Framing Disasters: Ecocritical Perceptions of Media Events and the Amazon

Following the ecological and infrastructural turn in media studies, this dissertation project investigates cultural responses to and representations of planetary ecological issues. By bringing together 'media events,' eco-art and media activism in or about the Amazon Forest, it embraces a cross-media approach to examine the ecological footprint of media linked to the Amazon within the contemporary context marked by communications revolution, climate change activism and impending ecological catastrophe.

The project also shows the important place Amazonian ecomedia has in affecting dominant techniques of environmental communication - namely framing, flows and mediation - even as media's material production and processes might remain complicit to extractivism and environmental degradation.

In foregrounding emerging media and communicative practices mainly by Amazonian indigenous actors and organizations that at once promote a transformative engagement with tropical geographic spaces as well as with media's extractivist effects, the project ultimately helps to broaden understanding of what role the Amazon is currently playing in both ecological geopolitics as well as mainstream media and visual culture.

REGISTRATION

Registration is requested so that the organizers can distribute a work-in-progress paper or film prior to the event: https://duke.is/framing

ABOUT THIS SERIES, FIRST MONDAYS AT CDS

Duke's Center for Documentary Studies (CDS) is currently supporting three Ph.D. student fellows who are pursuing research related to documentary studies. As part of the fellowship, students are giving presentations on some aspect of their dissertation research that relates to documentary studies at the Spring 2024 Work-in-Progress Seminars.

Everyone is welcome to attend. Snacks will be provided for these discussion-based seminars. Details at https://duke.is/first-mondays

IMAGE

Image courtesy of Jessica Doyle: I Women Indigenous March, Brasília, 2019 (DF) - By Apib Comunicação/Katie Maehler