To Örebro University

The concept of sustainable journalism can be used to analyse many different aspects of environment and society, while the downside is that it becomes too much of a floating signifier, in need of some terminological precision. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to theoretically elaborate sustainable journalism as a particular means of framing society, with a clear connection to sustainability literature. We argue that such frames could be operationalised based on a few core principles of sustainable development thinking, found in texts such as Brundtland’s report, Our Common Future: Report of the 1987 World Commission on Environment and Development, for the United Nations. Three prominent frames of sustainable journalism – namely the three-pillar, time reflexive, and cross-spatial frames – are empirically exemplified through their hybrid combination of generic and issue-specific aspects of sustainability. By means of framing theory, media theory, and journalism studies, our intention is to present them as tools for conducting empirical analyses of the ways media deploy a sustainability outlook in their reporting.

The metaverse is considered by some to be the next big thing in the global economy. Despite technological progress and high expectations, scholars agree that a broader metaverse platform does not yet exist. Instead, it has been suggested that the metaverse exists mainly as an imaginary or a representation in various discursive contexts. However, studies that examine such representations are few, and the present study aims to – through the lens of social representation theory – critically explore how VR technology and the metaverse are discursively represented in Swedish news media. The analysis identifies three underlying themata: (a) The inevitability of technology, (b) The commodification of experience, and (c) The world of male pioneers. It is concluded that the news media’s representation of VR and the metaverse contributes greatly to maintaining the structural status quo. For traditional journalism to fulfill its democratic mission, a pervasive update of medialogic is needed.

A sustainable development is entirely dependent on how we define nature. Like everything else, we interpret nature through our socially and individually shaped mental filters, and it is ascribed different attributes depending on context. Conse-quently, in this chapter “nature” and the “natural” are treated as discursively con-structed and contextually conditioned. Previous research has identified a discursive gap between humans and nature that permeates most constructions. The chapter ar-gues that this human-nature dualism is a fundamental obstacle to lasting sustainability because it constitutes the legitimating foundation for the continuous exploitation of na-ture. If nature is not included in our identity in-group, there is no obvious reason to protect it. When discursively reproduced, the human-nature dualism keeps us impris-oned in existential separation and prevents us from experiencing the interconnected-ness of all lifeforms. Hence, in this chapter, the human-nature dualism is discussed as a tyrannical (and ideological) structure. However, when duality dissolves and the seam-less web of life becomes evident, through direct experience rather than intellectual knowledge, caring for the more-than-human world comes effortlessly. The chapter sug-gests that the concept of deep sustainability provides a platform to explore more pro-foundly such philosophical questions associated with both social and environmental sustainability.

This essay suggests the concept of “deep sustainability” as a philosophical orientation for environmental communication scholars to address not only the empirical but also the ethical and ontological questions associated with sustainability. Drawing on the thoughts of deep ecology and founded in a nondual ontology with origins in perennial wisdom, it argues that in order to create a counterculture to the uncaring neoliberal order, there is a need to substantially increase awareness of the devastating implications of the dualistic discourse inherent to this order. What is required is a new and radically different worldview of “interbeing,” rooted in lived experience of the interconnectedness – oneness – of all life. Extending research in the study of sustainability discourse, this essay contends that it is only when our identity in-group becomes all-inclusive, that is, when duality dissolves, that caring for all beings, be they humans, trees, animals, or other lifeforms, comes effortlessly and with deep – lasting – sustainability as the natural result.

This study aims to contribute knowledge about how an environmental issue is discursively forged notwithstanding the prevalence of significant scientific uncertainty. This is done by studying the production of news about artificial turf as a microplastic pollutant in Sweden. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 journalists and editors, public officials, politicians, industry representatives and experts, all involved in the issue of artificial turf. The study shows how media logic, among other factors, informs the interpretations of the uncertainties surrounding artificial turf as an environmental problem and concludes that the power of media logic needs to be considered also in the construction of other scientifically charged issues.

A well-functioning communication is a prerequisite for achieving sustainability. But how could this be accomplished in a world plagued by grave sustainability crises, where polarization proliferates and adds to a profound experience of fear and separation? To answer this critical question, an integrated ethical system that acknowledges all life as one is needed.

The book interweaves theoretical and empirical knowledge from the social sciences with wisdom traditions from various parts of the world. This includes the world's great religions, the knowledge of indigenous peoples, and the transcendent understanding of reality that artists of diverse kinds have always expressed. On this solid ground, the book argues for the necessity of a significant shift in human consciousness to achieve lasting sustainability.

The book develops a communicaiton ethics that aims at facilitating a genuine experience of the interconnectedness of all life through the expansion of trust. It demonstrates how the experience of separation in fact is a delusion. Our systems of thought and language have simply fettered us in a world of opposites - duality. The ethics helps us overcome this illusory world, and when duality is dissolved, deep sustainability - caring for people, the Earth, and every lifeform - comes as an entirely effortless result. 

This study investigates the phenomenon of information (in)sufficiency in the context of flood risks. Individuals’ perception of how much risk information they need is a major trigger and driver of information-seeking behavior, and therefore it is an important part of creating effective preventive risk-communication campaigns. To understand factors that contribute to individuals’ sense of information (in)sufficiency, the roles played by prior experiences of floods and general risk sensitivity were analyzed using survey data from residents in flood-risk zones. The findings highlight that every third respondent reported a state of information sufficiency. Residents with prior experience evaluate their information sufficiency level based on their perception of consequences of future floods. But it is general risk sensitivity that best explains need for more information.

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En fungerande kommunikation är grunden för att uppnå hållbarhet, såväl i våra nära relationer som professionellt och samhällsmässigt. Men hur skall detta ske i en tid då utmaningarna med ökad polarisering tar sig allt grövre uttryck?

Ulrika Olausson, professor i medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap, besvarar denna centrala fråga genom nio kommunikationsetiska principer som tillsammans syftar till en genuin upplevelse av allt livs sammanlänkning i Ett. I ett ögonöppnande och genomklokt resonemang, med många praktiska råd och exempel, visar hon hur upplevelsen av separation och polarisering i själva verket är en vanföreställning. Vårt tanke- och språksystem har helt enkelt fängslat oss i en värld av motsatser – dualism. De kommunikationsetiska principerna hjälper oss att överkomma världen av motsatser, och när dualismens tyranni upplösts blir hållbarhet – omsorgen om människorna, jorden och alla livsformer – ett naturligt resultat.

The nature conservation movement frequently relies on the lustre of celebrity personae to reach out with its message. As role models, celebrities exercise invisible power by representing certain norms and ideas while themselves being subordinate to social structures and discourses. Examining the case of Conservation International’s campaign, Nature Is Speaking, and guided by the methodological framework of multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study examines how celebrities, in alliance with the conservation movement, (re)produce certain ideas about nature and the human-nature relationship when discursively ‘celebrifying’ nature – turning nature into a ‘celebrity by association’ – by lending their celebrity properties to nature as represented in the campaign. The study identifies three ways of representing nature that the celebrification of nature produces in the campaign: nature as (1) eternal and magnificent, (2) caring and providing, and (3) mighty but delicate. Together these representations constitute a discourse that reproduces certain naturalised values and worldviews connected to the human-nature relationship. The paper concludes that the diversification of celebrity into new fields such as the natural is constitutive of the overall celebritisation of society, and it discusses the implications of the celebrification of nature in terms of reproduction of the human-nature dichotomy and obscuration of the structural aspects of environmental degradation.