“Green Media Studies” seek to contribute to the understanding of the interconnectedness of media representations, media use, media impact, and media technologies in regards to addressing the climate crisis and imagining sustainable futures.
We study…
- … the representation of environmental issues (i.e. narratives, imaginaries) in media from a media-comparative perspective;
- … media use by NGOs, activists, sustainable companies and related groups to support and frame environmental action;
- … how green media facilitate ecological identities and forms of civic engagement on a micro, meso and macro level, as well as,
- … the ecological footprint of media technologies.
Our work currently focuses on the following key areas:
Courses
Currently, we are offering several courses related to media in relation to the climate crisis and sustainability concerns, i.e. Green Media and Civic Engagement (BA) and the Green Media tutorial (RMA).
Book Series
In 2021, we launched a new book series called ‘Green Media’, which publishes scholarly works that critically engage with the role of media in addressing the climate crisis.
Mediography
We recently received funding from Pathways to Sustainability to build an online repository that facilitates a media-comparative perspective on Green Media phenomena. The project is still under construction, but more information is available via the link below.
Ecogames Book
Our forthcoming anthology Ecogames. Playful Perspectives on the Climate Crisis, which compiles articles on how games and play respond to the climate crisis by 28 scholars from all over the world, will be published by AUP in late 2023. More information on the book can be found using the link below.
Towards a Greener Dutch Film Industry
Funded by the Nederlands Film Fonds, Dr. Judith Keilbach and her research team study the ecological footprint of the Dutch film industry, and make targeted suggestions to strive for more sustainable production practices.
Charm-EU
Utrecht University and our initiative are supporting the CHARM-EU international MA program in Global Challenges for Sustainability launched in 2021 by offering courses, workshops and other educational formats involving Green Media.
Spationomy 2.0
Since 2019, our group is participating in the Erasmus+ project ‘Spationomy 2.0’, which explores how spatial and economic data about sustainable cities can be interpreted by playing and co-creating scenario planning games.
Greening Film Festivals
Dr. Marijcke de Valck studies how film festivals can pioneer sustainable media production and distribution processes, e.g. via an international round-table on January 13th, 2022, co-hosted with Dr. Ger Zielinski (Toronto/CA).