Guest Lecture for Communication Research 2015

Juan  Francisco  Salazar  Associate  Professor  

School  of  Humani7es  and  Communica7on  Arts  &  Ins7tute  for  Culture  and  Society  

1: Definitions and types research: academic and creative 2: Brief overview of Australian research context 3: Case study: Hot Science Global Citizens project

Quantitative Qualitative Performative:

practice-based, practice-led research; creative research. *** Haseman, B. (2006). A manifesto for performative research. Media International Australia Incorporating Culture and Policy (118): 98-106.

�  Practice based research: Creative arts and writing, media arts and production, music and sound media, performance, visual arts, design and digital media.

�  If a creative artefact is the basis of the contribution to knowledge, the research is practice-based. If the research leads primarily to new understandings about practice, it is practice-led.

�  Practice-based research is an original investigation undertaken in order to advance new knowledge (enhance knowledge and understanding) through the processes and outcomes (products, outputs) of creative/arts practice.

�  In 2008 the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) was developed to collect, analyze and disseminate research and experimental development (R&D) in Australia and NZ.

�  Works as a standard research classification for both countries and for comparability of research with the rest of the world.

The three classifications in the ANZSRC: �  Type of Activity (TOA) �  Fields of Research (FOR) �  Socio-economic Objective (SEO)

�  Pure Basic Research

•  Experimental and theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge without looking for long term benefits other than the advancement of knowledge.

�  Strategic Basic Research •  Experimental and theoretical work undertaken to acquire new knowledge directed into specified broad areas in the

expectation of useful discoveries. It provides the broad base of knowledge necessary for the solution of recognised practical problems.

�  Applied Research •  Original work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge with a specific application in view. It is undertaken

either to determine possible uses for the findings of basic research or to determine new ways of achieving some specific and predetermined objectives.

�  Experimental Development •  Is systematic work, using existing knowledge gained from research or practical experience, that is directed to

producing new materials, products or devices, to installing new processes, systems and services, or to improving substantially those already produced or installed.

�  This classification allows R&D activity to be categorised according to the field of research. In this respect, it is the methodology used in the R&D that is being considered.

�  The categories in the classification include major fields of research investigated bynational research institutions and organisations, and emerging areas of study.

�  Communication and Media Studies is FoR Code 2001. �  200101 Communication Studies

200102 Communication Technology and Digital Media Studies 200103 International and Development Communication 200104 Media Studies 200105 Organisational, Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication

�  Marketing and advertising, other than their social or cultural impacts, are included in Group 1505 Marketing. �  Film, television and digital media are included in Group 1902 Film, Television and Digital Media. �  Journalism is included in Group 1903 Journalism and Professional Writing. �  Cultural studies, including screen and media studies and the cultural impacts of marketing and advertising, are included in Group

2002 Cultural Studies.

�  The goal of the research process is to produce new knowledge, which takes three main forms

•  Exploratory research, which structures and identifies new problems •  Constructive research, which develops solutions to a problem •  Empirical research, which tests the feasibility of a solution using empirical evidence

�  Research can also fall into two distinct types: •  Primary research (collection of data that does not already exist) •  Secondary research (summary, collation and/or synthesis of existing research)

�  Category 1: Australian Competitive Grants •  research schemes/programs listed on the Australian Competitive Grants Register (ACGR) ARC, NHMRC etc.)

�  Category 2: Other Public Sector Research Income •  funding from other government sources, including: Australian Government schemes and business enterprises NOT listed on the ACGR; state

and local governments and partly government owned

�  Category 3: Industry and Other Research Income •  Research grants or contract research with Australian or international industry or non-Australian Government agencies. Funding through

donations, bequests and foundations (both Australian and international)

�  Category 4: Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) •  Research Income received from a CRC in which they were a core participant

�  Discovery Grants �  Linkage Grants

�  In 2014, 703 Discovery Grants were awarded •  Success rate is 18% •  3 in Communication and Media (2001) •  2 in Marketing (1505) •  1 in Film, TV and Digital Media •  0 in Journalism and Professional Writing (1903)

�  ARC Linkage: 4 years (2008-2012) $755,000 ($600,000 from ARC)

�  5 partners [museum and science centres in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Jersey City

�  10 researchers (cultural studies, communication studies, climatologists)

�  Type of Activity (TOA): Strategic and Applied. �  Fields of Research (FOR) (2002) Cultural Studies

�  Qualitative Methodology

�  Institutional ethnographies •  Focus Groups •  Onsite Survey •  Video- Trialogues

�  Online Survey

•  Climate Change Online Survey of 2100 residents in Australia and the United States conducted in 2009, which explores participants’ levels of understanding of climate change, their interpretations of what this issue means, and what role they perceive the museum sector might take in relation to this issue.

� HSGC Seminar 2009 at Australian Museum

� Programming Workshop 2009 at Australian Museum

� Parliamentary Briefing 2011 at Australian Parliament House

� HSGC Research Symposium in 2011

� Book Launch 2014

Online  demographic  survey  across  Australia  (sample  1507),  focus  group  research  and  media  analysis  administered  between  November  2008  and  December  2009    Interest:  62%  of  Australians  are  interested  in  climate  change  but  59%  did  not  feel  that  they  were  informed.    11.6%  classified  themselves  as  doubters.      APtudes:  63%  of  Australians  expressed  concern,  33%  frustraDon;  26%    anxiety;  26%  unsure      Influence:  92%  felt  they  had  liFle  influence  in  decision-­‐making  over  climate  change  iniDaDves,      Concerns:    81%,  the  impact  of  climate  change  on  future  generaDons;  56%    the  reducDon  in  biodiversity;    56%  environmental  damage  to  remote  communiDes    Environmental  or  economic  impact:  75%  viewed  the  environmental  impacts  of  climate  change  as  a  greater  concern  than  economic  impacts    

Most trusted: science organisations (70%) and cultural institutions: museums and science centres (55%)

Least trusted: 88% corporations; 66% government; 57% commercial media

69.6

33.8

18.9

46.4 43.3

55.4

43.2 38.1

52.1

36.5

66.1

27.7 19.1

42.4 43.0

56.3 44.9

39.0 43.9

34.4

8.2

27.3

46.2

16.3 18.1 12.5 16.1

25.2 15.2

27.5

9.3

31.1

44.5

17.8 16.8 10.6 15.0

22.4 16.4

27.4

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Australia USA

% o

f sam

ple

Confident or very confident Little confidence or not at all confident

How responsible and effective is each of the following for reducing global Green House Gas emissions? (Australia)

50.6

33.9

25.5

49.9

43.0

38.8

21.0 21.2

24.1

27.6

2.7 2.7 2.3 1.7 2.2 2.4 2.84.6

3.1 3.1

12.29.8

7.8

11.59.5 8.5

6.0

9.110.4

12.413.7

12.2

8.49.5

11.0 10.4 10.6

7.6 6.6 7.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Internationalcorporations

Trans-national

organisations(eg UN)

Nongovernment

organisations

Nationalgovernments

Stategovernments

Localgovernments

Smallbusiness

Communitygroups

Families Individuals

% sa

mpl

e

Very responsible

Not at all responsible

Very effective

Not at all effective

�  Disconnection between national policy and citizens’ priorities

�  The government was singled out as not listening to communities and individuals on policy and wanted input into shaping policy

�  Mainstream media contributes to people’s feelings of disempowerment and confusion

�  Feelings of powerlessness can be mitigated through the provision of information about climate change as a complex scientific, cultural, social and economic issue

�  Museums and science centres as interfaces between formal politics and communities in debates and decision-making:

•  by providing information about climate change as a complex scientific, cultural, economic and social issue; •  by offering a range of views and inputs on generic policy scenarios •  as sites of congregation, for debates, deliberations and cross-sectorial conversations about future lifestyle options

� Book

� Journal Articles

� Podcasts

� Online archive site

�  The media’s role in shaping public understandings, values and attitudes to climate change

�  The media as interface between science, governance, and emerging forms of global/local environmental action.

�  A critical examination of how climate change and environmental risk are presented and reproduced in the mass media can illustrate the point to which climate change is a contested cultural construct.

�  A large proportion of mainstream (private and public broadcasting and print media) focus on disseminating recycled scientific information to passive audiences about the risks and dangers of environmental change, rather than communicating about the complexities of climate change and discussing the possibilities for citizen action and social mobilization

LANACIONDOMINGO 47

ICAP Bueno

ICAP Regular

ICAP Malo

ICAP Crítico

Tabla de metros

cuadrados de

áreas verdes

por habitante

Distribución de lacontaminación en Santiago(Índice de calidad del aire promedio, ICAP)

San Miguel 1,02

San Bernardo 1,02

La Pintana 1,16

Cerro Navia 1,24

Pedro Aguirre Cerda 1,26

La Granja 1,31

Quilicura 1,64

Fuente: Laboratorio de Medio Ambiente y Territorio,

Dpto. de Geografía U. de Chile (mapas) / Plan Verde

Conama Metropolitana (Tabla de m2 por habitante).

Simbología

Peñalolén 6,78

Las Condes 7,74

La Reina 8,11

Santiago 8,68

Huechuraba 11,41

Vitacura 14,46

Renca 17,76

Providencia 18,83

El Bosque 0,43

Lo Espejo 0,50

Pudahuel 0,65

La Cisterna 0,66

Independencia 0,67

Cerrillos 0,86

Quinta Normal 0,90

La Florida 0,99

QuilicuraHuechuraba

Conchalí

Recoleta

Independencia

Renca

Cerra NaviaQuinta

Normal

Lo

PradoPudahuel

Estación

Central

Ñuñoa

Peñalolén

La Reina

Las Condes

Vitacura

La FloridaLa

Granja

San

Miguel

Pedro

Aguirre

CerdaCerrillos

MaipúLo

Espejo

La

Cisterna

San

Ramón

El

Bosque

San Bernardo La

Pintana

Puente Alto

Padre Hurtado

Peñaflor

Lo Barnechea

Santiago

San

Joaquín

Macul

Providencia

Cono

de

enfriamiento

Conchalí 1,70

Macul 1,72

Lo Prado 1,97

Maipú 2,15

San Joaquín 2,34

San Ramón 2,46

Ñuñoa 2,65

Puente Alto 2,97

Estación Central 4,06

Si se siguieran las recomendaciones de la OMS, nuestra capital debería tener 5.400 hectáreas de áreas verdes. El Plan Regulador de Santiago (PRS), sin em-bargo, contempla apenas 686 hectáreas. Hay un pro-grama, el Plan Verde de Conama, que pretende plantar otras 1.800 hectáreas antes del 2010, pero, aun así, no se llegará ni siquiera a la mitad de lo necesario. Lo peor es que, al mismo tiempo, el Plan Regulador amenaza con terminar con los pocos restos de bos-que que le quedan a la capital, al permitir la construc-ción de proyectos inmobiliarios en la precordillera. “Y no es lo mismo tener cien árboles de un año que un árbol de cien años”, explica Alexis Vásquez, “porque los beneficios ambientales de los árboles aumentan exponencialmente con la edad de éstos”.

“El problema principal del Plan Regulador de San-tiago”, añade Eduardo Giesen, vicepresidente del Co-mité Nacional Pro Defensa de Flora y Fauna. “Es que no tiene un proyecto democrático de ciudad. El que decide los usos del territorio es el capital privado y no los ciudadanos. No sólo son pocos los espacios de participación ciudadana, sino que, además, la au-toridad política intenta que estos pocos espacios pa-sen inadvertidos”.

Hugo Romero agrega: “Jamás debió haberse cons-truido en ríos y quebradas, porque esta es la razón más frecuente de inundaciones. Tampoco debió ha-berse construido en las pendientes más inestables del pie de monte, porque también aumenta el riesgo de aluviones e inundaciones. Debiéramos haber pro-tegido las áreas verdes al interior de la ciudad, y, en el caso de las áreas de cultivo, también surge la du-da acerca de si valía la pena sacrificar la fertilidad de

esos suelos, territorios que presentan la mayor ca-lidad y potencialidad de producción agrícola a nivel mundial. ¿Existe la posibilidad de sustituir esos sue-los agrícolas? Hemos urbanizado terrenos que no son urbanizables y hemos dejado de renovar gran parte de la ciudad”.

Actualmente, el PRS amenaza con construir en la precordillera, lo que podría aumentar las inunda-ciones invernales, pues al pavimentar la tierra pier-de toda su capacidad de absorción del agua y obli-ga a ésta a correr libremente por las calles hasta en-contrar su cauce.

El mismo plan podría permitir también las edifica-ciones sobre las siete mil hectáreas del antiguo cono de aproximación del aeropuerto de Cerrillos, un trián-gulo ubicado entre Maipú, Cerrillos y San Bernardo que hoy constituye la principal herramienta de enfriamien-to de la ciudad. Al construir allí se impedirá el paso de los vientos y aumentará el calor de la ciudad.

LA DICTADURA DEL PLAN REGULADOR

LA JUSTICIA SOCIAL DE LOS ÁRBOLESEn Santiago, a diferencia de otras ciudades del mundo, la can-

tidad de áreas verdes por habitante está en directa relación con la condición socioeconómica de los barrios: mientras más dinero hay en el bolsillo, más árboles hay en el patio de la casa. Así lo demues-tran los mapas del Laboratorio de Medio Ambiente y Territorio de la Universidad de Chile, al igual que un estudio realizado por el geó-grafo Alexis Vásquez en la comuna de Peñalolén.

El problema es que la vegetación no es sólo un elemento decorati-vo, sino que ofrece beneficios fundamentales para la calidad de vida de

los ciudadanos: limpia el aire porque transforma en oxígeno tóxicos co-mo el dióxido de carbono; disminuye considerablemente la temperatu-ra porque humedece la atmósfera y genera sombra; amortigua el ruido; absorbe aguas lluvias, previniendo inundaciones; y está clínicamente probado que su presencia disminuye el estrés y la depresión.

“Por esta razón es de vital importancia que el Estado invierta una gran cantidad de recursos en áreas verdes públicas que, además de los beneficios mencionados, entregan a la comunidad espacios de recreación gratuitos”, concluye Vásquez.

�  Main finding: negative coverage of the Gillard government’s carbon policy across ten newspapers outweighed positive coverage across ten Australian newspapers by 73% to 27%.

�  Negative coverage (82%) across News Ltd newspapers.

�  The Australian more coverage of climate change than any other newspaper.

�  The Age was more positive (67%) rather than negative towards the policy than any other newspaper. The Daily Telegraph was the most negative (89%) rather than positive of newspapers.

�  Readers relying on metropolitan newspapers

living in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane received more coverage of carbon policy issues than readers in Perth, Adelaide and Darwin.

�  A study conducted between 2005-2007 among 21 largest newspapers in Latin America from 7 countries showed that news media map, or frame, certain preferred discourses of environmental risks over others.

�  No newspaper more than 1% of news to climate change. �  Only 58% direct reference. �  3 top news themes: dissemination scientific of data; global

governance and events; climate events and disasters. �  News media map, or frame, certain preferred discourses of

environmental risks over others. �  Local news agencies are not generating news not even within their

own countries. �  Thematic treatment is mostly international. Almost no reference to

local level. �  Scientists are main source of reference (31%), followed by

international agencies (23%) �  50% no author, 38% journalist, 4% scientist, environmentlist 2%. �  No understanding of causes or proposal for solutions to climate

change. �  Solutions: No solution, Government policy (no single mention to role

of civil socierty or businesses). �   

�  A study by the China Daily, investigated climate change reporting in China in 2008. Results: Chinese media rarely report on local climate change issues and activities, and rarely mention local research. View that climate change is primarily the responsibility of the developed world.

�  A report, entitled 'Whatever the weather', commissioned by the Environment Programme of the UK-based non-governmental organisation Panos London surveyed 47 journalists in Honduras, Jamaica, Sri Lanka and Zambia. The report concludes that a lack of information about climate change, combined with too few well-informed and interested editors, prevents appropriate media coverage of climate change in these countries.

�  A survey commissioned by UK’s Royal Society in 2008 found that only 39 per cent of 1,001 respondents agreed with the statement “the media present science in a responsible way”.

�    �  Another research in the UK: the broadsheets gave much more coverage to

this issue than the tabloids, with The Guardian and The Sun at opposite ends of the spectrum. Accordingly, 83 per cent of The Guardian/The Independent readers felt that climate change ‘was something we should be concerned about’, compared with only 55 per cent of Sun readers.

�   

Survey of 800 journalists from 40 countries covering Cancun COP 16 (2010): •  Lack of Public Understanding is a major obstacle inhibiting action

on Climate Change

•  A climate-movement at the ground level is needed to put pressure on politicians

•  Dealing with Climate Uncertainties requires Political Leadership.

While international public and political acknowledgement of climate change may be higher than ten years ago, this has not translated into concerted action on a personal, collective or global level. While the original gap between scientific consensus on the anthropogenic causes of climate change and public and political acceptance of this issue could be characterised by one of time and perception, the real gap is now increasingly related to the profound disconnect between political and public acceptance of climate change and the transformation of this knowledge into effective, urgent action to both mitigate and adapt.

�  The reason why climate change has failed to engage the public in any meaningful way is not simply due to the complexity of the issue, although this is certainly an important factor.

�  How climate change is made relevant to people’s everyday lives, how it engages people through their existing social values and norms, matters .

�  Climate change needs to be understood as a concern for the here and now, rather than a distant future out there; somewhere. This involves making climate change temporally, spatially and socially meaningful and relevant.

�  Narrating climate change is giving it a human scale. It’s finding a narrative through which to engage with audiences. People listen to stories.

�  Given the centrality of images to the communicative practices of scientists, environmentalists and the media, surprisingly little research has been conducted on the visual communication of climate change in comparison to textual analyses

�  Yet, climate change provides a unique opportunity to explore both the possibilities and limitations the visual poses for the communication of temporally complex phenomena like climate change, within the context of an image-centric, western media culture.

�  Current analyses of climate change images have called attention to the distancing and disempowering effects of photographic and video imagery and the reappropriation of such images, along with those of climate science, by commercial markets for financial gain

�  If climate change imagery is increasingly distancing and decontextualised, what role have images played historically in the mediation of climate change? Given the centrality of the visual to western science and culture, how have the complex temporalities and changing visibilities of climate change been negotiated and represented through images?

the dynamics of environmental politics cannot be understood without taking apart the discursive practices that guide our perception of reality

(Doyle 2011)

�  2011 UWS research grant for $25,000 for a project titled Picturing Antarctica

�  ARC DISCOVERY: Nationalism and Anticipatory Action in Contemporary Antarctica Since 2011 a series of research projects in Antarctica based on Ethnographic work in the Antarctic Peninsula since 2011

�  Survey of public perceptions in Chile and Australia �  Antarctic Digital storytelling project �  Nightfall on Gaia - A feature-length experimental documentary �  Book + book chapters and journal articles.

Ethnographies of place-making in Fildes Peninsula  

�  What do we next has fateful consequences for human and non-human life on earth. No option to step out of civilization and come back to it at a later time.

�  Informing Citizens [Student Learning] for a planetary life that transcends planetary boundaries �  “at every level the greatest obstacle to transforming the world is that we lack the clarity and

imagination to conceive that it could be different.” Roberto Unger

�  “You already know enough. So do I. It is not knowledge we lack. What is missing is the courage to understand what we know and to draw conclusions”. Sven Lindqvist

�  “The goal of forecasting is not to predict the future but to tell you what you need to know to take meaningful action in the present.” Paul Saffo