Climate Smart & Climate Ready Conference Community Track #1 on April 20, 2013 at Cinemapolis Theater in Ithaca, NY. Sox Sperry, Project Look Sharp. Talking About Climate Using the Tools of Media Literacy.

1. Sox Sperry
Project Look Sharp
Ithaca College
From the iPad into the Fire:
Talking About Climate Using the
Tools of Media Literacy
Climate Smart & Climate Ready
April 20, 2013

2. Look for opportunities to
raise the issues whenever
and wherever we can

3. The cottage I spent part of every summer in from 1957-2006 – Deauville Beach, Jersey shore

4. This same cottage after Hurricane Sandy - 10/30/12

5. I’m afraid…
because
neither the candidates
nor the news media
are talking about
climate change
in this year’s election campaign.
What are you afraid of?
Acknowledge the emotional power
and the risk in asking people to
confront climate change

7. Integrating Media Literacy into the Science Curriculum

8. Use critical questions
to stimulate dialogue.
Welcome opposing
perspectives.

9. Audience
• high school environmental science
& social studies teachers
•community sustainability
educators
•college–level agronomy and media
studies professors
Focus
how sustainability has been
presented in the media with a
particular focus on issues related to
food, water and agriculture
Consistent themes
•social justice
•climate change
•energy
•economics
•unintended consequences

11. Media Construction of Sustainability:
Food Water & Agriculture
Thematic Listing by documents

12. What are the messages about
climate change and
sustainability?
What evidence do you find in
the document to support your
conclusions?
How are the mission and values
of the source reflected in the
constructed messages?
Use message questions to
unearth prior knowledge and
opinions.
Use source questions to
inquire about how we know
what we know.
Aug 26, 2002

13. What are the messages about
climate change and sustainability?
Evidence?
How are the mission and values of
the source reflected in the
constructed messages?
Present a variety of media
sources representing a range of
corporate, grassroots and
political interests
April 2009

14. What are the messages about climate change and sustainability? Evidence?
How are the mission and values of the source reflected in the constructed messages?
Use a variety of media forms
for decoding

15. What are the messages about
climate change and sustainability?
How are the mission and values of
the source reflected in the
constructed messages?
What other questions might you ask
about this media message?
Value and welcome questions as
much as answers.

16. What are the messages
about climate change and
sustainability?
How are the mission and
values of the source
reflected in the
constructed messages?
Look for media
documents that can
reveal how
understandings are
shaped by culture, race,
generation, gender,
homeplace

17. What are the
messages about
climate change
and sustainability?
How are the
mission and values
of the source
reflected in the
constructed
messages?
Acknowledge the
enduring value of
traditional
ecological
knowledge

18. Clarify your
objectives

19. Use system questions to
recognize complexity
and interconnections.

24. Don’t be afraid to show
documents from climate change
deniers.
Allow critical questions and
dialogue to educate and engage.
“’The Great Global Warming Swindle’
offers a powerful, well-sculpted
naysayer perspective.
I showed enough of this program to
put the kids in a state of confusion.
(Was Dan trying to help us see that
there is real doubt that the changes
are anthropogenic?)
This heightened their own
observations of what followed and
forced them to push forward for the
truth rather than participating in a
predicable sequence of analysis and
critique.“
Dan Flerlage
LACS master teacher and curriculum
co-author

26. Raise the
question: Is
climate change
anthropogenic?
Ask for evidence
from the doc
Draw
conclusions
based on
content and on
sourcing

27. Don’t be afraid to critique
documents from climate
change activists
Our analysis becomes more
compelling when we are
open to discussion
“Our critical thinking skills are
likely to be robust when looking
at media constructions that we
disagree with…(My own) biases
are harder for me to see.
One of our tasks in media literacy
education is to help students,
peers, and ourselves to beef up
our critical thinking skills so that
we are able to think critically
about the very media we agree
with.”
Chris Sperry
LACS master teacher and
curriculum co-author
The Epistemological Equation:
Integrating Media Analysis into the Core Curriculum
The National Association for Media Literacy Education’s
Journal of Media Literacy Education 1:2 (2010) 89-98

29. Compare constructions from
contending perspectives.
Ask for conclusions about climate
change and about the credibility of
sources.

32. Find documents that are produced
by local media sources and that
relate to local and regional issues

33. What are some anticipated
impacts of climate change on
farming in the Finger Lakes
suggested by the ClimAid
report?
Ask questions about our
backyard
ACTIVITY #1

34. What important
information gets left out of
sound bite news?
Ask about how citizens
tend to get our
information about
climate change
ACTIVITY #1

35. Invite us to
deepen and
expand our
news source
choices
ACTIVITY #1

36. Explore
how the
biggest
companies
explain
themselves
ACTIVITY #2

37. Select contending views with
clearly contrasting
perspectives
ACTIVITY #2

38. Refer to mission
or “about us”
statements to
question how the
bottom line
impacts media
constructions
ACTIVITY #2
This excerpt is from the
Worldwatch Institute’s
“Mission” web page:
Mission
Worldwatch Institute delivers
the insights and ideas that
empower decision makers to
create an environmentally
sustainable society that
meets human needs.
Worldwatch focuses on the
21st-century challenges of
climate change, resource
degradation, population
growth, and poverty by
developing and
disseminating solid data and
innovative strategies for
achieving a sustainable
society.

39. Use
carefully
chosen
short video
clips to
enhance
ACTIVITY #3

40. Select a series of clips that
can provide different
answers to the same
ACTIVITY #3

41. ACTIVITY #3

42. ACTIVITY #3

43. After all the teams have presented lead a discussion on best strategies in
agriculture to mitigate climate change.
Probe questions include:
Which strategies seemed most likely to result in reduced greenhouse gas
emissions?
Which strategies seemed to take into account the needs of the human
community including people of varied economic means, rural and urban
populations and people of different cultural backgrounds?
Which strategies seemed to take into account overall environmental
protection?
Which strategies seemed most likely to be politically feasible?
Which strategies seemed most likely to be economically sustainable?
Use media document decoding to lead into a strategic
discussion of how to proceed with action steps
ACTIVITY #3

44. TAKE HOME MENU
Raise the issue & acknowledge the emotion
Invite critical questioning and respectful debate
Uncover media construction & question the source
Bring forward divergent and hidden voices
Think systemically – social justice + economic alternatives =
climate change activism
Bring it on home to where we live