ABSTRACT

Ecomedia: Key Issues is a comprehensive textbook introducing the burgeoning field of ecomedia studies to provide an overview of the interface between environmental issues and the media globally. Linking the world of media production, distribution, and consumption to environmental understandings, the book addresses ecological meanings encoded in media texts, the environmental impacts of media production, and the relationships between media and cultural perceptions of the environment.

Each chapter introduces a distinct type of media, addressing it in a theoretical overview before engaging with specific case studies. In this way, the book provides an accessible introduction to each form of media as well as a sophisticated analysis of relevant cases. The book includes contributions from a combination of new voices and well-established media scholars from across the globe who examine the basic concepts and key issues of ecomedia studies. The concepts of "frames," "flow", and "convergence" structure a dynamic collection divided into three parts. The first part addresses traditional visual texts, such as comics, photography, and film. The second part of the book addresses traditional broadcast media, such as radio, and television, and the third part looks at new media, such as advertising, video games, the internet, and digital renderings of scientific data.

In its breadth and scope, Ecomedia: Key Issues presents a unique survey of rich scholarship at the confluence of Media Studies and Environmental Studies. The book is written in an engaging and accessible style, with each chapter including case studies, discussion questions and suggestions for further reading.

chapter |14 pages

Introduction

Ecologies of media

part I|70 pages

Frames

chapter 1|10 pages

Overview

Framing visual texts for ecomedia studies

chapter 2|20 pages

Beyond nature photography

The possibilities and responsibilities of seeing

part II|77 pages

Flow

chapter 5|12 pages

Overview

Flow – an ecocritical perspective on broadcast media

chapter 6|19 pages

“I took off my pants and felt free”

Environmentalism in countercultural radio

chapter 7|23 pages

New Zealand reality television

Hostile or hospitable?

chapter 8|21 pages

Earth observation and signal territories

U.S. broadcast infrastructure, historical network maps, Google Earth, and fieldwork

part III|88 pages

Convergence

chapter 9|11 pages

Overview

Bert versus the Black Phoenix: an introduction to convergence and ecomedia

chapter 10|20 pages

Selling with Gaia

Advertising and the natural world

chapter 11|17 pages

Where the wild games are

Ecologies in Latin American video games

chapter 13|23 pages

Earth imaging

Photograph, pixel, program