The Public Pedagogy of Watersheds Through Social Media: Discourses of Engagement Across Two Environmental Organizations

• In Event: 64.064 - Democratizing Social Media for Ecological, Environmental, and Social Justice in a Post-Truth Era

Abstract

Social media is now a dominant influence in the contemporary lives of most youth and adults. Despite a recent call for research on the use of social media in EE (Ardoin Clark, & Kelsey, 2013), researchers have only recently started to examine it. Most new research focuses on social networks among youth (Andersson & Öhman, 2017) or individuals’ online social networking around the environment (Robelia Greenhow, & Burton, 2011; Typhina, 2017). In this paper, I explore how two environmental organizations use social media to connect with members and the public at large, which in turn reveals how organizations view the individual and the kinds of relationships they promote in conducting EE. This research is guided by actor network theory (Latour, 2005) that examines relationships among people, technology, and media as a result of social practices, identities, and subjectivities. Data analyzed includes six months (January-June, 2018) of social media content from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for two non-profit watershed organizations in the mid-Atlantic region of the US. Data include original posts made by each organization as well as news articles and “re-posts” from other social media sources (Table 1). Posts were analyzed for their content (Patton, 2015), discourse (Wodak & Meyer, 2015), and social semiotics (Hodge, 2014) of photos, video, and graphics. These two organizations represent demographically and economically contrasting communities that feed into the same freshwater ecosystem. The Franklin Watershed Association (FWA) encompasses a 30 square mile suburban and urban corridor that includes diverse and mostly lower-working-class communities. The Madison Watershed Association (MWA) includes 22 square miles of mostly suburban and upper-class white communities, with the lower watershed bordering an African American community.

The analysis of social media content in both organizations reveals a strong interest in promoting EE, stewardship, and restoration, as well as promoting advocacy among its members and the general public (Table 2). Both organizations have paid staff members and are self-described as “media savvy.” Dominant among the content and images are discourses that range from celebrating community to discourses that emphasize one’s individual agency when engaging with environmental action (Table 3). FWA more often referred to diversity in its postings, such as offering bilingual birdwatching walks or including more diverse images of the public (across age, gender, and race). Content in FWA posting also strongly emphasized partnerships among other non-profits, with repeated invitations to families. MWA mentioned partnerships as well, but specifically named governmental agencies. Discourses and images posted by MWA revolved around civic responsibility and volunteerism. Through this research, we see ways that relationships to the environment were being promoted through social media. FWA focused on leveraging language diversity and images that fostered identifying the environment as an extension of one’s family and urban community. In contrast, MWA’s use of social media reinforced notions of civic responsibility, volunteerism, and one’s role in environmental action, more aligned with homeownership. These results offer insights to the ways that EE organizations position individuals, re-imagining how one might be part of larger environmental networks.

Author

• Carol B. Brandt, Temple University