The Department of Media and Communication at the University of Leicester cordially invites you to join us for the following lecture on Thursday January 28th: 


Greening the Media
Professor Toby Miller, University of California, Riverside, USA
 
What would happen to the study of electronic games if it confronted the fact that millions of cartridges of Atari's game adaptation of E.T. The Extraterrestrial were buried in a New Mexico landfill, broken up by a heavy roller, and covered in concrete to consign them to history; or that Sony's PlayStation One consoles contain deadly levels of cadmium, a fiasco that cost the company US$85 million to fix? What would it mean to consider these issues rather than whether games rot your brain or fulfil your dreams?

What would it mean if media studies were required, as an ordinary part of its work, to evaluate motion-picture production ecologically?  What would it make, for example, of Danny Boyle's film The Beach? Thai environmental and pro-democracy activists publicized the arrogant despoliation they experienced when Fox was making this movie in Maya Bay, part of Phi Phi Islands National Park. Natural scenery was bulldozed because it did not fit the fantasy of a tropical idyll. Sand dunes were relocated, flora rearranged, and a "new" strip of coconut palms planted. The producers paid off the government with a donation to the Royal Forestry Department and campaigned with the Tourism Authority of Thailand to twin the film as a promotion for the country. Meanwhile, the next monsoon saw the damaged sand dunes of the region collapse because natural defenses against erosion had been destroyed by Hollywood bulldozers. All the while, director Boyle claimed the film was "raising environmental consciousness" among a local population that was allegedly "behind" Western levels of "awareness". Is this question on our agenda when we examine the film industry? If not, why not?

Date: Thursday 28th January
Time:   3.00 – 4.00pm
Location: University of Leicester, Physics Building, Lecture Theatre B

If you would like to attend this free event, please contact the organisers: Dr. Julian Matthews ([log in to unmask]) or Dr. Jennifer Smith Maguire ([log in to unmask]). Directions to the University and a map of the campus can be found at http://www2.le.ac.uk/maps.


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Dr Julian Matthews
Lecturer
Course Director, MA New Media Governance and Democracy
Department of Media and Communication
Room 913
Attenborough Tower
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester LE1 7RH
T: +44(0)116 2522582
F: +44(0)116 2525276
E: [log in to unmask]
W: http://www.le.ac.uk/mc/staff/JulianMatthews.html

Editor, Communication and Media Section Sociology Compass
http://www.blackwell-compass.com/subject/sociology/