Communicating sustainability: The limits and possibilities of ecological campaigns in a federal election year

Abstract

This article discusses the role of communicative practices and strategies in forming constituencies and policies for sustainability. After noting extension of media scholarship in this field to include ecological rationalities, it deals with media coverage in the lead up to and including the 2007 Australian federal election campaign, focusing on questions and problems of sustainability in the policy areas of climate change, 'water security' and environment. what pressures and what possibilities were there in this campaign for contributing to public knowledge and deliberation? The article describes and analyses competing inscriptions of climate change, the intersection of different leadership styles and agenda setting, the drawbacks and opportunities of personality driven media coverage, the currency of available ecological rationalities, and attempts to form responsible ecological citizens.