Media students, climate change and YouTube celebrities: readings of Dear future generations: sorry video clip

Brereton, Pat; Gómez Márquez, Victoria

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Author

Brereton, Pat ; Gómez Márquez, Victoria

Editor

Oxford Academic

Date

2020

Abstract

The objective of this study is to advance understanding of the use of media by young audiences, as they become informed and in turn develop a clear judgment about climate change as part of a process of developing environmental literacy. The paper explores the under- researched question around what kind of role do online videos play in the perception and evaluation of these issues, while focusing on university Media students as a specific group equipped to identify media’s multiple dimensions and processes. Insights on how such influence might work are obtained through both an eco-critical expert reading of Prince Ea’s rap-music video Dear Future Generations: Sorry and a report of what is perceived and recalled by the students. This will be illustrated using textual and focus group analysis of this YouTube video that has been highlighted as an emergent environmental text in previous surveys of students, offering an alternative genre and a formally distinct approach to climate change from the well- known Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio’s viral media productions. The methodological design merges the traditional analytical tools of eco-criticism, alongside social science techniques aimed at adding empirical value to the research.