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

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Some media scholars are concerned with the growing devaluation of expert voices on social media and the proliferation of “misinformation,” whereas others view social media as a space that enables differing forms of organizing, communicating, and learning. Taking up this year’s AERA call to explore the relationship between a “post-truth” politics and the exacerbation of inequalities, this session situates itself squarely within debates about the role of social media in fostering a more democratic and just society, but pushes beyond the human, including all beings and the environment in such discussions. The papers specifically consider the enactment of public pedagogies on social media platforms that include animal activist organizations, watershed management groups, multi-ethnic outdoor groups, and neighborhood/community groups.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Environmental Education

Chair

• Teresa Katrina Lloro-Bidart, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona

Papers

• The Public Pedagogy of Watersheds Through Social Media: Discourses of Engagement Across Two Environmental Organizations - Carol B. Brandt, Temple University

• Resistance and Education: Examining the Use and Value of Social Media to Address Issues of Race in Environmental Education - Olivia Aguilar, Denison University

• The Public Pedagogy of Neighborhood Facebook Communities: Negotiating Relations With Urban Coyotes - Teresa Katrina Lloro-Bidart, California State Polytechnic University - Pomona

• Staying With the Trauma: Animal Advocacy, Graphic Images, and a Multispecies Pedagogical Approach to Post-Traumatic Stress and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Lauren Corman, Brock University

Discussant

• Constance L. Russell, Lakehead University