[ecrea] New book: Environmental management of the media

*Environmental Management of The Media: Policy, Industry, Practice 
(Routledge Studies in Environmental Communications and Media) – Pietari 
Kääpä*

In recent years the widely held misconception of the media as an 
immaterial industry has been challenged by research on the industry’s 
significant carbon footprint. Despite this material turn, no systematic 
study of this sector has been conducted in ways that considers the role 
of the media industries as consumers and users of a range of natural 
resources.

Filling this gap, /Environmental Management of the Media/ discusses the 
environmental management of the media industries in the UK and the 
Nordic countries. These Nordic countries, especially, both as a set of 
small nations and as a regional constellation, are frequently perceived 
as some of the ‘greenest’ in the world, yet, not only is the footprint 
of the media industries practically ignored in academic research, but 
the very real stakes of the industries’ global impact are not 
comprehensively understood. Here, the author focuses on four key areas 
for investigating the material impact of Nordic media: (1) resources 
used for production and dissemination; (2) regulation of the media; 
(3) organizational management; and (4) labour practices. By adopting an 
interdisciplinary perspective that combines ecocritical analysis with 
interrogation of the political economy of the creative industries, Kääpä 
argues that taking the industries to task on their environmental 
footprint is a multilevel resource and organizational management issue 
that must be addressed more effectively in contemporary media studies.

*Reviews*

*"Through several fascinating Nordic case studies, this book calls 
attention to how the media industry needs to urgently get its own house 
in order and to play a major role in effective environmental management. 
This unique study provides an important contribution to an evolving area 
of environmental communication, while contesting the myth that it costs 
more to ‘go green’ with regards to film production and distribution. As 
environmental protocols across the media industry need to keep evolving 
as the world tries to face up to the huge challenges of climate change, 
this book makes a good start in showing the way meaningful and 
sustainable changes can be made." */Pat Brereton, Dublin City 
University, Ireland/

*"As we become increasingly aware of the environmental impact of media 
and the potential damage the digital age wreaks upon the planet, it is 
incumbent upon us to map in detail the local effects of our insatiable 
demand for data in its myriad electronic forms. In an approach which 
mobilises important methodological innovations, Pietari Kaapa does just 
this for the Nordic world. His lucid prose captures the state of current 
debate and brings a fresh insight to this vital area of 
research."*/Gareth Stanton, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK/

*"Nowhere has the material turn in communications studies been more 
significant than in eco-criticism. Pietari Kääpä, a pioneer in the 
field, expands its reach to include regulation, management and labour in 
the film and television industries. Confronting the great contradiction 
between the environmental damage caused by media and the absolute need 
for media to communicate green messages to policymakers, producers and 
consumers, Kääpä presents a detailed map of the networks that enable and 
constrain change. We cannot wait for a new society: Kääpä shows us how 
to make environmental history under conditions not of our own 
choosing."*/Sean Cubitt, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK/


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