Environmental Risk Communication

Roland Emmerich's disaster blockbuster The Day After Tomorrow appeals to both rational thinking and emotions as it tells its tale of abrupt and catastrophic climate change, turning current perceptions of risk—anticipated catastrophes, as Ulrich Beck calls them—into audio-visual spectacles that have a direct visceral effect on the viewer. The essay draws connections between five independently conducted audience response studies in the United States, Britain, Germany, and Japan on the one hand, and cognitive approaches to film studies on the other, in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of how, exactly, The Day After Tomorrow interacts with its viewers’ emotions, perceptions, and cognitions. Emmerich’s film engages its viewers emotionally in both its melodramatic plotline and the mind-boggling spectacle of “natural” disaster. The basic information about climate change it communicates between the lines is thus infused with affect and likely to make an impact on viewers’ perception and cognitive understanding of the issue.

Shale gas has become an energy policy priority in the United Kingdom in light of profitable extraction activities in the United States. Since 2012, the UK Government has created key economic drivers to encourage shale exploration, whilst growing activism in affected site communities has stirred significant media and academic commentary. This study examines the growing national debate as a matter of discourse; adopting an argumentative discourse analytic approach to assess data collected from stakeholder interviews (n=21) and key policy actor statements quoted in broadsheet newspapers. We explore three dominant 'storylines' emerging in relation to shale gas policy.

“Environmental Education: transdisciplinary approaches to addressing wicked problems” was a global online course offered by Cornell University, the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) and Environmental Education Exchange, a non-profit organization providing programs and services for the advancement of environmental literacy in the United States and Mexico. For the completion of the course it was required that each participant answered a series of questions on diversified environmental issues after going through the lectures and readings for each module of the course. In this document I present my answers to these questions, bringing personal geo-epistemologically placed/incorporated knowledge contrasted with the “facts”, views and ideas offered by the course lecturers. By sharing my answers in a wider platform such as Academia.edu, I hope to reach a greater number of colleagues that share an interest in environmental education (research). May this also be an invitation to those that wish to critically engage in dialogues that might be prolific to the (scientific) community.

Lack of waste management facilities from mountain region often lead to uncontrolled disposal of waste on river banks polluting the local environment and damaging the tourism potential. Geographical conditions influences the distribution of human settlements which are located along the rivers and its tributaries. This paper aims to estimate the amounts of household waste generated and uncollected disposed into mountain rivers, taking into account several factors such as:proximity of rivers to the human settlements, the morphology of villages, length of river that crosses the locality(built up areas), local population, the access to waste collection services and waste management infrastructure. Vulnerability of rivers to illegal dumping is performed using GIS techniques, highlighting the localities pressure on rivers in close proximity. For this purpose, it developed a calculation model for estimation the amounts of waste (kg) that are dumped on a river section (m) that crosses a locality (village) or it is in close proximity. This estimation is based on the "principle of proximity and minimum effort" it can be applied in any mountainous region that are lacking or partially access to waste collection services. It is an assessment tool of mountain rivers vulnerability to waste dumping, taking into account the geographical and demographic conditions of the study area. Also the current dysfunctions are analyzed based on field observations.

Covering the time span from 2021 to 16000 N.C., Dale Pendell’s speculative novel The Great Bay chronicles the profound climatic, geological and ecological transformations that California undergoes during these fourteen millennia. Human life becomes unimaginably small on such a time scale, and Pendell responds to that representational challenge by compiling a wide variety of texts that zero in on individual humans at different points in the future rather than offering a continuous story or central character. In a way, that place is taken by the geographical region that is the focus of the narrative and gives the book its title. Timothy Morton has argued that because we live in the Anthropocene we can no longer understand history as exclusively human. Pendell’s “Chronicle of the Collapse” suggests that the same is true for storytelling,
offering readers the story of a nonhuman protagonist that changes slowly over time. The result is a highly fragmented narrative that is interesting for what it tries to achieve but at the same time remarkably unengaging. In its distant and distanced rendering of future ecological change and human anguish, The
Great Bay is a grave reminder not only of the incalculable risks of the Anthropocene, but also of the basic tenets of realist storytelling.

The article focuses on the psychological dimensions of readers’ engagements with young adult climate change fiction. It argues that that the embodied simulation of a fictional climate-changed world can offer much more than simple entertainment or escapism. Instead, it has the potential to impact teenagers’ understanding of the social, economic, and ecological risks associated with climate change and to give them a better sense of the vulnerability of their current lives and lifestyles. By way of example, the article draws on research in cognitive literary studies, neuroscience, and the psychology of fiction to examine the narrative strategies of Paolo Bacigalupi’s YA cli-fi novel Ship Breaker. It demonstrates how the novel’s depiction of a dystopian future cues both negative emotions and more positive emotions in in order to warn about the future risks of climate change and still make the reading experience pleasurable for young readers.

Jesse Fox (M.A., University of Arizona; Ph.D., Stanford University) is an Assistant Professor in the School of Communication at The Ohio State University and founder of the Virtual Environment, Communication Technology, and Online Research (VECTOR) Lab. Fox's current research investigates the effects of new media environments, including virtual worlds and social networking sites.

The essay explores the emotional and political valence of melodramatic storytelling in Steven Soderbergh’s Erin Brockovich. It uses the analytical tools of cognitive film theory to explore the ways in which Erin Brockovich employs affective appeals to engage viewers in its melodramatic representation of a historical case of environmental injustice. Not only are viewers encouraged to empathically share the characters’ feelings of pain, fear, and anxiety about economic and environmental risks and hazards, they are also invited to get sympathetically invested in the protagonist’s struggle to reduce her own suffering and that of others she has learned to care for. As a melodramatic narrative that also provides a good amount of comic relief, Erin Brockovich promotes both alignment and allegiance with its morally righteous heroine, thereby encouraging viewers to share her activist stance in cases of environmental injustice that affect the suffering bodies of others.

In this paper we argue that that which philosophers consider as being included in the domain of the aesthetic is a crucial aspect determining the plausibility of a narrative; that plausibility actually plays a more significant role than probability in many cognitive processes of deliberation and decision making; and that the aesthetics of story-telling is a technology of the plausible.
We offer two case-studies, one an ancient account of deliberation and decision making, the other from a modern newspaper article, to illustrate our argument that the aesthetic is an essential element in various stages of the process of decision making, from determining what needs to be decided, through identifying the basis for decision making, to the act of decision making itself. In that context, we highlight the role of the aesthetic in the framing of future possibilities in the process of scenario planning.
In conclusion, we propose that focusing on the aesthetics of story-telling as a technology to create and share plausibility is a useful way to analyse scenario stories in scenario-planning work; we hope that it may be a useful concept with which to develop further research in this area.

This article builds upon earlier risk narrative research, focusing upon their historical development primarily in the US and UK and drawing upon a wide range of key historical and contemporary moments and examples. It proceeds from an understanding risk not as a thing, but a tool that brings together an understanding of threats, what is threatened and how that might be remedied in the future, increasingly based upon past experience. Risk narratives emerge historically with the growth of concern for the public impact of environmental events, through individuals prepared to articulate this and then challenge the denial of institutional responsibility. The explicit language of environmental risk only emerges in postwar America through challenges to fluoridation, pesticides and consumer safety, however, amidst concern with the greater impact of man-made risk and situated within a radical discourse of systemic blame. The introduction indicates the power and 'independence' of narratives with the important example of 'nuclear catastrophism', and then sets out definitions and location, including the related fields of framing and stigmatization. The article then begins with the absence of narrative in ancient Roman accounts of environmental events and proceeds chronologically through 18 th century beginnings, the development of more critical responses in the 19 th and early 20 th Century and the full emergence of 'risk society' type narratives, to today. After summarising, it finally suggests that if narrative is to be used in risk communication it will require more sophisticated forms that go beyond only exposing risk and insisting upon blame, based upon cultural assumptions of necessary harm from association with the corporate, 'unnatural' and stigmatized.

This chapter discusses principles of risk communication. Communicating sensitive, technical information to the
public can be one of the most difficult challenges that a scientist faces today. In the current regulatory environment,
the effective communication of scientific information with the public is one of the most important elements of the
risk management process. Scientific, technical, and managerial personnel must develop an understanding of the
dynamics of communicating during times of high concern and low trust to establish credibility and build trust with
the public. If the results of scientific risk assessments will be the basis for policy decision making, the
communication skills of the risk manager will be the critical factor in the eventual adoption of the policy. This
chapter describes the science and insights behind the field of communicating technical information during times of
high concern and low trust. While considerable research has been conducted in the fields of risk communication
and risk management on communicating with the public, the opportunity to build trust and establish credibility with
the public goes beyond risk issues. In fact, the principles that underlie the science of risk communication can be
used in the workplace, in community groups, during moments of crisis, and even in personal relationships.

The essay investigates how science fiction visceralize our experience of threatened and threatening environments, looking at two pertinent examples: John Hillcoat’s 2009 film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road (2006) and Tim Fehlbaum’s Hell (2011). It argues that together with the performances of the human actors and the tension and suspense built by narrative structure, the spectacle and insinuated agency of virtual ecological space is centrally responsible for the films’ emotional force and for their ability to engage viewers in stories of global ecocide and human survival.

This article proposes a framework for addressing societal
costs—psychological, social, community, and human health
risks and uncertainties—associated with natural gas extraction
and production from tight shale, tight sand, or coalbed
methane formations that use hydraulic fracturing
processes. The US Environmental Protection Agency’s 2011–14
study of hydraulic fracturing and the risks posed to drinkingwater
resources is used as a case study of how such a
framework could be applied. This report also discusses
some of the current regulatory and institutional barriers
that make incorporation of societal costs into science-based
and proactive decisions regarding unconventional oil and
gas exploration and production in the United States more
difficult and recommends some general steps for getting
past those barriers.

This paper is published in the SEARCH Journal. You can access it here: http://search.taylors.edu.my/journalonline/SEARCH%20JOURNAL%20Volume%207%20Issue%202.htm

Environmental and risk communication have become trends in many forms of mass media, including television. In the Philippines, local television stations have joined the bandwagon through producing their own versions of environmental programs such as GMA Network‟s award-winning broadcast documentaries titled Signos, Planet Philippines, Wildlife for Sale, and Oras Na. Grounded on ecocritical theory, this paper discusses the paradigm dominating the discourses on environmental risk and risk reduction in the said environmental documentaries. It has been found that the main framework of presentation and analysis on environmental risks and risk reduction is ecotopianism, which is problematic as it excludes socio-cultural aspects. This paper, therefore, calls for the inclusion of muted or neglected perspectives on the topic such as transgressive ecotopianism, indigenous or traditional knowledge, and eco-Marxism. Through the presentation of such alternative discourses on air, the audience could be well-informed, thus making them empowered to participate in the discussion and formulation of decisions and policies regarding the environment and environmental risks.

We review energy communication, an cnll'tgiug ... uhhrltlol rnullnllllhitlh•ll ~ttult1•s that examines the role of energy in so~:it:ty, and ill)!.111· th.tl 11 "'dtuiiiiiHh·d hy a'' is1s frame. Whereas this frame can be productiw, 11 ',tu al-.o lw 11111111111' 111 n·sp<lii\L\ we propose three areas for future energy comuHnii•HIIIullv.,L·an h •nh·111al dtL'Iu ric of science, comparative studies, and energy 111 L'Vl't yday hlr "' .,,,111111~· points for rethinking and expanding energy collllllllllll'illltlll I h1~ np.uul ... l lnru-. will continue to contribute to communication thl'tll y. ;11ld '" '""''"''' 1pllnat y L'lll'IFY studies, and supply practical resources for the l'IL'<tli•tll .uul d•·ployu1r111 uiJusl aud sustainable energy futures. E nergy is foundational to the functioning ol all h111llan societies. Industrial and post-industrial societies rl'ly lwav11y oil the production of energy from fossil fuels and nuclear lissiollltl pnWl'tthe infrastructure and technologies to which they have grown accustonwd. Non industrial anti t·merging societies, though perhaps not fully emhedtll'd in a large· scale system of energy production and consumption, similarly rely on energy to sustain l'Vcryday life. Heightened societal awareness ol and controversies about the connections between energy security, economic growth, and energy systems COMMI!NI('A'IJON YFARIJOOK 40 energy serves as a starling point for research that examines httw comnuutitulhtli stnu.:tures' understandings of energy policy enable and constrain rasl. ll!!!l'lli and future energy deployment and function as a perceptual fillet lc11 lm social processes, such as how energy discourses arc embedded with111 u;tl iot!lll mythologies (Jasanoff & Kim, 2009; Kitch, 2007). Energy commUHII'ftlh research will have more impact and longer staying power if it addrc the values, dispositions, and issues that are routinely de-cmphasi~cd wlthl crisis-oriented research. Enlarging energy communication research to itwlu context-oriented research that expands beyond crises to everyday t'lll' communication will contribute to communication theory, add a nt:<•d perspective to interdisciplinary energy studies, and supply practical rcstJltlt for the creation and deployment of just and sustainable energy futures.

Although recent expansions in hydraulic fracking operations across the United States have led to greater news coverage and attention from the public, overall understanding remains fairly low. For some, relevant social identities, including environmental or political, may provide a short-cut to becoming informed about fracking, or to determining what they believe about it and how that influences their positions on fracking policies. Social identity influence frameworks provide an approach to understanding the relationships between belief and identity, which this study investigates through its affiliational and attitudinal components.

National survey data are used to model pathways from environmental and political identities to beliefs about risks associated with fracking. Environmental attitudes significantly predicted belief that fracking has health risks, and mediated a relationship from environmental group affiliation, but environmental information was not significant. Ideology had direct and indirect effects, through partisan media use, while partisanship had direct effects on beliefs about environmental risks.

The chapter focuses on the ways in which Hollywood films have represented the material and emotional dimensions of nuclear risk and on how these representations engage viewers. James Bridges’s The China Syndrome and Mike Nichols’s Silkwood both frame their representation of risk as suspense-driven political thrillers and in both cases the fictional drama is heightened by the films’ relationships to real-world risks and events. While the invisibility of radiation raises representational problems, both films use their viewers’ preexisting risk perceptions to engage them in plotlines that are driven by the anticipation of catastrophes rather than by the catastrophes themselves. By telling melodramatic stories about courageous individuals who struggle to uncover the truth about nuclear risk, argues Weik von Mossner, the films not only illustrate Ulrich Beck’s claim that the determination of risk is a form of ethics; they also demonstrate that emotional processes such as fear are vital components of ethical decision making in the face of unpredictable material agencies and the environmental risks they pose.

The increasing interconnectedness of the world that characterizes the process of
globalization compels us to interlink local, national, and transnational phenomena,
such as environmental risks, in both journalistic and academic discourse.
Among environmental risks of global scope climate change is probably the one
receiving the most attention at present, not least in the media. Globalization
notwithstanding, national media are still dominated by a national logic in the
presentation of news, and tensions arise between this media logic and the
transnational character of environmental risks that call for a collective responsibility
transcending the borders of the nation-states. This article presents results
from studies of the construction of global climate change in three Swedish newspapers.
It discusses the media’s attribution of responsibility for collective action
along an axis ranging from local to national to transnational, and highlights the
media’s reluctance to display any kind of scientific uncertainty that would undermine
the demand for collective action. The results underline the media’s responsiveness
to the political setting in which they operate and the growing relevance
of the transnational political realm of Europe for the construction of news frames
on global climate change in European national media.

Turkey’s media agenda mostly consists of European relations, the Middle East question and Iraq.
The rest of this agenda is predominantly economic news. Because of its geographical location, it is difficult for
environmental problems to be perceived as leading problems and find places in Turkey’s national newspapers. The
importance of the local media arises in creating awareness about the environmental issues and forming public
opinion in order to find solutions. Due to the immediacy component of news, creating public opinion about the
environment through local as opposed to national media is considered to be a more effective method. It is purpose
of researcher to determine whether this which is seen to be effective theoretically will also have the same effect in
practice. In this research, content analysis will be applied to three local newspapers in Turkey. It has seen that the
local media reports environmental news, its source are government and city hall. It has given information to form
awareness to the environmental issues.

Notre intervention montre l'apport qu'une discipline comme la sémiotique peut offrir aux études de terrain d'une designer-chercheuse dont l'objet est la place de l'individu dans la gestion du risque inondation en France. À la fois pour la recherche fondamentale et pour les études de terrain, les deux auteures soutiennent l'importance de démarches d'intervention interdisciplinaires : l'intérêt de ce type de démarches -interdisciplinaires voire transdisciplinaires -porte sur la communication du risque vis-à-vis des publics concernés, sur la prévention du risque dans les zones inondables ainsi que sur les modalités visant à la valorisation de l'eau comme élément constitutif et identitaire d'un territoire. En d'autres termes, l'article a pour objectif de montrer comment utiliser et exploiter l'expérience de conception dans la gestion d'un projet de design sur les risques naturels avec l'apport de la sémiotique. Cette approche conjointe souligne les éléments à prendre en compte et à valoriser auprès des populations afin de leur permettre de considérer l'eau comme partie intégrante de leur lieu de vie, insérée dans les pratiques et compétences quotidiennes, et non comme menace conduisant à une mise à distance de l'objet. Les études ont démontré que le déni ou les fantasmes liés à l'inondation nuisent à la compréhension, à la gestion et à la maitrise des actions lorsque l'évènement survient. Le but de notre travail est d'apporter un changement de perspective dans les démarches de prévention et de gestion du risque. Cela implique la mise en discussion de la gestion actuelle de l'inondation et de la communication sur les risques, en pointant l'importance de revoir les rôles respectifs et complémentaires des institutions et des populations concernées.

In 2016, the Pacific Media Centre responded to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston by initiating the Bearing Witness journalism project and dispatching two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). This was followed up in 2017 in a second phase of what was hoped would become a five-year mission and expanded in future years to include other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. This project is timely, given the new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026 launched by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in March and the co-hosting by Fiji of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, during November. The students dispatched in 2017 on the 'bearing witness' journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific included a report about the relocation of a remote inland village of Tukuraki. They won the 2017 media and trauma prize of the Asia-Pacific Dart Centre, an agency affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism. This article is a case study assessing the progress with this second year of the journalism project and exploring the strategic initiatives under way for more nuanced and constructive Asia-Pacific media storytelling in response to climate change.

Disasters often have very long incubation and not a single responsible. For these reasons it is not possible to grasp the complexity of the “L’Aquila seven” trial without putting aside the excess of simplification, prejudice and hasty search for the culprits. This book is addressed to anyone who cares about problems related to natural hazards and the knowledge needed to avoid that in a next future they can turn into disasters. The first degree trial ended with the conviction of the seven experts who participated in the meeting of the "Major Risks Committee", but the appeal verdict overturned the in an acquittance of for six of on seventeen, pointing out a problem that affects not only the strength of evidences, but also the delicate relationship between science and law, between the expectations of citizens at risk and institutions called to manage it, between risk perception and action to mitigate reduce it, between media professionals and institutional public communicators.The possibility of different interpretations of rules and obligations of players involved in risk assessment, management and communication suggests relevant consequences at system level, introducing new potential threats to citizens' safety, that won't be late to emerge.
The following analysis highlight the impossibility of single disciplines to charge on themselves all complexity of the debated issues, emphasizing the need for an integrated and multidisciplinary approach. The contributions of seismologists, engineers, sociologists, lawyers, psychologists and science journalists would precisely delineate the very relevant issues emerging in the two trials, outlining a critical perspective toward the judgments and proactive about the future.

Il processo di accentuazione-proprio della nostra epoca-della "crisi-discontinuità" nella "trama delle relazioni complesse che i sistemi storici hanno instaurato con i sistemi naturali" (Beato, 1993) ha determinato rilevanti modifica-zioni nella natura stessa dei rischi che, combinandosi con i processi di differenzia-zione sociale e individuale degli stessi rischi, hanno profondamente modificato il rapporto tra individui, sistemi sociali e ambiente, ridefinendo radicalmente le con-dizioni sociali attraverso cui i rischi sono percepiti, riconosciuti, compresi e gestiti. In un simile contesto, la "visione tradizionale" (e strumentale) della comunica-zione del rischio rischia di opacizzare anziché chiarire la posta in gioco delle sfide ambientali e dei processi di costruzione discorsiva del rischio, che riguardano, in ultima analisi, il confronto e il conflitto tra particolari visioni del futuro. L'articolazione di questi conflitti appare sempre più irriducibile ai classici modelli di mediazione della società di massa e al ruolo egemone dei tradizionali media broadcast: in un'arena sempre più ampia e meno circoscrivibile, gli attori e le for-me che assumono questi processi di mediazione si moltiplicano, richiedendo una visione più ampia della comunicazione del rischio e dei conflitti politici e culturali ad essa sottesi. Per molti versi, questo cambiamento è talmente radicale che si può intravedere un vero e proprio mutamento di scenario, che si rende evidente alla fine degli anni ottanta del secolo scorso, a seguito della radicale crisi del paradigma dell'azione razionale, che negli Stati Uniti già iniziava a precisarsi drammaticamente da oltre un decennio nell'analisi dei rischi. L'aumento dei conflitti sociali legati alla gestio-ne dei rischi si traduce proprio in quel periodo in due passaggi fondamentali: la pubblicazione delle linee guida dell'EPA (Covello e Allen, 1988) e, soprattutto, con il saggio di Alonso Plough e Sheldon Krimsky del 1987, in cui s'inizia a guar-dare alla comunicazione del rischio non solo come flusso d'informazioni unidire-zionale da una fonte gerarchicamente superiore ad un pubblico di profani privi di competenze, ma come l'intero processo di scambio di messaggi da qualsiasi fonte ad ogni possibile destinatario, indipendentemente dal canale utilizzato e dalla dire-zione dei flussi comunicativi (Plough & Krimsky, 1987). Le conseguenze e le im-plicazioni di questa definizione "ampia" della comunicazione del rischio sono state numerose e di grande rilievo, giacché non solo consolidano l'influenza della com-Copyright © FrancoAngeli N.B: Copia ad uso personale. È vietata la riproduzione (totale o parziale) dell'opera con qualsiasi mezzo effettuata e la sua messa a disposizione di terzi, sia in forma gratuita sia a pagamento.

Environmental damage, climate change, and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging, expansion of mining areas, pollution of water sources, overfishing, trade-in protected wildlife continue to happen, and the scale is even greater. Meanwhile, climate change is increasingly visible and impacting communities in urban to rural areas. Coastal cities in the United States to coastal villages in the north of Java and the microstates of the South Pacific facing the real impact of sea-level rise. Disasters that occur bring not only material losses but also socioeconomic consequences for people affected. The emergence of new ecological problems is being faced by humanity. The complexity of ecological problems is nonlinear, turbulent, and dynamic. This was the theme of the panel (New) Ecological Problems: Defining the Relationship between Humans and the Environment at the Symposium on Social Science 2020. This paper, part of the SOSS 2020 panel on ecological problems, argues for countries to overhaul and "reset" their public health and economic systems to ones based on strengthening multilateral institutions and collaboration, and to abandon or seriously curtail neoliberalism models that have failed. It also argues that the profession of journalism also needs to approach climate change strategies with as much urgency as for addressing the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The current crisis is a precursor to further crises unless the globe changes its ways to heal both people and the planet.

SPANISH (English version below)
El 13 de noviembre de 2002, el petrolero Prestige lanzó un SOS con el que comenzaba uno de los mayores desastres medioambientales de la historia de España. Los vertidos de fuel oil que se prolongaron durante los meses posteriores acabaron generando una crisis política y una considerable confrontación social. Esta tesis doctoral analiza la cobertura televisiva realizada por cuatro cadenas de televisión (TVE1, TV3, Antena 3 y Telecinco) desde noviembre de 2002 hasta febrero de 2003.

Mediante un estudio de caso y recurriendo, principalmente, al análisis de contenido cuantitativo y al análisis del discurso como técnicas de investigación, la tesis reconstruye las agendas mediáticas completadas por cada cadena, estableciendo comparaciones significativas a partir de las decisiones editoriales y configurando un mapa de las estrategias corporativas y periodísticas de cada operador.

El marco teórico toma como punto de partida los principios de la sociedad del riesgo, estableciendo una relación directa con algunas tendencias del periodismo contemporáneo. Además, se repasan algunas de las principales aportaciones de la teoría de la comunicación al estudio de la producción mediática para desembocar, finalmente, en un estudio detallado de la información televisiva con especial énfasis en el noticiario como formato audiovisual más significativo.

Las crisis se presentan como episodios que aceleran las rutinas periodísticas de producción, agudizando las fortalezas y las debilidades del periodismo actual. Se convierten, por lo tanto, en un contexto muy productivo para la investigación en comunicación. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto la excesiva relevancia atribuida a las conexiones en directo, la obsesión por informar sobre las dimensiones cuantitativas de la noticia, el creciente peso de la imagen o algunas tendencias que apuntan hacia el sensacionalismo. El análisis detallado del tratamiento de cada uno de los personajes y colectivos implicados en el episodio permite conocer el retrato elaborado por cada cadena, brindando contrastes muy ilustrativos.

Asimismo, las crisis se convierten en una oportunidad estratégica para las cadenas, que pueden aprovechar su irrupción para replantearse su posición en el mercado. El comportamiento de Telecinco resulta especialmente significativo, ya que se constata un evidente viraje editorial cuya orientación no se entiende en términos exclusivamente periodísticos, sino que apunta hacia decisiones con un mayor alcance. Por su parte, el resto de cadenas recurren a estrategias alternativas, en las que las posiciones editoriales y los estilos informativos apelan a su autonomía a la hora de informar sobre cualquier asunto noticioso.

Esta tesis doctoral contribuye a un mejor conocimiento del abordaje periodístico sobre las situaciones de crisis, con el valor añadido de que su objeto de estudio es más amplio en términos cronológicos que la mayoría de investigaciones sobre comunicación de crisis, y de que el material analizado procede de la televisión, en lugar de la dominante presencia de la prensa como corpus analítico.


ENGLISH
On November 13th 2002, the oil tank Prestige sent an SOS that meant the starting point for one of the main environmental disasters of the Spanish history. The oil spills extended during the following months lead into a political crisis and a social confrontation. This doctoral thesis analyses the television coverage of four TV channels (TVE1, TV3, Antena 3 and Telecinco) from November 2002 until February 2003.

By means of a case of study, and mainly using both quantitative content analysis and discourse analysis as research methods, this thesis rebuilds the media agendas designed by each channel, establishing meaningful comparisons between the editorial decisions and mapping the corporate and informative strategies of each TV station.

The theoretical framework refers initially to Ulrich Beck’s risk society, linking directly this wide concept to some of the current trends of the contemporary journalism. Furthermore, some of the main contributions coming from the Communication Sciences field are also revisited in order to deepen the knowledge about audiovisual information. In this topic, a detailed study about the newscast as a salient TV format is also completed.

Crises are presented as periods when the production routines become accelerated, highlighting both the strengths and the weaknesses of daily journalism. As a matter of fact, crises are one of the richest context for Communication Research. Results underline the excessive salience attributed to live coverage, the obsession for quantifying  all the news dimensions, the growing presence of the image or some features pointing to a sensationalist approach. Detailed study of each of the main individuals and groups involved in this episode allows to see to portrait displayed by each channels, showing interesting contrasts.

Besides that, crises are also strategic opportunities for the channels. When a crisis breaks down, any channel has the chance to rethink its own position in the overall market. The behavior of Telecinco is specially remarkable, as one can find a clear editorial shift that cannot be explained by appealing only to journalistic criteria, but it also points to decisions taken in a wider scope. On the other hand, the rest of the channels relied on alternative strategies, showing their own independence to choose any editorial positions and any news style.

This doctoral thesis contributes to a better understanding of the journalistic approach about crises. Its added values refer to a longer period of analysis in comparison with the usual crises’ studies and to the use of TV newscasts as the source of information, instead of the dominant presence of the press as analytical corpus.

In the lead up to the 2007 election, Kevin Rudd famously amplified the environmental political rhetoric on climate change by referring to it as “the great moral challenge of our generation”. However an examination of three key political speeches on implementing climate change policy, concludes that scant attention has been paid to the notion of the moral and ethical elements of the debate from either side of Australian politics. This paper examines the discursive dimensions of these speeches and considers the broader implications for the status of the climate change policy currently being played out in the Australian political arena.

This article focusses on the analysis of the news coverage of fracking in the seven daily national Spanish newspapers in 2012. The results of the analysis of the 246 news items, based on the theory of framing, have demonstrated that the
debate in the Spanish press also focusses on the concept of risks versus benefits. The environmental threat stands out as a result of the large number of actors, appearing as sources in the news items that are against the technique of fracking. Regional politicians and anti-fracking platforms lead the public debate, forming a negative opinion of this technique in Spain.

Changes in land use or function are common problems in the big cities. The objective of the study was to analyze the influence of population, accessibility, infrastructure and community behavior on the problems in the city representing of environmental risk on land use change in Makassar City. This type of research was a quantitative descriptive analysis. Data collected from 250 respondents from 2 sub-districts of 14 sub-districts, namely Panakukang Sub-district and Mariso Sub-district. The research method was carried out by a statistical approach, using Structural Equational Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS). The results of this study indicated that environmental risk of land use changes in Makassar City was influenced by infrastructure and community behavior. Accessibility has an effect on the environmental risk. Its influence was significant both directly and indirectly (through infrastructure and community behavior). Meanwhile, the population did not have a direct effect on the environmental risks. The influence of the population on the environmental risks increased through community behavior and infrastructure.
Key words: Land use, population, accessibility, problem, urban

In 2015, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) Sector Delaware Bay sponsored the project, “Consensus Ecological Risk Assessment of Potential Transportation-related Bakken and Dilbit Crude Oil Spills in the Delaware Bay Area: Comparative Evaluation of Response Actions”. The aim of the Sector Commander, who is the designated Federal On-scene Coordinator (FOSC), and the Area Committee was to update the Area Contingency Plan (ACP) and improve preparedness to oil spills in the Sector’s area of responsibility (AOR) by identifying timely and effective response actions that can enable resource protection and recovery in the event of future spills from Bakken and diluted bitumen (dilbit) oils. Project-specific objectives were to assess the risks from these two crude oils, which are moving through the Sector’s AOR and plan for the best way to respond to incidents involving these oils since they are transported via rail, barge, and tanker throughout the AOR. Funded by USCG headquarters (HQ), a related project objective was to consider specifically threatened and endangered (T/E) species in accordance with USCG HQ guidance on Section 7 consultations pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act (MSA). This report summarizes the work to assess two types of crude oil with different properties and behavior, in five spill scenarios involving rail, barge, and tanker modes of transportation, in two seasons (winter and spring), and in three different settings, i.e., creek (freshwater), river (brackish/salt water depending upon the volume of fresh water flowing into the river), and bay (saltwater).  Special consideration was given to T/E species throughout the process. The properties of these oils (Bakken-highly flammable and dilbit-weathering and sinking) necessitated developing a new set of response actions, and evaluating the risks of the spilled oil and response actions in two phases, i.e., initial emergency phase (initial 4-6 hours) and longer-term (6 hours onward, especially 4 – 7 days). A new set of 10 response actions and new conceptual models were developed and the risk ranking matrix was revised. Due to the serious fires in recent incidents involving Bakken oil, the project assessed human health and safety risks in addition to ecological risks. The report includes the results of the risk characterization process.

ntervista ad Andrea Cerase, autore della monografia “Rischio e comunicazione. Teorie, modelli e problemi”
Comunicare il rischio

Su Arpatnews abbiamo pubblicato una serie di interviste ad esponenti di associazioni ambientaliste, giornalisti, professionisti della comunicazione, esperti delle tematiche della trasparenza, per approfondire temi quali la comunicazione, l'informazione ambientale e processi partecipativi.

Rivolgiamo qui qualche domanda ad Andrea Cerase, dottore di ricerca in Scienze delle Comunicazioni, ricercatore all’Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia e cultore della materia all’Università la Sapienza di Roma. Oltre agli studi sulla comunicazione e gli impatti sociali del rischio, si è occupato di giornalismo e del rapporto tra media tradizionali e digitali e fenomeni di discriminazione ed esclusione sociale. Tra le sue numerose pubblicazioni sui temi del rischio si segnalano la recente monografia “Rischio e comunicazione. Teorie, modelli e problemi” (Egea, Milano, 2017).

Briar March’s award-winning documentary There Once Was an Island chronicles the lives of the Polynesian inhabitants of Takuu, a small atoll in the Pacific, who are faced with the gradual submersion of their home due to sea level rise.  Applying Rob Nixon’s concept of “slow violence” to the ecological and political processes shown in the film, the chapter argues that March’s documentary is a eco-cosmopolitan project reaching out to new forms of solidarity.

This is the English version of Alberto Alemanno foreword to the Italian volume authored by Andrea Cerase and published by Egea, Milan.

The author would like to thank Professor Alemanno for such an excellent way to introduce the book.

Suggested citation:

Alemanno, Alberto (2017) «Prefazione: per una comprensione pluralistica del rischio», in Andrea Cerase, Rischio e Comunicazione. Teorie, Modelli, Problemi, Milan: Egea, pp. 11 -15.

Scientists can be important public advocates in environmental issues. But scientific activism can take different forms, and deciding when and how to become an activist can be difficult for people who are trained to understand science as the objective pursuit of truth. This case study explores these issues through the history of the Oxygen Depletion Crisis. Between 1966 and 1970, it appeared that the global oxygen supply might be endangered by pesticides, industrial pollution, or the ongoing combustion of fossil fuels. The science was uncertain, but the potential threat was considerable. One response came from geophysicists Lloyd Berkner and Lauriston Marshall, who quietly initiated a research program and refrained from speaking publicly until the full scope of the crisis was better understood, in a
conscious effort to avoid provoking public concern. We label this approach “public reticence.” Ecologist LaMont Cole instead made oxygen depletion a prominent talking point in his Congressional testimony and presentations across the country, so successfully stimulating the public concern that oxygen depletion became one of the multiple environmental anxieties motivating mass action on Earth Day in 1970. While the oxygen depletion crisis had a relatively clear scientific resolution, its legacy for environmental policy is interestingly complicated. This case uses historical perspective to help students to debate on scientific activism, an issue especially relevant today in light of climate change and events like the March for Science on Earth Day, 2017.

Three polls carried out in 2008, 2010 and 2012 explored media consumption and sources used by Spaniards to receive information on climate change issues. These polls revealed a sharp drop in the amount of information received both through personal conversations and the media. Studies carried out by different researchers concluded that media coverage of climate change declined in the studied period. We also found less activity in climate change communication by key sources such as political parties, a decrease in web searches using the terms “climate change” or “global warming” and a reduction in attendance to events such as exhibitions or lectures.
Data suggest that a growing number of Spaniards chosed not to talk and
not to listen; not to write and not to read; not to know about climate change.
Considering the mentioned data, this paper describes “climate silence” and suggests links to social representations of climate change.

El discurso de los medios sobre la energía nuclear es esencial para entender la formación de la opinión pública en un asunto altamente científico-técnico. Esta investigación analiza el papel de los científicos como actores en el debate nuclear a través de su presencia como fuente periodística. Las unidades de análisis han resultado 234 textos publicados tres meses antes y tres después del accidente nuclear en Japón en los diarios españoles El País y ABC. Los resultados demuestran que los científicos como actores principales quedan relegados frente a políticos, ciudadanos, industria y ecologistas. Sin embargo, su protagonismo determina el encuadre noticioso: acentúa claramente el riesgo ambiental y minimiza el beneficio económico, todo lo contrario que en el caso de los políticos.

Although the significance of scientific expertise is often proposed and
empirically illustrated in academic literature, it is still unclear how environmental expertise becomes authoritative, and how its legitimacy can
be challenged. In order to understand the interplay between scientific
expertise and civil society engagement, this paper examines how industrial scientific expertise has worked with surrounding communities and
civil society to inform scientific decisions, and for the co-creation of scientific knowledge formations. A particular case is analysed, that of the
South Durban Industrial Basin in KwaZulu-Natal. This area comprises a
mixed use of residential areas juxtaposed with heavy industries.
Scientific expertise, especially within the industrial sectors, is therefore
important in the prevention, alleviation and management of risks to residents, society and the environment. The study finds that there is poor
engagement between scientific expertise with communities and civil
society, not least when it comes to environmental issues. A reason for
this is poor governance, enforcement and leadership with an overriding
objective of industrial expansion for economic development by both
government and industry. Another reason is that, with a few exceptions,
the communities have mainly been concerned about socio-economic
issues. This has resulted in a double bind, where scientific expertise and
government have not shared environmental information with civil society at the same as the civil society, has not on the whole requested it.

(Open-Access article, feel free to share) Environmental disputes have surged in China over the past few years. For many scholars, this trend indicates the proliferation of “Not In My Back Yard” resistance among ordinary Chinese citizens. Yet, to what extent does the “Not In My Back Yard” label accurately reflect the complexity of Chinese environmental activism? This article seeks to address this question through a case study of the 2012 Ningbo anti-para-xylene protest. By analyzing how the event was reported in four news sources (Xinhua News Agency, China Daily, South China Morning Post, and Associated Press), the article reveals that while the narratives of domestic sources presented the event as an unfortunate incident caused by irrational citizens, oversea sources presented it as a liberal resistance initiated by China’s rising middle class against an authoritarian government. Both storylines, however, failed to recognize the urban–rural dynamics underlying the protest. Such neglect not only raises concerns regarding the inherent ambiguity of China’s environmental activism but also invites us to think beyond the stereotypical label of “Not In My Back Yard.”

This paper laconically demarcates and explains the significance of the agenda-setting function in disaster risk communication; one deemed by DRR practitioners as a vital tool towards Disaster Prevention and Mitigation as well as Preparedness.

La culturalizzazione della natura e l’enfasi sulla nozione di rischio hanno fatto sì che l’ambiente sia diventato a tutti gli effetti un oggetto di studio interdisciplinare, non più di pertinenza esclusiva delle scienze naturali ma tale da investire anche saperi e competenze di tipo sociale e culturale.
La consapevolezza riflessiva nei confronti delle tematiche ambientali si è incrociata negli ultimi anni con una rinnovata sensibilizzazione verso i cosiddetti commons, i beni e le risorse comuni. Sulla scorta del pensiero del Premio Nobel per l'economia Elinor Ostrom, si pone al centro della riflessione il tema dei beni comuni, in cui si intrecciano ambiente e conoscenza, ossia tutela del territorio e libertà di accesso e utilizzo dei media, in particolare del web.
La stessa filosofia anima anche il punto di vista dell’imprenditore e opinionista americano Peter Barnes: il capitalismo riformato passa per i commons, i beni comuni, che tutti possono utilizzare ma su cui nessuno può reclamare un diritto esclusivo (come accade, per esempio, nel caso dei parchi pubblici, delle strade, dell’aria, ma anche dei beni culturali e comunicativi). Al di là delle soluzioni tecniche, la proposta di Barnes invoca un cambiamento culturale, la rivalutazione del concetto di bene collettivo, così essenziale per il benessere umano da richiedere di essere gestito in modo autonomo: indipendente dalle leggi di mercato ma anche dal controllo governativo, troppo sensibile all’influenza del business .
Una soluzione decisamente interessante in tempi di crisi, anche nella prospettiva di una diversa valorizzazione dei beni culturali e comunicativi al di là delle congiunture politiche ed economiche. La soluzione di Barnes di affidare la gestione di tali beni a Fondazioni istituite ad hoc mantiene la sua forza persuasiva anche quando si affronta la questione della comunicazione e della cultura come risorsa comune. Tra stato e mercato, i commons si candidano a diventare in questo inizio di millennio la vera terza via, più resistente ai tempi e ai fallimenti economici . Non a caso, nella stagione comunicativa dominata dalla retorica della rete e del declino dei media mainstream riemerge paradossalmente il bisogno di common sense e di mezzi per l’accesso alla conoscenza e ai valori condivisi. È un sintomo naturale della crisi e della paura dell’ignoto (o del noto agli altri e ignoto a sé).

Mentre la sostenibilità dei commons sta diventando un tema prioritario dell’agenda politica internazionale, non si può dire esattamente la stessa cosa per quanto riguarda l’agenda setting dei media, e ciò per via del modo in cui viene concepita e gestita oggi la sfera della comunicazione. Non sembra ancora maturata una cultura della comunicazione capace di interpretare e di tener testa alle sfide della sostenibilità ambientale. Il framework della sostenibilità richiederebbe una ridefinizione della struttura dell’orizzonte temporale alla quale i media non sono preparati. La comunicazione massmediatica, infatti, privilegia la logica dell’emergenza e del sensazionalismo ad ogni costo seguendo un orizzonte temporale effimero e di corto respiro. Sennonché, in questo modo processi complessi che si svolgono in un orizzonte temporale prolungato vengono rappresentati e distorti come eventi singolari (sia nel senso di “unici” sia nel senso di “curiosi, stravaganti”) che esplodono improvvisamente e ricevono un’attenzione solo momentanea. L’informazione che si veicola sotto forma di notizia, ovvero come res novissimae, tende a essere necessariamente decontestualizzata, deformata (novus in latino ha anche il senso di “inaudito, estremo, straordinario”) e schiacciata sull’attualità. Ma in questo modo i fatti si sottraggono ad ogni orizzonte di intelligibilità, che può funzionare solo attraverso la concatenazione di cause ad effetti nella lunga durata.

Understanding the public’s perception of risk is central
to the effective communication and regulation of
risk. However, there is often considerable divergence
between expert and lay perceptions of risk, which has
proved a challenge in devising effective risk communication
strategies (Slovic, 1987; Black and Baldwin,
2012). Risk communication provides a means of
addressing this divergence, while helping to ensure
that policy objectives are achieved, and, when carried
out effectively, it can lead to the smoother implementation
of risk regulation. This comprehensive report
outlines the findings of the small-scale study “Relay
Risk: Examining the Communication of Environmental
Risk through a Case Study of Domestic Wastewater
Treatment Systems in the Republic of Ireland”, which
set out to identify how to communicate risk-based environmental
regulation effectively.

La comunicazione del rischio potrebbe essere prescritta, con ricette specifiche e
una accurata dosatura degli ingredienti adeguati, così come hanno fatto i medici
della Regione Emilia-Romagna, e di altre poche realtà in Italia da più di un decennio,
con la prescrizione dell’attività fisica, che risulta curativa per alcune patologie
specifiche e benefica per la salute di diverse fasce di popolazione.

(Open-access article, feel free to share) Public participation is widely regarded as a vital component for making environmental decisions more democratic, legitimate, and effective. Yet, research on this subject has largely focused on rights and principles instead of context and process, especially in non-Western settings. To address this gap, this article explores how local voices on environmental issues were muted in a Chinese rural context. It describes controversies surrounding a cultural and ecological tourism development in Heyang, a transforming village in the east coastal region of China. Based on semistructured group interviews, the article reveals that although many issues found in the Heyang case resonated with similar cases in Western settings, such as the lack of access to information and the problematic solicitation of public input, fundamentally, the local voices were muted by the village council’s blind adoption of an urban-centric ecological modernization agenda and its neglect of local villagers’ emotional attachment to their land properties. The above findings not only draw our attention to how participatory communication can be compromised by contextual factors but also invite us to reconsider how China’s existing urban–rural division fundamentally influences its ecological civilization.