Abstract
By considering the material reality of information and communication technologies, Greening the Media breaks new ground in the field of media studies. Richard Maxwell and Toby Miller critique the fetishization of technology both within popular culture and academia, and seek to move communications research away from its overriding concern with “consciousness.” Focusing upon information and communication technology and consumer electronics (ICT/CE), they challenge the myth of liberation that surrounds the “new media.” Rather, the authors describe how the “virtual nature” of media content and the symbolic power of technology help to obscure the political, economic, and environmental contexts and consequences of ICT/CE production and consumption. In particular, this study examines the environmental and human health risks of ICT/CE production and disposal.
Maxwell and Miller seek to link the rise of information economy to the contemporary ecological crisis. To do so, they examine four key elements of the ICT/CE economy: consumers, material production, labor, and institutional environments. Chapter One considers the role of consumers by reviewing data on the energy demands and pollution created by the consumption of ICT/CE products. Maxwell and Miller suggest “eco-ethical consumption” as a balanced solution between destructive consumerism and unrealistic asceticism.
In Chapter Two, the authors examine the mechanical-chemical processes by which the production of words transforms the environment. This topic is extended in Chapter Three to the production of “screens.” Throughout, the virtual is made tangible by documenting the pollutants created in the production of paper, printers, and the electronic devices, which now carry “ewords” forward into the “information age.”
In Chapter Four, the material realties of the ICT/CE economy are connected to human realities with a discussion of the exploitation of labor in both the production and disposal of media devices. The authors provide a timely discussion of the health risks and poor wages suffered by laborers in the Global South who produce the bulk of our high-tech gadgets. Looking downstream, workers in the informal economy surrounding the recycling of “ewaste” exported from the Global North to the Global South fair substantially worse. Exposed to heavy metals, dioxins, and poisonous fumes, these workers experience a wide range of health risks and illnesses: brain damage, disrupted biological development, and diseases of the stomach, lungs, and other vital organs. The final chapters examine the institutional environment of the ICT/CE economy, emphasizing the technological optimism that pervades most bureaucracies (Chapter Five) and envisions a future of environmental citizenship.
Greening the Media offers a new perspective on the rise of the information society. It seeks to temper our enthusiasm for the latest technological fads by illustrating their material consequences. The book will be of interest to those who study culture, media and communications, and the environment as well as to anyone owning a computer or smartphone.