TRADITIONAL MEDIA are failing in their role to deal with environmental issues, a Dublin conference heard at the weekend.
Green Party Senator Dan Boyle’s comments were made at an event organised by the European Commission Representation in Ireland and Dublin City University to look at the potential of social media to communicate environmental issues.
On the Irish media’s take on green issues, he said: “Some media go beyond whether your policies are valid, or whether you are competent, and go straight to abuse.” He said this made him look at new ways to communicate, such as social media like Twitter and Facebook, on which he has a presence.
Regarding Twitter, Mr Boyle said the impact of a tweet by him which he said led to renegotiation of the Programme for Government, and of another urging former Defence Minister Willie O’Dea to resign, awakened him “to the possibility of what social media can do to influence debate”.
The event, attended by journalists, academics, politicians and environmental bodies, was streamed live on the internet.
Brian Trench, DCU lecturer in science communication, cited the December 2009 climate change editorial jointly published by 56 newspapers calling for action from world leaders as an example of traditional media playing a role in the environmental debate.
New Scientist writer Fred Pearce spoke on “Climate-gate,” the 2009 incident in which confidential e-mails from the University of East Anglia’s Climate Change Unit were leaked. He described how the leaked e-mails were interpreted to infer that climate change was a global conspiracy, a view which he said was adopted by many traditional media outlets.
