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- Volume 2, Issue 2, 2021
Journal of Environmental Media - Volume 2, Issue 2, 2021
Volume 2, Issue 2, 2021
- Editorial
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- Articles
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Down to earth: The situated materiality of digital media
By Alix JohnsonIn recent years, Iceland has been positioned as a ‘natural’ site for data storage, thanks to its cool climate and abundant hydroelectric energy. Starting, however, from a string of earthquakes that shook the island in 2021, this article explores the shaky ground on which those claims rest. Taking into account the local impacts of hydropower production in Iceland, and of anthropogenic climate change, to which the global ICT industry contributes, I make a case for considering data’s situated materiality, or its entanglement with particular land forms and earth processes. From this vantage point, the cloud is inseparable from the ground.
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Something’s in the water: California’s Central Valley and the poison in the well
Authors: Aaron Schuelke and Nancy Van LeuvenLike the water crisis that plagued Flint, Michigan, Earlimart – California’s crisis of poisoned water – is also a study in environmental racism. Remarkable to Earlimart is the role of citizen journalists in early crisis reporting, as they posted community impact updates on Facebook in real-time, outpacing public agency communication. As media professors in California’s Central Valley, we explore the racial and economic marginalization that emerged from the Earlimart crisis, with specific focus on low-income rural immigrant communities whose citizens had limited remediation. Our findings reinforce scholarship regarding the role of social media in relaying at-your-fingertips information to inform and mobilize the public.
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Aotearoa pioneering LGBTIQ, Indigenous and environmental production: The case of Rūrangi in New Zealand
By Missy MolloyThis article spotlights the remarkable achievements of Rūrangi, a drama series and film created in Aotearoa New Zealand that breaks new ground in transgender production and representation. The case study mainly focuses on off-screen developments that shed light on Rūrangi’s intersectionality, and on the compelling connections drawn by the creative team behind the project between trans identity and environmental and racial justice. Finally, the analysis touches on further innovations the Rūrangi team is implementing in its second season, which is currently in production.
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Data and the new oil: Cloud computing’s lubrication of the petrotechnical
By Luke MunnSophisticated modelling and machine learning technologies, underpinned by cloud computing, are increasingly being deployed within the oil and gas industry. As the easy energy pockets of the past dry up, such technologies promise to locate deposits, increase extraction and optimize production. These high-performance computing technologies require vast infrastructures, a requirement that, in the midst of a climate crisis, has seen a new alliance between Big Tech and Big Oil. Drawing on grey literature from press releases to whitepapers and tech demonstrations, this article investigates these alliances between oil companies and tech companies, along with the rise of cloud-driven processes in energy discovery and production – in short, the new intersection between the computational and the petrotechnical. How might the extractive violence of the ‘petro’ be intensified and diversified by the ‘technical’ of cloud computing? It argues that cloud computing does indeed contribute to more efficient processes of energy extraction, but that this effectively means an optimization of ecological destruction, assisting the industry in more rapidly and comprehensively damaging diverse forms of life. Understanding the logics of these technologies and the political economy that underpins them is crucial for intervening effectively against these environmentally devastating operations.
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War on woodpeckers: 5G, utility poles and the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act
More LessThis article uses environmental perspectives as a framework for analysing mobile communication networks, platforms and devices related to fifth generation (5G) expansion. The article focuses on wooden utility poles, recent actions by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and contested Department of the Interior (DOI) interpretations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. The pell-mell expansion of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), new deregulatory actions allowing for new equipment on utility poles and controversies regarding the 1918 Bird Act absolving corporations from culpability when they kill birds as part of their business activities (oil spills, construction and similar) create a dangerous mix. These new initiatives pose threats to wildlife including when birds, particularly woodpeckers, interact with wooden utility pole infrastructures. The United States of America is the main geographic setting for this study, although these trends are partially evident in many other nations.
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From petishism to rewilding: Representations of wildlife in interactive media
More LessSafari Central, an augmented reality app that seeks to ‘rewild’ (or reconnect) wildlife with people, lets users take photographs with six virtual animals that are based on real-life animals. I argue that these representations of animals are an example of petishizationPetishism includes overidentifying with an animal, an emphasis on dominance over animals and over-representing of certain traits of animals. I trace these qualities of petishism across three other popular forms of interactive media that have the same goal of facilitating care (Tamagotchi, Pokémon and Zoo Tycoon) to discuss the ways in which Safari Central replicates earlier designs. I argue that to better facilitate care between people and animals, designers of interactive media should consider alternate conceptions of care and use Julie Smith’s (2003) theory of performance ethics. Performance ethics understands animals’ performances as communicative transactions and positions humans as listeners. I conclude by proposing alternate designs that incorporate performance ethics and alternate conceptions of care into interactive media.
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Is VR a suitable tool for conservation messaging? An exploration of VR technology and the Oculus series Ecosphere
More LessVirtual reality (VR) has excited artists, researchers and organizations with its potential to provide users with a different perspective and promote empathy. Studies of VR effects on conservation attitudes and behaviours have found promising, albeit short-term, results. Yet to date, there have been no studies to suggest VR’s ability to create long-term behaviour change. Furthermore, studies on at-home VR use and how casual viewers of VR respond to immersive experiences are severely lacking. This article seeks to address this lack by analysing whether a contemporary conservation-themed VR experience is a suitable tool for conservation messaging. Employing autoethnography, I situate my personal experience with the VR experience within broader issues related to environmental communication, visual constructions of ‘nature’ and the growing problem of e-waste. Aside from the question of whether VR experiences create empathy for environmental issues, practitioners interested in using VR for environmental communication should consider the negative impacts of resource use and implications for obsolescence while also questioning creative solutions to render the technology more sustainable and accessible.
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- Media Review
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- Book Review
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Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, Alenda Y. Chang (2019)
By Kara StoneReview of: Playing Nature: Ecology in Video Games, Alenda Y. Chang (2019)
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 320 pp.,
ISBN 978-1-51790-632-0, p/bk, $27.00
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