1. Introduction

The introduction provides a common framework for the variety of case studies in this volume, which are situated at the intersection of communication, environment, and media. Each chapter examines how “the environment” finds resonance in different communications, and how those communications are conditioned by different types of media, technology, political environment, and the target group of the communication. Mass media, and particularly the news media’s focus on conflict and danger, creates a contextual rhetoric of fear and anxiety regarding the environment; several case studies in this book demonstrate that these rhetorical strategies are also used by activists, environmentalists, and ideologists.