalizations) that shape contractor GWBs. Primary data from 586 respondents were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The SEM results indicate positive effects for these factors with the exception of isomorphic pressures and reveal the mediating role of rationalization. The fsQCA results present three configurational models that trigger GWBs. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided that shed new light on facilitating environmental sustainability in projects.

Is VR a suitable tool for conservation messaging? An exploration of VR technology and the Oculus series Ecosphere

Virtual reality (VR) has excited artists, researchers and organizations with its potential to provide users with a different perspective and promote empathy. Studies of VR effects on conservation attitudes and behaviours have found promising, albeit short-term, results. Yet to date, there have been no studies to suggest VR’s ability to create long-term behaviour change. Furthermore, studies on at-home VR use and how casual viewers of VR respond to immersive experiences are severely lacking. This article seeks to address this lack by analysing whether a contemporary conservation-themed VR experience is a suitable tool for conservation messaging. Employing autoethnography, I situate my personal experience with the VR experience within broader issues related to environmental communication, visual constructions of ‘nature’ and the growing problem of e-waste. Aside from the question of whether VR experiences create empathy for environmental issues, practitioners interested in using VR for environmental communication should consider the negative impacts of resource use and implications for obsolescence while also questioning creative solutions to render the technology more sustainable and accessible.

The Role of Place-Lore in Environmental Conflict Discourse: The Case of Paluküla Sacred Hill in Estonia

Abstract This article is a critical study of how local place-related narratives, i.e. place-lore, is integrated into environmental discussion and how it has significant potential to illustrate local and public, as well as vernacular and institutional, meanings concerned with the environment. Combining the frameworks of ecosemiotics, environmental communication studies, and place-lore research, the article explores how a new storytelling context, ideological selection, and the logic of conflict communication influence the re-contextualisation and interpretation of place-lore. The theory is applied to an empirical examination of public discussion of Paluküla sacred hill in Central Estonia. Tracking references to previous place-lore about Paluküla Hill in the media coverage of the conflict allows a demonstration of how the contextuality and referentiality towards an extra-narrative environment that are originally present in place-lore are often overlooked or ignored in conflict discourse. This, in turn, leads to socially and ecologically disconnected discussion.

Is the Great Barrier Reef dead? Satire, death and environmental communication

An obituary for the Great Barrier Reef (the Reef) by travel and food writer Rowan Jacobsen (2016) commemorated its ‘lifetime accomplishments’ in Outside, the US outdoor recreational magazine. ‘News’ of the Reef's demise went viral and the economic and political furore that followed was immense. Tourism industries, especially reliant on international arrivals, were impacted as potential visitors accepted the Reef's passing as fact. Politicians scampered to reassure Australians and the globe that the Reef was indeed still alive and beautiful. In the Australian public sphere, climate science deniers, alongside those advocating for climate action, collided over the impacts of global warming to Reef health. Subsequent mass coral bleaching events in 2016, 2017 and 2020 sustained at the very least, the idea that the Reef was, or was soon to be, dead. Our paper follows the idea of a ‘dead Reef’ in the context of historical and recent debates about Reef protection. Using Google Trends, we identify Jacobsen's article as the source of increased Australian and global ideation of a ‘dead Reef’. As a site of local and global environmental communication – where human relations to nature are expressed and understood - the Reef holds extraordinary story telling power. At the current junction then, the way we communicate the Reef is critical to public understanding and political action on climate change. We conclude Jacobsen's article is an example of the problems of satirical communication, serving to amplify existing conflicts and undermine efforts to foster to climate action.

“All this Regulatory Uncertainty in the Air”: The Indispensability of Public Hearings in Guarding and Guiding Public Deliberation

The field of Environmental Communication has often critiqued the shortcomings of public hearings, noting their limitations in bringing about effective and equitable public decision making. While this work has been significant, it has tended to limit the deliberative field to public hearings themselves, sometimes going so far as to assume that public hearings are the only spaces in which significant deliberations occur. Using a field analysis of the “No Coal Plant” campaign in Surry County, Virginia (2008–2013), the authors illuminate some limitations of existing literature. Their analysis suggests that while public hearings can be extremely limiting, even “failed” public hearings can play a critical role in constituting, organizing, and pacing formal and informal deliberative spaces, which are necessary for communities as they manage the stresses and strains of the decision-making process.

Are You Threatening Me? Identity Threat, Resistance to Persuasion, and Boomerang Effects in Environmental Communication

ABSTRACT In today’s increasingly polarized political environment, people are becoming resistant to persuasive messages, which creates challenges for those communicating about environmental issues to the public. Scholars have noted that opinion-challenging information could either be ineffective or lead to boomerang effects. As a result, research has started to examine the underlying mechanism of why messages are ineffective, with a specific emphasis on boomerang effects. We conducted three experiments to examine the role of environmental identity threat as a trigger of defense mechanisms and boomerang effects. In general, our study finds that identity threat from a message leads to increased psychological reactance, counter-arguing, and anxiety. There is also evidence that boomerang effects flow through identity threat and both counter-arguing and anxiety. Our results cast light upon designing persuasive messages to encourage individuals to engage in environmental behaviors without antagonizing them.

Partisipasi Komunitas Zero Waste Indonesia Dalam Mendukung Gaya Hidup Nol Sampah

The emergence of various kinds of waste problems in Indonesia has made the role of environmental communication very much needed. Environmental communication is used in this study as a means to determine the participation of the community, community and government in an effort to inform, educate and remind the public directly or indirectly about the importance of participating in communicating about the environment. The purpose of this study is to determine and describe in detail the participation of the Zero Waste Indonesia community in supporting a zero waste lifestyle. This research is focused on the main question, namely how environmental communication activities in the form of participation related to communication, changes in attitudes, awareness, enthusiasm, and responsibility. This study uses a reference to the concept of five important elements of participation in determining the success of participation, according to Santoso Sastropoetro in the book Participation, Communication, Persuasion and Discipline in Social Development in 1988. The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative with constructivism paradigm. The results of the research obtained in this study are that the Zero Waste Indonesia community can communicate environmental communication well through digital communication that is focused on its official Instagram, but the Zero Waste Indonesia community has not been able to monitor its followers to truly implement a zero waste lifestyle in daily life.

Simulating the spatial distribution of pollutant loads from pig farming using an agent-based modeling approach.

This research developed an agent-based model (ABM) for simulating pollutant loads from pig farming. The behavior of farmer agents was captured using concepts from the theory of planned behavior. The ABM has three basic components: the household or farmer agent, the land patches, and global parameters that capture the environmental context. The model was evaluated using a sensitivity analysis and then validated using data from a household survey, which showed that the predictive ability of the model was good. The ABM was then used in three scenarios: a baseline scenario, a positive scenario in which the number of pigs was assumed to remain stable but supporting policies for environmental management were increased, and a negative scenario, which assumed the number of pigs increases but management measures did not improve relative to the baseline. The positive scenario showed reductions in the discharged loads for many sub-basins of the study area while the negative scenario indicated that increased loads will be discharged to the environment. The scenario results suggest that to maintain the development of pig production while ensuring environmental protection for the district, financial, and technical support must be provided to the pig producers. The experience and education level of the farmers were significant factors influencing behaviors related to manure reuse and treatment, so awareness raising through environmental communication is needed in addition to technical measures.

Environmental communication model through community-based tourism development in overcoming mangrove damage

Environmental crises such as pollution, forest damage, loss of biodiversity, and climate change are the real problems. The environmental changes can impact the social and economic life of the community. The destruction of mangrove forests and abrasion is a major problem on the coast of Riau Province. This study aims to explain environmental communication through Community based Tourism (CBT) in overcoming mangrove damage in Pangkalan Jambi Village, Bengkalis Regency. This study uses a qualitative method with case studies. The results showed that environmental communication through CBT was carried out by Community Development of PT Pertamina RU II Sei Pakning in collaboration with a fishing group. Environmental communication activities to overcome abrasion and mangrove damage are done by establishing good relations, strengthening fishermen group institutions, and connecting with other groups or stakeholders. Pertamina empowers the fishing group by holding meetings, providing training, and developing tourism-based innovations to conserve mangroves. The emphasis of communication with CBT uses the principles: friendship, deliberation, and mutual cooperation. Mangrove Education Center, besides being a tourist destination, its existence is an important communication channel for public education to care about the environment. This environmental message is not only addressed to empower communities, school students, and local village youth but also has a broad impact on visitors, even becoming mass media coverage and discussions on social media. This CBT-based environmental communication model must be supported and integrated with other stakeholders so that its existence has a wider and sustainable impact.

Architectural Wayfinding Design as a Means of Communication in Environmental Perception

From prehistoric times, Signage was a means of visual communication helping people reaching out different environments (internal or external). Long before paper’s invention, humans made marks on objects, such as cave walls, in the surrounding environment, for their communication. As cities grew and mobility increased, making the built environment more complex, people requirements for better information concerning spatial perception and navigation, also grew. Thus, the necessity of proactive, systematically planned, visual unified signage and wayfinding programs have been emerged. Wayfinding is how people get from one location to another, including their information-gathering and decision-making processes for orientation and movement through space. Wayfinding design builds on research in cognition and environmental psychology to design built spaces and products that facilitate the movement of people through urban settings and individual buildings. Despite its demonstrated importance to building use, costs, and safety, wayfinding receives less than its due in planning, research and building evaluation. The aim of this study is to provide a “clear” reading of the environmental space and city’s routes to the users, through architectural wayfindig design. Also, architectural wayfinding design addresses built components, including spatial planning, articulation of form-giving features, circulation systems and environmental communication.