Communicating a “New” Environmental Vernacular: A Sense of Relations-in-Place

This study focuses on communication as a lens and tool for reinvigorating and empowering marginalized cultural environmental relations. We use a community-based cultural approach to identify a core Hispanic premise of a sense of relations-in-place. This premise constitutes nature as a socially integrated space that provides the grounding for human relations, and differs from dominant Western discourses that constitute nature as an entity separate from humans. The study's interpretation of a more integrated orientation to environment has the potential to inform wider alternative ecocultural discourses and applications that are more inclusive, and perhaps more sustainable.     

Where Epistemology Meets Ecology: Can Environmental News Reporting Survive Postmodernism?

Several scholars have recently proposed that Richard Rorty's (1979, 1982, 1989, 1991, 1998) liberal ironist epistemology might be appropriate for journalists. In this article, I investigate the ramifications of such a move. I suggest that once Rorty's thought is placed in the context of the abandonment of logical positivism, it is seen as a rather extreme reaction in regards to both ontology and axiology. One way of making such extremity evident is by investigating the applicability of Rorty's ideas to the specific field of environmental journalism. Although Rorty claims that liberal irony will help us learn to be less cruel to each other, we should thoroughly question whether his ideas will help us know our impact on the natural world or make positive changes based on that knowledge. I conclude by suggesting that before abandoning logical positivism in favor of postmodernism, the journalistic community should seriously consider alternative epistemologies.     

Environmental conditions for safeguarding collections: What should our set points be?

This paper explores the complex question of environmental conditions in museums and the current status of the IIC and ICOM-CC working group on environmental conditions in museums. Reviewing environmental conditions in museums in the light of sustainability and cost of energy pressures has resulted in members of the conservation profession holding differing views on what can safely be implemented. These views vary from leaving conditions at the current recommend levels, to promoting a substantial broadening of parameters. To understand how these positions have been reached, the history of environmental guidelines is surveyed. Moving forward, IIC in conjunction with ICOM-CC has established a working group to investigate the current global perspective on environmental conditions on a country-by-country basis, to identify a methodology by which a fresh and relevant review of these current positions can lead to practical outcomes, and to encourage dialogue with the broader museum profession. This paper reports on the interim findings of the working group and discusses the issues that arise from them. These include the lack of transparency between institutions in regards to actual conditions, the need for wider debate with museum colleagues, and the necessity of further experiential knowledge sharing rather than experimental research.     

In Defense of “Mass Communication” and Other Stuff

A consistent news frame that deligitmizes and depicts most social protests as "police vs. protesters" has been identified in studies of news coverage of social movements. This study used an experimental design to examine the extent to which photographs and prior attitudes toward protests and protesters in general contribute to previously identified framing effects of protest news. Results indicated that for the protest issue of interest evaluations of the protest and protesters were more negative when photos depicting higher levels of conflict were shown. The amount of conflict shown in the photos did not affect evaluations of the protest and protesters when the issue was of less interest to participants. Additionally, participants who had more positive prior attitudes toward protesting in general were more likely to identify with the protesters in the stimulus story and to perceive that the protest was more effective than were those with more negative prior attitudes. Findings suggest the need to address possible nuances associated with the visuals alone and to incorporate prior attitudes when examining effects of news coverage of protests.     

To Play the Fool: Can Environmental Conservation and Democracy Survive Social Capital?

Two community-based conservation processes in the United States provide comparative case studies to examine how social capital relates to democracy. Following a summary of social capital research, we describe the cases: one designed to preserve an endangered species and the other to restore water quality. We discuss how social capital dampened democratic practice in one case, while invigorating it in the other. We conclude that, by relying indiscriminately on social capital in the absence of complementary state structures, conservationists risk losing the very nature they seek to defend, and all citizens risk losing the energy and space essential to democracy.     

结构.再现.互动:微博的公共领域表征

依托于Habermas的公共领域和Dahlgren的构成性三向度理论,本文探讨了微博的公共领域表征.本文认为,从结构的角度看,微博颠覆和重构了我国现有公共领域的格局;从再现的角度看,微博为信息和意见同时提供了最大的可视性;从互动的角度看,微博成为民意平台的同时,也让公众与媒介、政府机构之间的互动关系扁平化和互动行为趋于前台化.     

Educating Zoo Visitors about Complex Environmental Issues: Should We Do It and How?

Modern zoos are committed to environmental education and thus have a mandate to inform the public about biodiversity and conservation. Historically, zoos have avoided complex topics like biodiversity loss from overpopulation and overconsumption in their educational materials, for fear of being offensive or creating a sense of hopelessness. To measure visitor attitudes towards educating about such topics and to help determine effective presentation techniques, we assessed people's knowledge of and attitudes towards the commercial hunting and consumption of wildlife in West and Central Africa (the bushmeat crisis) and examined how the use of different types of images affected these variables. Zoo visitors were exposed to one of six series of photographs, each accompanied by the same text. Photos in three of the series contained explicit, disturbing images of dead animals. The other three series presented benign images related to the bushmeat crisis (i.e., logging, changes in hunting practices). While 83 percnt of visitors had never heard of the bushmeat trade, 98 percent felt zoos should be educating about the topic. Ninety‐seven percent felt the disturbing images were appropriate for zoo visitors except for children under the age of 12. While people spent significantly more time looking at the disturbing images, this did not lead to increases in knowledge (factual or conservation‐related) on the topic. However, visitors who saw the disturbing images were significantly more likely to report being influenced by the images. While the type of image did not affect the frequency of conservation‐related behaviors, significantly more people engaged in a conservation‐related behavior when an opportunity was provided on‐site rather than off‐site. The results demonstrate that the public believes zoos should educate about bushmeat, and that realistic images influence people's perception of an issue. However, visitors' lack of knowledge gains, even when disturbing images are used, suggests that a static display of text with photographs may not be the most effective method for educating about complex issues like bushmeat. Finally, the results show that zoos should provide on‐site opportunities for people to turn their conservation interests into action.