Reading Response

Megan Moseley

Environmental Journalism

 

            The first two chapters of Environmental Communication and the Public Sphere serve as an introduction to covering environment-related news. Author Robert Cox acts as a mentor to the aspiring science writer, and outlines the difficulties, frameworks, and different perspectives needed in covering complex scientific material.

            The first chapter (Conceptual Perspectives) sheds light on the different aspects of science writing. Cox notes that there isn’t a lack of demand for environmental coverage; it’s a lack of identification to the various areas of study when it comes to environmental communication that is an issue.

            Cox speaks about how he believes it is our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors relating to nature and environmental problems that are mediated or influenced by communication. He also thinks that environmental communication is an area of study. Cox says, “the book focuses on the role of speech, art, symbols, and so forth in defining the human-nature relationship that is the earliest example of the thesis that human communication mediates or negotiates our relations to, and understanding of, the world beyond out minds.”

            I found that quote to be intriguing. Many human beings think they’re the dominant species on this planet. Whether that idea is true or not, they act in this world like everything in it is theirs for their taking. Thinking about nature and our surroundings would help eliminate, or at least decrease, the problems that come with that attitude.

            For Cox, he notes several areas of study. The several areas of study includes environmental rhetoric and discourse, media and environmental journalism, public participation in environmental decision making, advocacy campaigns waged by environmental groups, environmental collaboration and conflict resolution, risk communication, and representations of nature in popular culture and green marketing.

            Each of these areas are explored in-depth, and provide insight on the various groups and sub-groups affecting the environment, and environmental coverage.

            The second chapter (Rhetorically Shaping the Environment) begins by stating in science writing, we all have to be careful with the meanings we attach to words such as “environment” and “wilderness.”

             By giving examples from the past, Cox shows how attaching the wrong meaning to these words can cause damage in the public sphere. Aside from a few examples, it seemed like Cox focused more on the history behind environmental change and movements in the second chapter than he did in the first.

            He mentioned defiance of Puritan idealism, adaption of sublime wilderness, stories of men questing for national identity, and the emergence of transcendentalism. All informative, and by stating examples of former influences in environmental awareness, this chapter helps inspire and educate the audience on how science writing has affected communication and action in the past.