Greening Media Education

Antonio López holds a PhD in sustainability education from Prescott College and is Associate Professor of Media Studies and Communications at John Cabot University in Rome, Italy.

• Contents: Media, Environment, and Education – Metaphors as Meaning Design – A Field Walk Through the Media Ecosystem – Mapping the Media Literacy Ecosystem – The Media Literacy Ecosystem’s Dominant Paradigm – Literacy – Media as Sustainability Education.

«Antonio López’s ‘Greening Media Education’ combines issues of media literacy education with concerns regarding environmental education in a new synthesis that promotes green cultural citizenship, wholistic system thinking, and ecomedia literacy. This provocative synthesis brings together for the first time ecological themes that focus on media and the natural environment and pedagogical themes concerning gaining literacy in important arenas of our life about which many people do not reflect and are not literate in negotiating complex interactions with nature, technology, and other people.» (Douglas Kellner, George F. Kneller Chair in the Philosophy of Education, UCLA; Author, ‘Media Spectacle and Insurrection, 2011: From the Arab Uprisings to Occupy Everywhere’)«In ‘Greening Media Education’, Antonio López presents a deeply engaging analysis of the role of media education in the cultural commons. This essential book analyzes historical trends in media education and connects these with contemporary ecological systems in a rapidly changing environment. In the process, López provides pathways to innovation and transformative change for media educators that encourages them to think globally and act locally.» (Kathleen Tyner, The University of Texas at Austin; Author, ‘Media Literacy’ and ‘Literacy in a Digital World’)«With his new book, Antonio López has established himself as a leading thinker in the emerging field of ecomedia literacy. His book is a must read for anyone concerned about the transformation that must be made in media education if it is contribute to an ecologically sustainable future. His insightful use of an ecological conceptual framework provides the field with the needed sense of direction that moves beyond the misconceptions of the past.» (Chet Bowers, Author, ‘The False Promises of the Digital Revolution’ and ‘In the Grip of the Past: Educational Reforms that Address What Should be Changed and What Should be Conserved ’)«As an activist-scholar working in the ‘strange’ (after Maxine Greene) intersectional curricular spaces of media and ecological literacy, Antonio López has become a crucial leader who is assisting both academics and citizens with the reimagining of sustainability education for a present moment that is now co-constituted by planetary ecocrisis and global media culture. To my mind, ‘Greening Media Education’, represents his most critically exact, compendious, and powerful research to date on this emergent paradigm of democratic ecopedagogy and politics. This is a necessary and very important work.» (Richard Kahn, Core Faculty in Education, Antioch University Los Angeles; Author, ‘Critical Pedagogy, Ecoliteracy and Planetary Crisis: The Ecopedagogy Movement ’)«‘Greening Media Education’ draws the best from the media studies cannon and takes on unelected educational powers using a well-calibrated eco-ethical compass. The author’s deep environmental commitments provide a much-needed green perspective on the practices of contemporary media literacy.» (Richard Maxwell, Chair and Professor of Department of Media Studies, Queens College-CUNY; Author, ‘Greening the Media’) «Antonio López has been at the forefront of activist media education research in recent years. In ‘Greening Media Education’ he weaves together the multiple strands of his praxis to provide a compelling vision of a more situated, sustainable and resistant pedagogy. In the era of the ‘creative economy’ and neoliberal instrumentalism, it may be crazily aspirational – but Lopez writes from the heart with profound optimism about media education for social justice.» (Julian McDougall, Associate Professor in Media