News Media and Power: Greenwashing and the Environment
For today:
- Read – “How Broadcast News Covered Climate Change In The Last Five Years,” Media Matters, Jan 16, 2014.
- Read – ‘Greenwashing‘ in Green Consumerism: An A-to-Z Guide.
- Read – Dan Zak, “As Oil Spread, Did BP Battle to Contain the Media?,” Washington Post, June 3, 2010.
- Watch – Jon Oliver on the ridiculous way that climate change is habitually covered by cable news programs.
- In-class – Screening of Gasland
- For some perspective on the broader issues this film raises, see ‘Affirming Gasland‘ : a rebuttal to criticisms of the film that were made by a host of organizations connected to the gas industry. There has been a well-organized campaign to try and debunk the film’s questions & answers, most specifically by Energy-In-Depth (E-I-D), which is s a PR firm/lobbying group funded by the American Petroleum Institute).
- KEYWORDS: Framing, Greenwashing, Front Group, Fracking
For further reading and research:
- “Gasland Director Josh Fox Arrested at Congressional Hearing on Natural Gas Fracking,” Democracy Now! Feb 2, 2012.
- Maxwell T. Boykoff and J. Timmons Roberts, “Media Coverage of Climate Change: Current Trends, Strengths, Weaknesses,” in United Nations Development Program – Human Development Report 2007/2008.
- Read Jill Fitzsimmons, “Warmest Year on Record Received Cool Climate Coverage,” Media Matters, January 8, 2013
- “A Brief History of Greenwash,” from the CorpWatch website.
- Denise Robbins, “What The Media Left Out: Pro-Fracking Report Was Funded By Gas Industry,” Media Matters, Sept 5, 2013.
- Jules Boykoff, “Has London 2012 Been Greenwashed?,” The Guardian, April 22, 2012.
- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer, Don Hopey, has produced a number of stories about the Pennsylvania government’s intricate & cozy relationships to the gas industry. You can read some of them HERE.
- Watch the trailer to Promised Land – and read – Mark Drajem, “Gas Industry Ads Bash Promised Land,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 5, 2013.