Communicating the Environment in an Age of Uncertainty

In recent decades, the topics of digital communications and sustainability have both reached central positions in the global arenas of public discourse. Since the 1990s, debates on the role of computer-mediated communication in shaping opinions (and with them individual and collective action) have accelerated in parallel with those regarding the extent anthropogenic action can impact climate and shape the environment. This article presents a summary reconstruction of the nexus between environment and communication, identifying four strands of research. The first strand is represented by the technical discipline of environmental communication, focused on maximizing the efficacy of environmental messages in order to respond with effectiveness to environmental risk, minimizing losses. The second strand focuses on how environmental phenomena are framed through media, and on how audiences respond to such framings. The third strand focuses on how Information and Communication Technologies, and in particular digital technologies, are used for the purposes of environmental management. The fourth and last strand focuses on how ICTs contribute to shaping environmental activism and its organizational forms