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Environmental Communication (EC) and the New Media

An African Context Perspective

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The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change

Abstract

The environment has become one of the most critical research areas in the twenty-first century. Along with this trend, Environmental Communication (EC) is also becoming popular. EC is the pragmatic and constitutive vehicle for the understanding of the environment as well as the relationships humans have with the natural world. Further, it is the symbolic medium humans use to construct environmental problems and negotiate society’s different responses to them. This chapter examines the role of the New Media in Environmental Communication in the African context. The chapter reveals that the New Media – online sites, blogs, and other social network platforms – presents many advantages and opportunities for advancing Environmental Communication in Africa including increased connectivity and fast communication on environmental issues, raising awareness of environmental issues, facilitating collaborations and participatory environmental communication, facilitating two-way communication and dialogue on environmental matters, facilitating environmental activism, and promoting environmental education. However, the New Media also has some drawbacks in advancing Environmental Communication in Africa, including information overload and decline of the audience on environmental matters, blanket/untargeted messages on matters of the environment, heterogeneity of African online audience, silencing of digital environmental activists by governments, and new digital media technology being anti-environment. The chapter concludes that, while EC is a public and contested practice, the New Media has the potential to transform communication for environmental matters. The New Media is now the new public sphere – a realm of influence where organizations, politicians, government departments, journalists, the private sector, activists, local authorities, and the public engage others in Environmental Communication – through conversation, questions, argument, and debate. All the stakeholders are responsible for making the best out of the New Media to transform Environmental Communication in Africa.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Johannes Bhanye

  2. Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa (DiMTEC), University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

    Maureen Maisiri

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  1. Johannes Bhanye
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  2. Maureen Maisiri
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Bhanye, J., Maisiri, M. (2023). Environmental Communication (EC) and the New Media. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Social Change. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_397-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87624-1_397-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-87624-1

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