GREEN MEDIA: Media making in partnership with Friends of the Earth’s ‘Act on Climate’ campaign

 

What kinds of media can be made to effectively encourage environmentalism and action on climate change (at the individual, community and government level)? What issues and trends of the current media landscape should we consider when working in this area?

In this studio, we studied, made and evaluated a variety of approaches in media making to encourage environmentalism. We looked at media techniques used in environmental media, as well as experimented with borrowing/adapting techniques from other forms of media that engages.

Some highlights of studio work that did not make it into final project work include: a Climate Change Rap, a Powerpoint Resource on Protesting, and a Video featuring Zoom Interviews about the Pandemic and its Effects on the Environment.

We connected with a partner: Friends of the Earth’s ‘Act on Climate’ – an active grassroots campaign with its base in Melbourne. We gained insight into their work and received feedback on projects.

 

“Environmental NGOs have been at the forefront of climate change communication since the IPCC published its first assessment report in 1990, and have been central to the translation of climate change science into lay discourse and understanding. Yet environmental NGOs have been largely ignored in the climate change story… [A]ction to mitigate climate change is being enacted across a range of environmental groups. These range from the activities promoted by international NGOs such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and WWF, to the recent collaborations promoted by the ‘Stop Climate Chaos’ coalition.”

– Doyle, J. (2009). Climate Action and Environmental Activism: The Role of Environmental NGOs and Grassroots Movements in the Global Politics of Climate Change. In Climate Change and the Media (pp. 103-116). New York, USA: Peter Lang.