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THE ROLE OF MASS MEDIA IN THE COVERAGE OF "NEW" ECOLOGICAL CATASTROPHES: NARRATIVES AND RISKS
For citation: Perova A.E. The Role of Mass Media in the Coverage of "New" Ecological Catastrophes: Narratives and Risks. In: Communicology: The Online Scientific Journal. Vol. 3. No.1. 2018. P. 83-93.
Author: PEROVA A.E.
PEROVA Anastasiia E., PhD student at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of International Journalism, Moscow State Institute of International Relations (University) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. Address: 119454, Moscow, Vernadskogo Av., 76. E-mail: [email protected].
Abstract. The article presents a sociological analysis of the representation in the mass media of manifestations and consequences of the "new" catastrophism, as well as its narratives. Among the examples of this phenomenon one could name global warming, extreme weather events, "dead" soil and water, the depletion of planet resources, highly mobile diseases, etc. The term "neocatastrophism", which was introduced by British sociologist J. Urry, is relatively recent for sociology and not too common. In the recent years, however, a lot of major sociologists have started to reflect upon the issues of the relationship between the society and nature and a drastic change in it.
The article presents an analysis of the role that the mass media play as the sources of information about "new" catastrophes. The latter are not just an attractive image in its epicism and immensity for an average man, and for the media. The mediated disaster narrative sometimes is used for political purposes; it is also socially significant in a way that it instills fear and connects people all over the world with a sense of
community and shared tragedy. The three main "vectors" of "new" catastrophes are: climate change, anthropogenic changes of the planet and virus epidemics. Here one can note the existence of conflicting, competing and suppressed narratives. The examples of "new" disasters can reveal that they are also capable of evolving in time and of transformation. In the case of highly mobile diseases, the new pandemics of the 21st century, such as "swine" and "avian" flu, not only the critical approach in the perception of information in the midst of general panic sentiments becomes significant, but also the trust in certain sources. The specifics of risk communication play a particular role, that is the episodicity and short-term monitoring of a catastrophe, the absence of a clearly expressed analysis, and information bias - alongside a very high speed of message publication and borrowing materials from social networks. Neocatastrophe narratives are embedded into the global apocalyptic meta-narrative, with continuity as its feature.
Keywords: neocatastrophism, mass media, risk society, mediated disaster narrative, risk communications, environmental sociology, sociology of disaster.
In today's world, the problems of the planet's ecosystem come to the fore: global warming that causes ice melting and rising ocean levels, desertification, unlimited consumption of natural resources, alongside with water, soil and air pollution - all these and many other problems have recently started to appear in the media.
Environmental concerns have become an international phenomenon by virtue of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992 [Mol, Spaargaren, Sonnenfeld]. Such issues as the lack of water resources, loss of biodiversity, climate change - thanks to global media coverage - have become a widespread and important subject for discussion on a global scale.
The interest in environmental changes threatening humanity has attracted attention not only sociologists, environmentalists, who specialize in the topic of interaction and interaction of society and nature, but also sociologists known in the world science, such as U. Beck, E. Giddens, N. Luhmann and Ch. Perrow [see Beck; Giddens; Luhmann; Perrow]. All of them speak about a new and novel change in the scale and consequences of disasters that occur around the globe.
In sociology, for similar phenomena, including the ones in the environmental sphere, a new term was proposed - "neocatastrophism" (or "new catastrophism"). The concept of a "new" catastrophism was put forward in 2011 by English sociologist J. Urry in his book "Climate Change and Society" [Urry: 36-47]. He suggests that research into a new catastrophe will encompass multiple processes that create interdependent disasters in systems such as the environment, climate, food and water resources, and energy. J. Urry recalls such examples, as the derivatives from the climate change, such as the emergence of environmental refugees and food risks.
The Specifics of Mediated Narratives of "New" Disasters
It was the "new" catastrophes that were among the first to get the attention of the media and social media around-the-clock. The first three included Hurricane Katrina, the tragedy 9/11 (a series of four terrorist acts on September 11, 2001 in the USA) and the Indian Ocean tsunami of2004, which became the most deadly in modern history (with the death toll of about 230 thousand people). And, as time has shown, the fact that the media has the opportunity of a global 24-hour broadcast per day, gave them the power to inject fear around the world, erasing national and language boundaries.
U. Beck wrote about such "insane" events, putting in one line the fall of the Berlin Wall, catastrophic climate change, the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and the financial crisis. He noted that all of them proceeded according to a unified scheme: what previously seemed impossible and unimaginable, now unfolds in every living room in the world thanks to the broadcast of the media [Beck].
Here, a socially significant rather than an individual picture of the event becomes important, that is, a mediated narrative of the catastrophe, which makes a unique event in the media, extra-news from the description of the catastrophe [Button: 150-154]. The way the media frame37 the catastrophe is determined by public opinion about this event, including politicians and other influential people. In addition, they have the power to legitimize the catastrophe, recognizing or not recognizing it as an event worth coverage.
Here, not an individual, but a socially-significant representation of an event - or a mediated narrative38 of a disaster, which makes extra-news in the media out of a description of a catastrophe, as a unique event [Button: 150-154]. The way the media set the frames of a disaster is determined by the public opinion regarding that event -including politicians and other people of influence. Besides, they have the power to legitimize the catastrophe, acknowledging or renouncing it as an event worth coverage.
Even if a disaster was "announced" a large-scale event, its time on the front pages of newspapers and in the headlines of crucial, breaking news is limited, it will be soon expelled by other news stories. Such phenomenon rules out of the news stories any kind of long-term analysis of disasters' consequences, as if wrenching the event itself out of its historical context.
Usual frame includes answers to the questions "who", "what", "where", "when" and "why", with "why" being solely a trigger of the event, not the reason to search for the reasons and broader social patterns, inevitable for any technological catastrophe. So, the event is regarded as something absolutely unique and standing out of the ordinary run of events. What is more, in the cases of ecological catastrophes
37 The frame of a catastrophe is a semantic construction or a representation scheme, in which the most significant elements of a disaster are selected, and its consequences are concluded within a certain scope. There are positive, promoting fruitful behavior patterns and fight with consequences, and negative ones, which are depressing and demotivating.
38 Narrative - is a written or oral narration of the events of the unfolding disaster. The narrative of a natural catastrophe can become both a narrative of the crime and a narrative of trauma, for example, the narratives associated with the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan in 2011 ("crime") and with the tsunami itself ("trauma", "heaven's will").
exclusively the outcomes for the nature are studied, but not the ones for human communities.
Natural disasters are ever more becoming an engaging "image" for the media, not only due to direct informational importance for the world and large scores of fatalities.
This phenomenon, as it can be noted, occurs due to the epic nature of what is happening, which can evoke a lively response from the audience and reveal the fragility of the modern ecological situation, as well as to expose the value of human lives in conditions where the ordinary way of life is collapsing and its security is questioned. At the same time, as shown by opinion polls, people tend to remember extreme weather events for a long time, especially such individual ones as hurricanes and tsunamis, large-scale not only in terms of consequences, but also in coverage of the media [Mapping the shadow of experience of extreme weather events: 387].
The images of flooded houses or roaring lava are able to "awaken" a tired person, sunk in routine, to bring him back to life, tearing himself away from the usual immersion into thoughts and events of the past day when he returns home from work. According to the Canadian sociologist M. McLuhan, "the television image that drives the passion for deep involvement in every aspect of experience creates an obsession with physical well-being" [McLuhan: 377]. So, the image of mass deaths and destruction will only emphasize the well-being and sufficiency of a world secluded on the viewer, subconsciously prompting him to consolidate his own position and the material, thingish security of his home.
Another feature of the media, monitoring catastrophes unfolding across the planet, as extreme events, is speed. Instant publication of messages about this or that impact of nature is also possible owing to the emergence of social media. Sociologists note the increasing, growing dependence of even transnational news agencies (such as BBC, CNN or RT) from ordinary citizens [Mythen: 47], which serve as a source of not always high-quality, but accessible, easy-to-find and fast information, including video and photos.
The Narratives of Climate Change and Other Anthropogenic
Catastrophes
Let us reflect more upon the "new" catastrophes, genuinely linked with the human activities, with the Anthropocene39. Firstly, it is climate change and multiple extreme weather events, caused by this phenomenon. Besides, it is also such problems of the environment, as the loss of biodiversity, pollution of air, water and soil.
Each of these problems, or any of the kind, has its own narrative in the media, dedicated to it. It should be noted that these narratives are able to develop in time. If one studies the narrative that emerged upon the topic of the global warming (one of the "new" catastrophes of the XXI century), he or she could note five stages that it has
39 Anthropocene is a geochronological term that reflects the so-called "end of nature" or "the post-nature era", which reveals itself in anthropogenic violence against the ecosystem of the Earth, induced not only by the human activity, but also by the development of the technology [Preston].
already undergone. That is, pre-problematic stage, the period of disturbance due to the discovery, social perception of a severe progress of the problem, gradual decline in deep public concern, and post-problem stage [McComas, Shanahan: 30-57].
The narratives themselves changed with the time flow. If at first they focused on implicit dangers and the consequences of global warming, later on, the media wrote about the inconsistencies and conflicts between the scientists on the later stages.
What is more, various social groups and the media that represent their worldview, may have varying narratives on any phenomenon. Using the example of global warming one may name such different ones, as the "battlefield" for philosophers and scientists and a source of inspiration for a new global network of ecological social movements [Hulme: 25-27].
Besides, the media are capable of choosing the narratives themselves, thereby representing the same disaster from various points of view, applying various meanings to it. Let us illustrate this phenomenon by the example of "dead" soil (a "new" catastrophe linked to chemical pollution and soil exhaustion, as well as its following long-term degradation [Sassen: 149]) and one of the factors, promoting it, that is, fracking40 in Canada. Among the narratives surrounding fracking in this country one could name climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, as well as damage to the economy, and so on. Moderate earthquakes, caused by fracking, have indeed occurred since year 2010, but their number is not documented. However in five representative local and federal newspapers the number of articles that mention them in the period of four years since September 2010 is less than 10 percent. Such low representation of interconnected ecological problems happens, regardless any efforts of activists and scientists, who speak on the negative impact of fracking on the ecosystem [Olive: 3839, 43].
In the modern world, the issue of the environment has given rise to a meta-narrative - apocalyptic, the one that names climate change and the lack of resources as "new" catastrophes. It is based on the latest works of scientists that reveal such problems as overpopulation, ozone layer depletion, the loss of forests and global warming. All in all, the apocalyptic narrative demonstrates current ecological crisis as a "debilitating, perhaps terminal, illness" of the planet [Hannigan: 90], which leads to devastation should no measures be taken against it.
«Somatic» Counterparts of Natural Disasters and the Panic in the Media
The media play a special role in the broadcast of the reports on epidemics, which Canadian ecologist W. Smil compares with natural disasters that occur so often, calling them "somatic counterpart" of the latter [Smil: 40]. Modern, inevitable flu epidemics, that fall at winter months during lots of years resemble other "highly mobile" diseases. It is yet another "new" catastrophe that is produced by high-speed means of communication that enable fast mobility of people who are already ill, as well as virus carriers all over the globe.
40 Fracking is a method of hydraulic fracturing in the oil and gas industry.
The media are able to turn several deaths into an incessant and undisguised marathon of despair and terror. Such information is presented to the public, which is already nearly used to such panic epidemics. They are created, and sometimes artificially, in the cases of mass deaths and events, capable of leading to them potentially.
As an example, one could name "swine flu" or H1N1, or the first pandemics of the XXI century. The activity, dedicated to it in the media, on the Internet and in the social media, was high. However, the information accessible was not always credible. The critical attitude of perception usually depends on such factors as education, income, gender and nationality. What is substantial here is not only the way how the communicator and recipient understand the message, but the level of trust between them. In case of epidemics it has especially far reaching consequences, because the way people will be using the promoted means to prevent the advancement of illness depends on it [Communicating Risk to Aboriginal Peoples...].
Here, it is important to understand, how various communicators will be competing for the attention of the recipient, which can complicate the processes of broadcast of verified messages and recommendations in case of the danger from any infection. The access of the society to information from scientific sources sometimes gets shut due to a greater proximity of the informal sources, such as oral communication, common sense and the media. And in some cases, the public has much more trust in them, that is, reveals its own, not scientific form of rationality [Garvin: 451], being guided by sound common sense.
One can bring back another type of influenza, "bird flu", H5N1. With it came the understanding that health turns into a public problem even more. The media applied apocalyptic frame, recalling Spanish influenza, which attacked in the beginning of the XX century and took lives of over 40 million people [World Health Organization]. Such pandemic disease, according to the representation in the media, will send a chill and panic in the whole world, destroy social order backed by inadequate actions of the governments [Abeysinghe, White: 322].
Risk Communications in the Media
An important feature of catastrophes, which combine natural and technical factors (and it refers to the features of "new" catastrophes) is the lack of the sense of control. Then into the foreground come the risks and risk communications, which are complicated by the fact that they take place between the people with different backgrounds: scientists, politicians, journalists and the public, who need to effectively and consistently cooperate in the conditions of urgency and ambiguity [Bergmans: 180, 189-190].
Risk communications - is "any task-oriented exchange of information on risk or the process of risk perception", according to V. T. Covello [Covello, Sandman, Slovic: 66]. Risk communications usually inform people on any risks, but they are not always objective. Besides, they are often aimed at the blurring of the national, racial and other differences, thus promoting the creation of universal and global culture.
The biased approach of this communication is determined by three factors [Ivanov and etc.: 135-136]. Firstly, under strong centralization of power the media begin to serve national interests, ambitions of political leaders, the inclination towards open public dispute declines, parallel to the tendency of news blackout. It can lead to the increase in the number of victims owing to uninformedness, panic and fear of uncertainty. Secondly, the coverage by the media of any events has an effect of discontinuity: as a rule, they broadcast information on certain events, and not on their final consequences, besides, a risk emerges of displacement of one fact by another. All in all creates a situation of quite a depthless perception of the proceedings. Thirdly, the responsibility lies on the people, who broadcast information: if they lose the sense of conscience in the conditions of transparency, accessibility and the freedom of information and stop being in charge for their actions, the objectivity is lost and the consequences are sorrowful for recipients of such information.
In the case of hurricane Katrina, for instance, the distortion of information began with the reporters of TV-channels settled in New Orleans, when waters started to retreat, leaving only neighboring places, where the outcomes, however, were quite different. The city itself was shown as on the brink of collapse and, although real and convincing images of destruction were broadcasted, in their reports, journalists based their cultural assumptions and myths on the catastrophe. It was determined by the lack of broadcast time and little amount of facts and led to the broadcasting of the image of absolute chaos and anarchy, which, however, didn't correspond to the reality [Brunsma, Overfelt, Picou: 26-28].
Such risk communication is complicated by the fact that the media often provoke in people, unsophisticated in the questions of ecology and the sciences, adjacent to it, such an attitude that it is based not on scientific approach and empiric data, but on emotional perception of a specifically presented information.
It could be well studied on the example of the ocean acidification phenomenon - a "new" catastrophe, a composite part of the climate change due to greenhouse effect. In the article "The truth about ocean "acidification"" P. Moore, one of the grounding fathers of the environmental protection movement Greenpeace, says that it is ultimately wrong to use such a term regarding the waters of the world ocean [Moore: 25]. They will never turn acidic, as the term suggested supposes, which mean a process. But an ordinary man, who has no knowledge on the acidity41 of water accounting, maybe, will get frightened of that information, without dwelling on the specialties. He can associate this phenomenon with acid rans, but in his imagination may be pictured an acidic ocean of a planet lost somewhere in the open space, which doesn't correspond to the reality.
The same thing occurs when it goes upon new epidemics, mutated viruses and others - journalists seek any background of creation sensational or shocking news. The community coming across a threat, is interested not only in the facts of mortality or certain information for the risk assessment, but the chances for confidence and trust, control, power and the feeling of compassion [Covello, Sandman, Slovic: 68], that is
41 pH index - is a scale from 0 to 14, where by 7 the water is neutral, lower is acid, with the world ocean pH is from 7,5 to 8,3.
why journalists often strive to find a new, emotionally-colored angle of information supply, trying to induce personal reaction of any person who confronted it.
In addition to the problems themselves that emerge by risk communication, the problems and risks may also emerge in cases when in the messages obtain topics, advantageous to one groups of recipients and negative for the others. As an example, one could name the problems of food security, and being more precise, one of them, that is, "mad cow" disease. This topic, which is highly dangerous for the meat production, as the growing interest of consumers to the security of production leads to the decline in demand. However, for the community of vegetarians and other "green" groups this topic could be quite appealing, because it would point out the issues of animals keeping and other negative aspects of modern farming. In the conditions of such polarization risk communications should involve "certain reasons and understanding of all communicating sides" [Smillie, Blissett: 116].
Conclusions
Before our eyes, "new" catastrophes develop in the modern world owing to the actions of the media, with this process actively including people themselves, the one, who happened to be on the ground, who have the occasion to share an image of the events occurring with the help of social media and the means of communication. They are claimed due to the epic character of the events and the large scale of impact, material and human damage. However, in addition to suppression of some data and light, patchy, short-term provision of information, information on them not by a jugful turns out to be credible. It only gets stronger by the existence of various narratives of the groups with conflicting and competing interests, and also the predominance of emotionality and mythogenesis over scientific rationality and fact-based approach.
Besides, with all the multi-vector approach and complexity of "new" catastrophism, as a phenomenon, which unites climate changes, natural-technical disasters and virus illnesses. In the media, all these phenomena are embedded in the apocalyptic meta-narrative which is able to support panic moods and always remain rumorous due to unendless stream of news events, which are catastrophic by nature.
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РОЛЬ СМИ В ОСВЕЩЕНИИ «НОВЫХ» ЭКОЛОГИЧЕСКИХ КАТАСТРОФ: НАРРАТИВЫ И РИСКИ.
Для цитирования: Перова А.Е. Роль СМИ в освещении «новых» экологических катастроф: нарративы и риски. // Коммуникология: электронный научный журнал. Том 3. №1, 2018. С. 83-93.
Автор: ПЕРОВА А.Е.
ПЕРОВА Анастасия Евгеньевна - аспирантка кафедры социологии факультета Международной журналистики Федерального государственного автономного образовательного учреждения высшего образования «Московский государственный институт международных отношений (Университет) Министерства иностранных дел Российской Федерации». Адрес: 119454, г. Москва, пр. Вернадского, д. 76. E-mail: [email protected].
Аннотация. В статье представлен социологический анализ репрезентации в СМИ проявлений и последствий «нового» катастрофизма, а также связанных с ним нарративов. В качестве примеров этого явления можно назвать глобальное потепление, экстремальные погодные явления, «мертвые» земли и воды, истощение ресурсов планеты, высокомобильные заболевания и проч. Сам термин «неокатастрофизм», предложенный английским социологом Дж. Урри, является относительно недавним и не слишком распространенным. Тем не менее, в последние десятилетия многие крупные социологи стали останавливаться на вопросах качественно нового взаимодействия природы и общества.
В статье основное внимание уделяется роли, которую СМИ играют, как источники информации о «новых» катастрофах. Последние не просто представляют собой привлекательную в своей эпичности и масштабности картинку для обывателя, а значит, и для СМИ. Транслируемый нарратив катастрофы иногда используется в политических целях; он является общественно-значимым и в том смысле, что нагнетает страх и связывает людей по всему миру чувством общности и разделенного горя. В качестве трех основных «векторов» новых катастроф можно назвать следующие: это изменения климата, антропогенные изменения планеты и вирусные эпидемии.
Здесь можно отметить существование конфликтующих, конкурирующих и замалчиваемых нарративов. На примерах «новых» катастроф можно проследить, что они также способны развиваться во времени и трансформироваться. В случае высокомобильных заболеваний, новых пандемий XXI в., таких как «свиной» и «птичий» грипп, значимой становится не только критичность в восприятии информации посреди общих панических настроений, но и доверие к тем или иным ее источникам. Особую роль играет и специфика рисковых коммуникаций. В частности, это эпизодичность и кратковременность слежения СМИ за катастрофой при очень высокой скорости публикации сообщений, заимствование материалов из социальных сетей, отсутствие четко выраженного анализа, необъективность информации. Нарративы неокатастроф встраиваются в глобальный апокалиптический мета-нарратив, которому свойственно постоянное обновление за счет новых событий.
Ключевые слова: неокатастрофизм, СМИ, общество риска, транслируемый нарратив катастрофы, рисковые коммуникации, инвайронменталистская социология, социология катастроф.
