Page 96 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

Chapter 7
Media Theory and Sustainability

Communication

Claudia de Witt

Abstract Since communication about sustainable development takes place in a
mediatised knowledge society it seems appropriate to investigate the importance of
the media to achieve this goal. The question then arises as to what contribution the
media as communication media can make to the diffusion of awareness about sus-
tainability and to what extent they can influence and promote social discourse.
Especially the new media, such as Web 2.0, seem to have the potential to transport
‘information’ through global communication networks across national borders and
through participatory processes to ensure involvement in global discourses about
sustainability communication.

Keywords Media theory • Web 2.0 • Effect and use analysis • Media communication
• Global communication

Sustainability, Communication and the Media

Communication is considered a means of anchoring the vision of sustainable
development in society. In general, successful communication involves, according
to Schmidt (1993), a mastery of language, a mutual ability and willingness to com-
municate and knowing which discourse the communication act is a part of.
Furthermore, it involves accounting for the “social structures of a communicative
situation in order to be able to assess the allocation of roles in communication”
(Schmidt 1993: 109). The first physical-technological use of the term communica-
tion was made by Stephen Gray (1729) in connection with his discovery of what he

C. de Witt (*)
Institute of Educational Science and Media Research, FernUniversität, Hagen, Germany
e-mail: claudia.dewitt@fernuni-hagen.de

J. Godemann and G. Michelsen (eds.), Sustainability Communication: Interdisciplinary 79
Perspectives and Theoretical Foundations, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1697-1_7,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011