What Is Environmental Communication and Why Is It Important?

Abstract

Chapter summary This chapter addresses the question of why environmental communication is an indispensable part of environmental strategies. Disciplinary views like environmental economics, environmental sociology, or environmental governance are briefly presented and contrasted to the psychological perspective to gain a comprehensive understanding of the complexity of the topic and the psychological perspective this book is taking. Different forms of communication are outlined (e.g. direct person-to-person; mediated communication via telephone, video-phone, print media, TV, radio, or Internet) and their characteristics described. Communication behaviour is contrasted with other forms of human behaviour. The question of how far communication has to include intentionality, or if communication also includes unintended behaviour, is addressed. Furthermore, the difference between verbal and non-verbal communication is outlined. The chapter concludes with a discussion of which understanding of communication is most helpful for the topic at hand, that of describing, understanding, and designing pro-environmental communication strategies. Based on this discussion, a working definition of pro-environmental communication is presented.