Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere

The fifth edition of this award-winning text remains the most comprehensive introduction in the growing field of environmental communication, offering insights  into real-world applications of the topic and exploring recent events such as the Trump Administration, the People’s Climate March and international legal precedents.    

Table of Contents:
Part 1: COMMUNICATING FOR/ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT Chapter 1: Defining Environmental Communication What is “Environmental Communication”? Ways of Studying Environmental Communication The Ethics of Crisis and Care Communication, the Environment, and the Public Sphere Communication as Symbolic Action: Wolves Why Communication Matters to “The Environment” Public Spheres as Democratic Spaces Diverse Environmental Voices in the Public Sphere Citizens and Civil Society Nongovernmental Organizations Politicians and Public Officials Businesses Scientists and Scholars Journalists Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Chapter 2: Contested Meanings: A Brief History Learning to Love Nature Wilderness Preservation Versus Natural Resource Conservation John Muir and the Wilderness Preservation Movement Gifford Pinchot and the Conservation of Natural Resources Cultivating an Ecological Consciousness Public Health and the Ecology Movement Rachel Carson and the Public Health Movement Earth Day and Legislative Landmarks Environmental Justice: Linking Social Justice and Environmental Quality Redefining the Meaning of “Environment” Defining Sacrifice Zones and Environmental Justice Movements for Sustainability and Climate Justice Introducing Sustainability Moving Toward Climate Justice and a Just Transition Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Part II: Constructions of the Environment Chapter 3: Symbolic Constructions of the Environment A Rhetorical Perspective Terministic Screens and Naming Constructing an Environmental Problem: The “Rhetorical Situation” Tropes and Genres Dominant and Critical Discourses Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Chapter 4: The Environment in/of Visual and Popular Culture The Environment and Popular Culture Encoding/Decoding Environmental Media Media’s Lifecycle Looking at the Environment Visual Rhetoric and Nature Seeing the American West Picturing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Moving Images of Disasters Witnessing Ecological Crises Polar Bears as Condensation Symbols Pollution in Real Time Green Art, Marketing, and Graphic Design Environmental Art Viral Marketing Failed Persuasion Green Graphic Design Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Chapter 5: Environmental Journalism Growth and Changes in Environmental News Emergence and Cycles in Environmental News A Perfect Storm: Decline of Traditional News Media and Rise of Digital News Breaking News and Environmental Journalism Newsworthiness Media Frames Norms of Objectivity and Balance Political Economy of News Media Gatekeeping and Newsroom Routines Media Effects and Influences Agenda Setting Narrative Framing Cultivation Analysis Media Engagement Continuum Digital Technologies and the Transformation of Environmental News Digitizing Environmental Journalism Social Media and Citizen Environmental Journalism Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Part III: Communicating in an Age of Ecological Crises Chapter 6: Scientists, Technology, and Environmental Controversies Scientific Argumentation Symbolic Legitimacy and the “Eclipse” of the Public Fracking and the Environmental Sciences The Precautionary Principle Uncertainty and Risk The Precautionary Principle Early Warners: Environmental Scientists and the Public Dilemmas of Neutrality and Scientists’ Credibility Environmental Scientists as Early Warners Science and the Trope of Uncertainty A Trope of Uncertainty Challenging the Environmental Sciences Communicating Climate Science Climate Scientists Go Digital Media and Popular Culture Inventing New Climate Change Messages Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions CHAPTER 7: HUMAN HEALTH AND ECOLOGICAL RISK COMMUNICATION Dangerous Environments: Assessment in a Risk Society Risk Assessment Technical Risk Assessment A Cultural Theory of Risk Assessment Communicating Environmental Risks in the Public Sphere A Technical Model of Risk Communication A Cultural Model of Risk Communication Citizens Becoming Scientists Mainstream News Media and Environmental Risk News Media Reports of Risk: Accurate Information or Sensational Stories? Whose Voices Speak of Risk? Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions CHAPTER 8: SUSTAINABILITY AND THE “GREENING” OF CORPORATIONS AND CAMPUSES Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Approach Economic Discourse and the Environment Corporate Sustainability Communication: Reflection or Deflection? Green Product Advertising Green Image Enhancement Green Corporate Image Repairs Greenwashing and the Discourse of Green Consumerism Corporate Greenwashing Discourse of Green Consumerism Communicating Sustainability on and Through Campuses Communicating Sustainability Curricula Communication Through Infrastructure Communication Education at Tourist Sites Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Part IV: Environmental Campaigns and Movements CHAPTER 9: ADVOCACY CAMPAIGNS AND MESSAGE CONSTRUCTION Environmental Advocacy Campaigns Differ From Critical Rhetoric Environmental Advocacy Campaigns Campaigns’ Objectives Identifying Key Decision Makers Developing a Strategy to Influence Decision Makers The Campaign to Protect Zuni Salt Lake Zuni Salt Lake and a Coal Mine A Coalition’s Campaign Success for Zuni Salt Lake Message Construction The Attitude–Behavior Gap and the Importance of Values Message Construction: Values and Framing Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions CHAPTER 10: DIGITAL MEDIA AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM Grassroots Activism and Digital Media Alert, Amplify, and Engage Affordances of Digital Communication Technologies Environmental NGOs and Digital Campaigns “Sustainable Self-Representation” Action Alerts: Environmental NGOs’ Digital Mobilizing Online/Offline and “Public Will” Campaigns Multimodality and Networked Campaigns Environmental Activism and Multimodal Networks NGOs’ Sponsored Networks Network of Networks: Global Environmental Activism Scaling Up: The People’s Climate March and the March for Science Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions CHAPTER 11: ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND CLIMATE JUSTICE MOVEMENTS Environmental Justice: Challenges, Critiques, and Change The Beginnings of a “New” Movement We Speak for Ourselves: Naming “Environmental Racism” Building the Movement for Environmental Justice Institutionalization of Environmental Justice Honoring Frontline Knowledge and Traveling on Toxic Tours The Politics of Voice The Politics of Place The Global Movement for Climate Justice Climate Justice: A Frame to Connect the World Mobilizing for Climate Justice Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Part V: Environmental Laws and Engagement Chapter 12: Public Participation in Environmental Decisions Right to Know: Access to Information Freedom of Information Act Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act Right to Comment National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Public Hearings and Citizen Comments SLAPP: Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation Sued for Speaking Out Response to SLAPPs Growth of Public Participation Internationally Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Chapter 13: Environmental Conflict Management and Collaboration Addressing Environmental Disputes Criticism of Public Hearings Beyond Public Hearings Collaborating to Resolve Environmental Conflicts Principles of Successful Collaboration From Conflict to Collaboration in the Great Bear Rainforest Limits of Collaboration and Consensus Evaluating Collaboration: The “Progress Triangle” The Quincy Library Group: Conflict in the Sierra Nevada Mountains Common Criticisms of Collaboration Summary Suggested Resources Key Terms Discussion Questions Chapter 14: Legal Arguments for the Standing of Citizens and Nature Right of Standing and Citizen Suits Standing in a Court of Law Citizen Suits and the Environment Landmark Cases on Environmental Standing Sierra Club v. Morton (1972) Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (1992) Friends of the Earth, Inc. V. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. (2000) Global Warming and the Right of Standing Who Should Have a Right of Standing? Who can Speak—and What is Speech? The Standing of Future Generations Nonhuman Nature: Should Trees, Dolphins, and Rivers Have Standing? Summary Suggested Resources Discussion Questions Glossary References Index

About the Author :
Phaedra C. Pezzullo is Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a dual citizen with the US and Italia. Her interdisciplinary background informs her research on environmental justice, climate justice, just transition, public advocacy, and tourist studies. Her book, Toxic Tourism (University of Alabama Press, 2007), won four awards, including the Jane Jacobs Urban Communication Book Award and the National Communication Association’s Environmental Communication Division Book Award. Among other publications, she coedited Green Communication and China (Michigan State University Press, 2020) and Environmental Justice and Environmentalism (MIT Press, 2007). She was a founding editor of the journal Environmental Communication and serves on its editorial board. She has volunteered on the Sierra Club’s national Environmental Justice Committee and Affinity Group Working Group, consulted with cities and counties on a just transition, and was a delegate at COP21 in Paris. Pezzullo is a founding co-director of the Center for Creative Climate Communication and Behavior Change (C3BC) on her campus. She also enjoys outdoor recreation and cooking a plant-based diet. Robert Cox is Professor Emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His principal research areas are environmental and climate change communication and strategic studies of social movements. A internationally-recognized leading scholar who helped found the field of environmental communication, Cox is coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication (2015; second edition forthcoming), editor of the four-volume reference series Environmental Communication (Sage, 2016), and the author of numerous studies of environmental and climate change campaigns. He has served three times (1994-1996; 2000-2001; 2007-2008) as president of the Sierra Club, the largest grassroots U.S. environmental organization, and was also on the board of directors for Earth Echo International, whose mission is “to empower youth to take action that restores and protects our water planet.” Cox also continues to advise environmental groups on their communication programs. He regularly participates in environmental and climate change initiatives and has campaigned with former vice president Al Gore, singer Melissa Etheridge, and other public figures. He also enjoys hiking and trekking in the Himalayas, Europe, and the southern Appalachian Mountains in the United States.

Review :
“This is the best undergraduate text devoted to environmental communication. It’s the standard book for an introduction to the field.”  “Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere engages a medley of terms, frames, and controversies that are useful for fusing theory and practice. The authors address an impressive breadth of material and numerous case studies that provide depth and context-specific opportunities for critical thinking and engaged learning. Well-researched texts of this quality are essential for providing students and faculty with the communication savvy necessary for imagining and enacting environments that are conducive to human and planetary thriving amidst our colliding ecological crises. I have relied on the 3rd and 4th editions of this textbook in my previous Communicating Sustainability classes and look forward to using the next edition.” “This is a great text that clearly explains a difficult concept and then provides several examples of how it permeates society via the ways we communicate about the natural world and our role in it.” “In the field of environmental communication, Pezzullo and Cox’s text is fundamental. With tremendous breadth and depth, it offers both contemporary and historical public discourse on the complicated fight for environmental protections. Students find this text book enlightening and highly readable given the many opportunities for engagement in contemporary issues provided in text blocks throughout the book.” “This interdisciplinary overview is an accessible introduction to environmental communication. The careful grounding in rhetorical and media theory is especially helpful, and the many current case studies are interesting and informative. This book is valuable for students of environmental science and policy as well as environmental activists.”