Critical Media Literacy and Climate Change

Abstract

For years, environmental problems in the US have been represented in mainstream media as issues of universal vulnerability, as if everyone were affected equally by the environmental dangers. This hid the fact that low-income neighborhoods, especially communities of color, have been impacted with far worse consequences of environmental hazards than middle and upper class areas. The other trope too often repeated in the media, is the notion of universal responsibility; the idea that we are all equally responsible for the environmental damages. While it is important that everyone contribute to improving the environment, it is also essential that corporations, governments, and non-sustainable economic practices and ideologies be held responsible for the majority of the harm they are causing to the environment. In this presentation we will use critical media literacy pedagogy to explore the historical context of portrayals of environmentalism in relation to current media messages about climate change and environmental justice. The better people can learn to deconstruct media messages and dominant ideologies, the more prepared they will be to construct their own media messages that can challenge the dominant myths and promote socially just alternatives for a more sustainable and healthier planet