Doug Specht speaks on Envrionmental Justice and Social Media at Universidad Científica del Sur

Last week Doug Specht joined Mark Deuze (University of Amsterdam), and Daniela Grassau (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) to discuss media and power in Latin America as part of the Universidad Científica del Sur’s 3rd International Congress on the Crisis of Journalism.

Specht spoke on framing environmental justice through social media in Latin America, drawing upon his recent work in Argentina about Fracking as well as older work in Colombia about Gold mining. The talk examined social media’s impact on environmental narratives both locally and globally, and how they have supported the fight for justice.

The event itself examined challenges faced by journalists in the face of an abundance of data and diverse content in social media. The conference noted that the profession not only has to adapt to new channels and spaces for public discussion, but also must energetically renew, and on the fly, its skills, in order to compete for the attention, trust and affection of citizens. In particular, the event discussed the new realities that are significantly marking the task of reporting: for example, the emergence of the start-up culture and independent professional agencies, on the one hand; and the interest groups mobilized in social media that generate their own media and informative narratives, on the other.

Photo by Joe Yates on Unsplash