Environmental Communication Division
NCA Conference
Boston, November 17-20, 2005

Public Perceptions of Environmental Issues: Global Climate Change, Risk, and Media

Thu, Nov 17 - 8:00am - 9:15am Building/Room: Sheraton / Clarendon A
Session Participants:
Chair: Richard E. Paine (North Central College)
What's in a Name?: Public Circulation of Metaphors and the Rhetorical Construction of Climate Change
*Richard D Besel (Univ of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)
Decades Away or the Day after Tomorrow?: The Public Scientific Discourse on the Possibilities of Global Warming Disaster
*Ron L Von Burg (Christopher Newport University)
Coping with Paradox: Oil Companies Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change
*Oyvind Ihlen (University of Oslo)
Risk Rhetoric: Constructing Public Understanding of Environmental Safety
*Jennifer A. Peeples (Utah State Univ), Richard Krannich (Utah State University), Jesse Weiss (Utah State University)
Mainstreaming and Cognitive Moderation in Environmental Cultivation
*Jennifer Good (Brock University)
Respondent: Barbara E. Willard (DePaul University)
Abstract:
Scientists are increasingly recognizing climate change as one of the most important environmental topics of the day. Yet, the ways in which audiences outside the scientific sphere perceive the problem has remained relatively unexplored. This panel contributes to this exploration by examining metaphorical constructions, popular texts, and potential greenwashing attempts by industries. Drawing on a range of historical periods, genres, and locations, this panel engages the discussion on public understanding of complex environmental problems.

Nature, History, and Health: Representation and Discourse in Historical Environmental Research

Thu, Nov 17 - 9:30am - 10:45am Building/Room: Sheraton / Beacon EFG
Session Participants:
America's Icon of Conservation: Smokey Bear and the Industrialization of United States Forest Fire Politics
*Dayle C. Hardy-Short (Northern Arizona Univ), C Brant Short (Northern Arizona Univ)
Loss of Containment: Historical Context and Discursive Rupture at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation
*William J Kinsella (North Carolina State University)
Fin De Siecle Visions of Nature: The 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
*Barbara E. Willard (DePaul University)
Advocacy, Context, and Social Change: The Cultural Politics of the Wilderness Act of 1964
*Tracy Marafiote (University of Utah)
Celebrating 'Protections': An Analysis of the Rhetorical Elements of the Discourse of the Wilderness Society in 2004 (Student Debut paper)
*Philip Sharp (University of Montana)
Chair: Phaedra C. Pezzullo (Indiana University)
Respondent: Phaedra C. Pezzullo (Indiana University)
Abstract:
An organism's health is a product of its history. Reconstructing this history can be an important diagnostic and explanatory tool in examining that organism's - here environmental communication's - health. In this context, communicative environmental histories provide an insightful approach to the critique, understanding, and transformation of humans' relationships with the environment. Following the presentation of environmental events spanning 100 years, the panelists will discuss the concrete implications and health of (historical) environmental research with the audience.

What is Healthy Environmental Public Participation?: Assessing the Current State of Practice and Theory

Thu, Nov 17 - 12:30pm - 1:45pm Building/Room: Sheraton / Clarendon B
Session Participants:
Ethnic Differences in Civic Engagement: How Fractured is the Public Interest in Environmental Planning?
*Arla G Bernstein (Georgia State University)
The Practice of Dialogic Public Participation
*Jennifer Hamilton (Univ of Cincinnati)
Embracing Scientific and Political Paradox in Environmental Planning
*Tarla R. Peterson (University of Utah)
The Activist's Dilemma: To Participate or not to Participate?
*Pauline Spiegel (Indiana University)
Information Networks and Public Participation: Eco-Portal's Online Environmentalism
*Anne Marie Todd (San Jose State University)
Dialogue or Authority? A Case Study in the Turn to Internet-based Public Participation by a Local Environmental Group
*Caitlin Wills-Toker (Gainesville College)
Chair: Caitlin Wills-Toker (Gainesville College)
Abstract:
Communication research has impacted the practice of environmental public participation by emphasizing earlier inclusion, opportunities for learning and analysis of issues, and dialogue and interaction among participants. However, many gains could be dismantled by current political attempts to streamline and theoretical questioning of norms that guide participation research. Each of the papers in the panel explores these issues and will serve as context for an interactive discussion of how communication research defines healthy public participation.

Environmentalism Post 9-11: President Bush, "the War on Terror," and the Health of Public Decision-Making

Fri, Nov 18 - 8:00am - 9:15am Building/Room: Sheraton / Hampton A
Session Participants:
Chair: Phaedra C. Pezzullo (Indiana University)
Participant: Susan Senecah (Syracuse University)
Participant: Andrew R Opel (Florida State University)
Participant: Phaedra C. Pezzullo (Indiana University)
Participant: Laura L. Perkins (Southern Illinois Univ, Edwardsville)
Participant: Ann D. Jabro (Robert Morris University)
Abstract:
Since George W. Bush's re-election, the environmental movement has been declared dead. This panel proposes to take the pulse of environmentalism post-9/11 through the exploration of concrete examples, including the public participation process about how to rebuild Ground Zero, the status of media coverage of the depleted uranium used in the "War on Terror," and how national policy has influenced community right-to-know legislation.

Top Papers in Environmental Communication

Fri, Nov 18 - 12:30pm - 1:45pm Building/Room: Sheraton / Beacon H
Session Participants:
A Structuration Model of Environmental Public Participation (Top Paper, Student Paper)
*Todd Norton (University of Utah), Rebecca J Franks (University of Utah)
Yellowstone National Park in Metaphor: 'Place' and 'Actor' Representations in Visitor Publications
*David Tschida (Minnesota State Univ, Moorhead)
Resonant Reversal in 'The Matrix': Flash Animation, Environmental Rhetoric and the Counterpublic Screen (Student Paper)
*Dylan P Wolfe (University of Georgia)
Fantasy, Ideology and Ideological Reproduction: The 'Fantastic' Colonization of Popular Environmentalism (Student Paper)
*Shane Semmler (University of Oklahoma)
Chair: Steven J. Schwarze (Univ of Montana)
Respondent: Jennifer A. Peeples (Utah State Univ)
Mystery, Paradox, and Occupational Psychosis in the Stewardship Discourse of Nuclear Weapons
*Judith E. Hendry (Univ of New Mexico)
Abstract:
This panel features the top four papers submitted to the Division as evaluated by the reviewers.

The Death of Environmentalism: Views from the Communication Discipline

Fri, Nov 18 - 3:30pm - 4:45pm Building/Room: Sheraton / Beacon EFG
Session Participants:
Autopsy and Rebirth: The 'Death of Environmentalism' and 'Conservative' America
*Dylan P Wolfe (University of Georgia)
"The Death of Environmentalism"? Audience Identification in Environmental Communication
*Stacey Sowards (Univ of Texas, El Paso), Jeannette Monsivais-Ruiter (University of Texas, El Paso), Lisa Sidransky (University of Texas, El Paso)
The Death of Environmentalism: Political Mobilization and the Unstable Environmental Subject
*Kyeann Sayer (Claremont Graduate University)
Environmentalism as We Know it is Indeed Dead
*Andrew Pleasant (Rutgers University)
The Death of Environmentalism? A Second Opinion
*Stephen P. Depoe (Univ of Cincinnati)
Chair: Kyeann Sayer (Claremont Graduate University)
Abstract:
The panel provides a variety of assessments of "The Death of Environmentalism," a speech delivered in December, 2004 to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco by Sierra Club president Adam Werbach. Panelists will discuss the meaning and significance of Werbach's speech for political strategists, environmental advocates, and scholars of environmental communication.

Assessing the Health of the Environmental Communication Discipline: An On-Line Conversation

Sat, Nov 19 - 2:00pm - 3:15pm Building/Room: Sheraton / Beacon A
Session Participants:
Chair: Stephen P. Depoe (Univ of Cincinnati)
Participant: Caitlin Wills-Toker (Gainesville College)
Participant: Barbara E. Willard (DePaul University)
Participant: Anne Marie Todd (San Jose State University)
Participant: Tarla R. Peterson (University of Utah)
Participant: Jennifer A. Peeples (Utah State Univ)
Participant: Mark Meister (North Dakota State Univ)
Participant: Tracy Marafiote (University of Utah)
Participant: Jonathan M. Gray (Southern Illinois Univ, Carbondale)
Participant: Robert Cox (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
Participant: James G. Cantrill (Northern Michigan Univ)
Abstract:
Environmental communication scholars are participating in a year-long conversation via list-serv about the "health" of the environmental communication discipline. This panel will discuss results of that conversation.

Environmental Communication Division Business Meeting

Sat, Nov 19 - 3:30pm - 4:45pm Building/Room: Sheraton / Beacon A
Abstract:
Annual meeting of the NCA Environmental Communication Division.

On the Ground: Examining Cases of Environmental Advocacy

Sat, Nov 19 - 5:00pm - 6:15pm Building/Room: Sheraton / Hampton A
Session Participants:
The Dilemma of Wilderness Environmentalism in the Rhetoric of John A. Livingston
*Kevin J Ells (Louisiana State University)
The Rhetoric of Compassion: Opposition, Constitution, and Substitution in the Animal Issues Movement
*Cindy M Spurlock (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
A Confluence of Ideologies: A Rhetorical Analysis of 'Rio Vivo! The Need for a Strategic River Reserve in New Mexico'
*Alice Loy (Univ of New Mexico)
Digging for Gold: (Re)Articulating Kennecott's Open-pit Strip Mine as Tourist Site
*Jessica L Durfee (University of Utah)
Enlibra: Framing a New American Environmental Discourse
*Benjamin Crosby (University of Utah)
Respondent: Anne Marie Todd (San Jose State University)
Chair: Peter K Bsumek (James Madison Univ)
Abstract:
Each of these papers analyzes advocacy efforts in specific environmental contexts or controversies.

Environmental Communication Division NCA Conference Boston, November 17-20, 2005