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HOW TO EFFECTIVELY REPRESENT CLIMATE CHANGE IN A 21ST CENTURY MULTI-MEDIA WORLD

ENVS 4100/STPR 4100
University of Colorado

Course Description

The internet “tsunami” has provoked a profound change in the way the environment is communicated, offering an invaluable set of new opportunities to promote public awareness and engagement.  This course focuses on some new communication trends and formats that are currently being developed within the field of audiovisual communication, in the specific area of climate change and the environment.

The class sessions will combine the following main elements:

  • Introduction to online video
  • New audio-visual trends and formats: proximity journalism, infotainment, participative journalism, immersive journalism, interactive formats, etc.
  • Science communication techniques that provide narrative the narrative basis for the new trends and formats: simplification, approaching the viewer’s interest, storytelling, etc.
  • A practical assignment. Students will develop and produce a video (3 to 5 minutes) about climate change, based on trends and formats previously explored in the course.

Class sessions include many examples of effective audio-visual communication of climate change and the environment, from different countries and styles.

Based on these elements, the objective of this course is to explore and critically analyze the new forms in which climate change and the environment are communicated to the general public, and how the online environment provides new opportunities for a more effective communication and engagement. In addition, students will understand the narrative mechanisms that allow for an effective environmental communication and will learn some useful techniques in audio-visual production.