Future Directions

Abstract

The previous chapters highlighted the shifting role of the news media in communicating environmental conflict and emerging technologies in contemporary society. In Western societies many inhabit what Nick Couldry (2012: 55) refers to as a ‘supersaturated media landscape’. The sheer volume of information that publics can increasingly access means that we have to engage in continuous filtering processes. Online and offline media environments interact in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. The digital revolution has transformed not only how people in the developed world access and interact with information, but who has access and who produces content. New media actors have emerged and journalists routinely use social networking tools to source information. Alongside this, the frames and agendas of ‘mainstream’ news media still exert considerable influence; indeed the distinction between ‘alternative’ and ‘traditional’ media is increasingly blurred.