Book Review: Environmental Management of the Media. Pietari Kääpä. London and New York: Routledge/Earthscan, 2018. ISBN 978-1-138-64982-8

Abstract

Pietari Kääpä’s groundbreaking study of environmental management of the media industries in Great Britain and the Nordic countries is among the most important publications in the field of cinema and media studies in the past five years. I expect it will find a wide audience among academics, environmental media consultants, media producers, industry executives, and all those engaged in the effort to green the screen. The first half of the book sets up the theoretical and methodological framework and examines Britain as a generally positive case study of government-industry-media producer cooperation on a centralized regulatory approach due to the leadership of BAFTA and other key intermediaries. The second half examines the de-centralized approach being taken across the Nordic countries as a generally negative case study of current management practices. Environmental Management of the Media deploys environmental communication research methods through a focus on the efficacy of existing environmental communication strategies and recommendations for improving that communication. As co-editor of the highly-regarded collection Transnational Ecocinema (2013), Kääpä brings an awareness of discourses shaping the field of ecomedia studies that adds an additional layer of research depth and critical thinking. Of all the recent efforts to examine the people in charge of creating and managing the ecological footprint of film and media production on a national and international scale, Environmental Management of the Media is the most comprehensive, consistent, and well organized.