Media; The Main Tool for Problematizing the Environmental Issue; Case Study: Iran

Disasters related to meteorological, hydrological and climate hazards cause significant loss of life, and set back economic and social development by years, if not decades. According to paleo-climatology evidences, the Iran's up and downs in different historical periods are significantly related to climate changes.

Because of the hyperactive climate change in the Middle East, the region, especially Iran is exposed to terrible drought, desertification crisis and severe land degradation which all have serious straightforward impacts on global security. Political, social and economic insecurity, violence, fundamentalism, immigration, terrorism are a few impacts of this new condition. But neither the government nor locals are not enough aware of the disaster which is threatening the civilization in Iran. 

In this regard one important duty of the experts and academics is problematizing the environmental issues to persuade the target groups to care about the environmental problematics. 

In this project, in the framework of a practical project, we have practically studies the role of media to promote sustainability awareness, change attitudes and behavior to improve locals’ capability and resilience building among residents focusing on three goals: 1. Drawing the attention of public and governmental to hyperactive climate change in the country; 2. Understanding the social, political and economic impacts of desertification of the region on local and global level. 3. Introducing a comprehensive adaptation program compatible with post-normal climate. In this regard, media is an important instrument both for locals’ empowerment and to introduce new adaptive life style components. Local informal communities, virtual media, social networks and a few of independent media (e.g. newspapers, magazines etc.) are some of media instruments which are utilized for information distribution among local residents.