Spectacular environmentalisms: Celebrity and the mediation of environmental change

This network has emerged out of a series of past unfunded meetings which have proven challenging and fruitful. The goal of this bid is to develop this embryonic network and to use this research to contribute to public debate through the involvement of artists and NGO media practitioners.

The phenomenon we are exploring is best summed up by Harrison Ford's chest. This US actor and prominent environmentalist released a video of himself receiving a brutal chest wax to draw attention to the threat of deforestation to climate change on behalf of the NGO 'Conservation International'. His actions epitomise a growing prominence of media and celebrity in environmental affairs and the growth of particularly 'spectacular' environmental media. Thus, David Attenborough has been voted Britain's most trusted celebrity; organisations like Global Cool and Ecorazzi.com enlist celebrity supporters; and Steve Irwin's death was the most searched for news in Google in 2006. Academic work is beginning to investigate the increasingly powerful connections between celebrity and environment: newspaper articles linking celebrities and climate change have increased substantially with the period of 2005-2006 showing a 500% increase from the previous year alone.

The interaction of celebrity and the environment is not new. The Adamsons won fame for their relationship with lions and advocacy for conservation in East Africa in the 1960s. 'Grey Owl' spoke to packed audiences in the 1930s in the UK and Canada. John Muir was revered the early 1900s for his role in US conservation and his pilgrimage to Thoreau's grave. Before Irwin was wrestling crocodiles, Frank Buck jumped on a (dead) tiger for the cameras in the 1930s. Wildlife film has been producing celebrity conservationists for decades (e.g. Attenborough, Cousteau, Goodall, Durrell).

Yet, the longevity of the interactions makes recent developments all the more interesting, for it means we are better able to understand what is different about them. For example, we can see how celebrity involvement in climate change issues (e.g. DiCaprio, Madonna) reshapes previous interactions with the environment, how conservation NGOs have (re)formulate their interactions with celebrity, how wildlife film has restructured for contemporary audiences and how celebrity itself has expanded in its outlets and, especially, its power/impacts. Turning analytical lenses to today's relations between celebrity and environmentalism allows us to explore the cultural and political economies/ecologies of media events alongside the work of politicians, NGOs and 'green' corporate capital.

This proposed network of scholars from a variety of disciplines-in combination with environmental media/communications practitioners-is tied to the exploration of these phenomena and their implications. The research interests of this proposed network include the history of wildlife film, the activities of conservation NGOs, the climate change 'industry', the political economy of wildlife conservation, celebrity activism, sustainable consumption and interpretations of environmental discourse in film and text. Practitioners include members of NGOs working with celebrity-fronted campaigns, other 'spectacular' media/marketing forms and film-markers devoted to representing environmental concerns and the 'environment' more broadly. Their perspective is invaluable to enable the transference of insights to and from those engaged in the creation of these representations which have great impact on public perceptions of environmental issues and our political responses. We contend that only a cross- and inter-disciplinary grouping as proposed here-scholars from English, cultural/media studies, geography, sociology and development studies-in combination with those engaged in the dissemination of environmental media and marketing, will be able to prise open the complexities of the growing imbrications among celebrities, environmentalism and media power.

Our outreach dissemination and communication of findings will build on the substantial experience and engagements of the diverse members of the network. The network leaders have already been working with journalists, filmmakers and NGOs as a result of their research and have been publishing findings in a variety of popularly accessible fora. Littler and Goodman have been working with journalists and diverse non-academic media as part of their existing work (e.g. Soundings (forthcoming). Brockington's book Celebrity and the Environment has received endorsements and a wide canvassing from journalists, filmmakers and NGOs. Our impact plan hinges on the networks and relationships we are currently part of and will be able to develop.

Beyond the academe our principal target groups are journalists, filmmakers and NGO staff, many of whom we have asked and who have agreed to participate in this proposed network, and thus, we will prepare materials for wider outreach. Our network will have a broad impact by virtue of the following activities:

1. Establishing a project website. This will be the most readily accessible and frequently updated forum by which people can keep in touch with developments of this network. We will use it to host podcasts, working papers, resources, interviews and meeting details. We will also invite comment and host blogs for key events, feedback and on-going critical commentary from within the networks but also focused on feedback from the wider public.

2. Writing. We will continue to seek non-academic outlets for our work including such sites as The Guardian's Comment is Free and Open Democracy. We will also produce summary documents at the end of the network to be sent to key protagonists and network memers. Members of the network will be writing working papers which will be hosted on the website. We are fortunate that all the members are energetic and effective in their writing.

3. Meetings. Our final two day workshop will invite a mixed attendance of researchers, NGOs and journalists both to present and comment on papers. We will also be attending the Wildscreen Film Festival in Bristol to engage with artists and filmmakers and to communicate our work to them. Interviews and panel discussions from those meetings will be available as podcasts on the website.

4. Expanded Network membership. Our core group of existing members has already met at least once. However we are seeking to expand the network to more academics and engaged NGO and artist practitioners and have budgeted for more people to be invited to attend the meetings from within the UK and internationally through video-conferencing and podcasts.