Murdoch Stephens

Citation

Thesis Title
How might critique respond to the urgency of climate change? A challenge for environmental communication.

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Climate change is regularly described as both urgent and a crisis. In contrast to accepting a premise that crisis simply demands action, Mr Stephens argued that crisis demands critique. Starting with an assessment of the current shape of critique and critical theories in environmental communication as a distinct sub-field of communications studies, he addressed the broader prospect for critique by examining the work of four key climate change experts. His research highlights important themes that add critical depth to discussions within environmental communication including topics of anthropocentrism in the Anthropocene, global scale of climate change, range of political responses, and (mis)use of the concept of nature. By bringing these themes back to the sub-field of environmental communication, Mr Stephens made a series of recommendations to renew the relationship of doubt and scepticism to critique.

Supervisors
Professor Shiv Ganesh
Associate Professor Sean Phelan