THE PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION OF ENVIRONMENTAL MEANINGS IN THE MASS-MEDIA - A RESEARCH AGENDA FOR THE 1990S

The case is made for an agenda of geographical research based on the mass media of communications. The argument is advanced that the media are an integral part of a complex cultural process through which environmental meanings are produced and consumed. Applying theoretical perspectives developed in cultural studies, evidence from a range of case studies is presented to demonstrate the ways in which environmental meanings are encoded in different forms of media texts and decoded by the different groups who comprise the audiences. It is argued that physical and human geographers could usefully collaborate in research with both producers and consumers of media texts, so as to better understand contemporary discourses about human-environment relations. -Author