Media Reform and the Climate Emergency: Rethinking Communication in the Struggle for a Sustainable Future

305 Pages·2021·2.445 MB·English

by  David J Park

Media Reform and the Climate Emergency

Media Reform and the
Climate Emergency
Rethinking Communication in the
Struggle for a Sustainable Future
DAVID J. PARK
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN PRESS
ANN ARBOR
Copyright © 2021 by David J. Park
All rights reserved
For questions or permissions, please contact [email protected]
Published in the United States of America by the
University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
Printed on acid- free paper
First published September 2021
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Park, David J., author.
Title: Media reform and the climate emergency : rethinking communication in
the struggle for a sustainable future / David J. Park.
Description: Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, 2021. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: lccn 2021009769 (print) | lccn 2021009770 (ebook) |
isbn 9780472132713 (hardcover : alk. paper) | isbn 9780472129331
(ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Climatic changes in mass media. | Mass media and the
environment— United States. | Climate change mitigation— United States.
Classification: LCC p96.c58 p37 2021 (print) | LCC p96.c58
(ebook) | DDC 320.58— dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009769
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021009770
Cover illustration: Julia Hawkins (CC-BY 2.0) and Pixabay / Pete Linforth,
adapted by Valentine Seebart.
Acknowledgments
While it appears at the end of 2020 that Joe Biden is likely to become
the next president of the United States, it remains to be seen whether his
policies will be bold enough to adequately address the climate emergency
through extensive regulation, or if he will support watered- down policies
that avoid addressing the root causes of the climate crisis. Time will soon
tell us how the fossil fuel interests will interact with Biden’s team. Most
news media are reporting positively on Biden’s very racially diverse pro-
posed cabinet, and both environmentalists and the fossil fuel industry are
praising his nominations. Critical analyses of the effectiveness of his future
climate policies, however, are essentially nonexistent in the mainstream
media. While the early praise from the fossil fuel industry is most likely
image- driven, it may also be sincere. Early support from one of the most
powerful, deceitful, and environmentally harmful industries in the world is
concerning.
News outlets are becoming increasingly partisan, and many mainstream
news outlets seem supportive of the Democratic Party’s conservative wing,
so future studies will need to examine whether and how critically news
media scrutinize Biden’s climate policies. Beyond being attentive to media
analyses, citizens will also need to be more active and organized in the fight
for a sustainable planet and future. It is extremely likely we will all need
to exert significant pressure on a Biden Presidency if we want immediate
climate action.
This book was written with a sense of urgency, given the increasing
momentum of the climate crisis and the immediate need to find new and
creative ways to help mitigate the emergency; I wanted to offer suggestions,
vi • Acknowledgments
but I don’t purport to have the final word on the subject. A couple of the
chapters constitute significantly revised versions of previously published
articles. Many scholars and anonymous reviewers have contributed their
thoughts, critiques, and revisions at various stages of this book’s develop-
ment. In particular, I want to thank James Hamilton, Robert Bodle, and
Ezequiel Korin, editors of Explorations in Critical Studies of Advertising, and
Wayne Hope at the Political Economy of Communication journal for helping
me develop earlier ideas, arguments, and areas of focus. I would also like
to thank the editors and affiliated scholars/reviewers at the International
Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development and at Integrated Envi-
ronmental Assessment and Management. My friends at Ámbitos: Revista Inter-
nacional de Comunicación in Seville, Spain also deserve appreciation.
I am especially thankful to Elizabeth Demers, Editorial Director at
the University of Michigan Press, for her patience, guidance, and wisdom
with this book. I would also like to thank John Raymond for his fantas-
tic copyediting and impressive eye for detail, which greatly improved the
overall flow and content presentation. The anonymous reviewers of the
book manuscript also offered immensely productive feedback, making this
a much stronger and cohesive book. Michigan’s Editorial Assistant Haley
Winkle was also very helpful, kind, and patient with my questions, while
everyone else at the Press who helped make this and all of their other
books possible deserve recognition as well.
I am also grateful to my family and ancestors whose choices in life were
able to influence the good things in mine. Thank you, Mom and Dad,
Charles and Edna Park, for your belief in me, for your love and constant
support. The same goes for my sister, Laura, who is a wonderfully talented
filmmaker and photographer. I am eternally grateful to Leslie Richard-
son, without whom much of this book would not have been possible. Her
intellectual challenges, advice, long discussions, and support were pivotal
to the successful completion of this book. We are all individuals made up
of experiences and influences from people we encounter and learn from.
Please forgive me if I got something wrong in this book. Any errors should
be solely ascribable to me. Last, I want to thank the many scholars, activ-
ists, politicians, and concerned citizens who continue to fight for a more
sustainable, just, and equal world.
Contents
Introduction 1
I. Climate Emergency and Political Will
one: The Last Generation to Stop the Disaster 15
two: US Political Will to Address the Climate Crisis 25
II. Advertising, Climate Change, and Reform
three: Advertising, Consumerism, Industrialism, and Ideology 45
four: Advertising and Its Interdependence with the
Origins of the Climate Crisis 59
five: Conceptualizing a Mitigative Model of Advertising 75
III. The Digital Era and Its Contribution to the Crisis
six: Digital Era Advertising, Surveillance, Exploitation,
and Inequities 95
seven: Challenges to Sustainability in the Digital Era 118
IV. Journalism and Climate Change
eight: Challenges to US Climate Change Journalism 133
viii • Contents
nine: Misinformation, Blogs, and Public Opinion 155
ten: The Battle against Global Warming Is Also
a Fight for Media Reform 171
Conclusion 191
Notes 201
References 231
Index 279
Digital materials related to this title can be found on
the Fulcrum platform via the following citable URL:
https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.11927458
Introduction
A society in which consumption has to be artificially stimulated in
order to keep production going is a society founded on trash and
waste, and such a society is a house built upon sand.
— Dorothy L. Sayers1
This book is about how specific aspects of mass communication interact
with and contribute to the global climate emergency.2 It asks whether
and how mass communication can help address and mitigate the crisis,
especially when there is a diminishing window of time to lower emissions
that contribute to climate change. At this stage, there should be no doubt
that what humanity is facing is both a crisis and emergency, and both terms
are used interchangeably throughout this book. Climate change and global
warming are also often used interchangeably, even though climate change
refers more broadly to transformations in various climate patterns and
global warming refers to increases in the planet’s temperature. This reflects
the acceptance of their interchangeability within popular and policy dis-
course.3 Indeed, global warming, which exists as part of an overall process
of climate change, is already happening and if we don’t stop its human-
made causes quickly, scientists predict that the climate will spiral out of
human control, causing massive planetary and lifeform damage.
Given the gravity of the emergency, many scholars and scientists are
working overtime to present solutions. Scientists in agriculture, land use,
biology, sea- level rise, and other areas are pitching in, but contributions
regarding mitigation from the mass communication field appear limited.
This is surprising. Mass communication is extremely interdisciplinary, as