Three Myths About Environmental Advocacy Through Social Media — And What You Can Do About Them
Dr. Suzannah Evans Comfort | Assistant Professor in the Media School at Indiana University
Watch This Presentation:
In this talk, Dr. Comfort will discuss how social media platforms provide opportunities for environmental advocacy, especially in terms of community building. At the same time, however, it's important to remember the fundamental purpose of social media platforms - to produce profit. Dr. Comfort will talk about how the profit motivation can undermine social media companies' claims that they create progressive, change-oriented digital spaces for the public. Social media can be a powerful tool for environmental activists, but it is important to know how this tool is qualified and limited.
About the Speaker
Dr. Suzannah Evans Comfort (Ph.D., University of North Carolina, 2016) is an assistant professor in the Media School at Indiana University. Her research focuses on environmental communication with a particular emphasis on news coverage of climate change as well as communicative tactics by environmental NGOs. Her work has been published in numerous journals, including Journalism, Science Communication, and Environmental Communication. Prior to earning her Ph.D., Comfort worked as the editorial director at Oceana, the world’s largest environmental organization dedicated to ocean conservation. There, she published the book The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lover’s Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World with Oceana CEO Andy Sharpless. At IU, Comfort teaches courses related to journalism practice, media literacy, and environmental and science communication.
