1st Edition

The Media, Animal Conservation and Environmental Education

Edited By John Blewitt Copyright 2013
    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    208 Pages
    by Routledge

    Natural History filmmaking has a long history but the generic boundaries between it and environmental and conservation filmmaking are blurred. Nature, environment and animal imagery has been a mainstay of television, campaigning organisations and conservation bodies from Greenpeace to the Sierra Club, with vibrant images being used effectively on posters, leaflets and postcards, and in coffee table books, media releases, short films and viral emails to educate and inform the general public. However, critics suggest that wildlife film and photography frequently convey a false image of the state of the world’s flora and fauna. The environmental educator David Orr once remarked that all education is environmental education, and it is possible to see all image-based communication in the same way.

    The Media, Animal Conservation and Environmental Education has contributions from filmmakers, photographers, researchers and academics from across the globe. It explores the various ways in which film, television and video are, and can be, used by conservationists and educators to encourage both a greater awareness of environmental and conservation issues, and practical action designed to help endangered species.

    This book is based on a special issue of the journal Environmental Education Research.

    1. Introduction: The media, animal conservation and environmental education John Blewitt

    2. Critical practice and the public pedagogy of environmental and conservation media John Blewitt

    3. Humans, sharks and the shared environment in the contemporary eco-doc Helen Hughes

    4. Studying Green Spectacular Environmentalisms Group: Sian Sullivan, Gill Branston, Mike Goodman, Jaimie Lorimer, James Igoe, Dan Brockington and John Blewitt & Filmmaker: Patrick Rouxel

    5. Harnessing visual media in environmental education: increasing knowledge of orangutan conservation issues and facilitating sustainable behaviour through video presentations Elissa Pearson, Jillian Dorrian and Carla Litchfield

    6. The application of online wildlife imagery as an education conservation tool Alexander Royan and Bonnie Metherell

    7. Conservation photography as environmental education: focus on the pedagogues Bruce Evan Farnsworth

    8. Field birding and digital objects: immaterial technologies and their implications for one practice of coming to know the more-than-human Gavan Peter Longley Watson

    9. Exploring use of new media in environmental education contexts: introducing visitors’ technology use in zoos model Victor Yocco, Elizabeth H. Danter, Joseph E. Heimlich, Betty A. Dunckel and Chris Myers

    10. Linking community communication to conservation of the maned wolf in central Brazil Marcelo Ximenes A. Bizerril, Carla Cruz Soares and Jean Pierre Santos

    11. The environmental education through filmmaking project Hallie Harness and Howard Drossman

    12. Enhancing college students’ environmental sensibilities through online nature journaling Gwen Arnold

    Biography

    John Blewitt co-directs the MSc Social Responsibility and Sustainability course at Aston University, UK. He has published widely on education, the media and sustainability, and is a member of the IUCN Commission for Education and Communication. He is author of Media Ecology and Conservation (2010) and Understanding Sustainable Development (2008).