SparkingSustainability Communicating Sustainability

1. SparkingSustainabilityCommunicating Sustainability Caroline Mitchell ~ University of Sunderland

2. 'Sparking Sustainability’ • Project within Media and Journalism departments at University of Sunderland • Working with community radio station-Spark FM and student online and printed magazines • Alex Lockwood-lecturer and journalist • Sustainability Reporter- EviKarathanasopoulou-graduate student

3. Praxis Research group • Part of ongoing research into how community media can be used as a location for new forms of participation, productionand journalism • Members across media and cultural studies, radio studies, film studies, video production and journalism

4. Spark-radio-tv-online • Community radio licence for Sunderland • Aimed at young people and students in Sunderland • Participatory and enabling ethos • Linked to media and journalism modules • Sparking Sustainability reporter • Developing Speech features on Spark

5. Project Aims • To give students and staff critical knowledge and practical skills for living and working more sustainably • To strengthen and integrate links between the university, existing local media, and the community to amplify sustainable development practice; • T o support student and community media with sustainable planning,

6. Stage 1 Sustainability workshops • With students on range of radio, print and journalism modules • Contact via Facebook • Open question - what does sustainability mean to you? • Howdo you report sustainability, and how do you report sustainably? • Completing online questionnaire

7. Questionnaire • Sustainability-order of importance • Environment • Managing Resources • Recycling • Energy • Sustainable development • Personal wellbeing • Global Poverty • Waste

8. Questionnaire • Planning ahead -to ensure a comfortable and healthy future for yourself and those around you. • Locality-Sustainability is about locally based action where participants take ownership of the initiative and its results. • “Living/working in a way that can be continued into the future”. • “Defeating entrophy, preventing heat death, long term you can only delay it never stop”....

9. Questionnaire How sustainable did they feel in • Their personal lives • Studying at the University • Their media work

10. Questionnaire-confidence with local community  Most people do not feel productive, involved and supported • “Could be better at working with outside groups and orgs, just been really difficult atm, tying to take one step at a time”. • “More could be done in general. More volunteers are needed to serve the local community better, as a small handful of people can only do so much”!

11. Ideas for content • Is a boozy life sustainable? • Sustainability of Youth organisations in Sunderland • Sustainability in everyday life and travelling • Fair Trade and fashionitas • Local interest-Electric cars made by Nissan

12. Ideas for practices • Alternative station with an alternative power source • Power the breakfast show with a Spark Treadmill… lose weight, get active and power the station! • How to make it easier to approach local groups • Specialist programmes and issues of online magazine

13. Stage 2 Teaching intervention • exploring ways to report on ‘sustainability’ issues, • To develop a media practice that is in itself ‘sustainable’ – what is important to you about acting sustainably? • Working out in local area-Sunderland Riverside • Steps to developing contacts , relationships and partnerships

14. Stage 3 Competition • Target audience is Young People 13-24, living in Sunderland or with some link to Sunderland (think online audiences) Prize winning Articles • Sustainable employment practices- AutismWorks and the IT industry • The sustainability of the A690 youth project • How students can act sustainably -testing out council guidelines • Process-award for ‘Bright Sparks’ online training and support for radio station volunteers

15. Links with other campaigns • Ellen MacCarthur’s Sustainability Foundation aims to equip young people for work in a world of increasingly limited resources and inspire them to re-think, re-design and build a positive future. • University, Regional and local initiatives • Nissan media –former student presents award

16. Stage 4 Influencing the curriculum • Staff and students focusing on sustainability in different parts of their lives • Guidelines for sustainability work in media , journalism modules and beyond • Good practices-Getting out in the community • Increasing confidence of working in partnerships • Funding specialist issues of student media • Social media and face to face • Integrating student community media • Employability

17. Sustainability as a 'cultural change process’ • requires also the advancement of learners' skills and competencies (learners being both individuals and learning organisations) • a “process or strategy of moving toward a sustainable future” Kagan, 2008

18. ‘transformative learning’ we approach teaching as a process of transformative learning • that offers students and teachers together a “shift of consciousness that dramatically and permanently alters our way of being in the world” • Morell

19. SUSTAINABLE COMPETENCIES • competency in foresighted thinking; • competency in interdisciplinary work; • competency in cosmopolitan perception, transcultural understanding and cooperation; • participatory skills; • competency in planning and implementation; • capacity for empathy, compassion and solidarity; • competency in self-motivation and in motivating others; and • competency in distanced reflection on individual and cultural models. • Barth, Godemann, Rieckmann and Stoltenberg (2007)

20. The media sector’s own sustainability • to ensure that the station works effectively as an institution, basing itself on principles of access and participation,. • to ensure that the programmes responded effectively to the needs and interests of the community • to ensure that the community radio in the longer term actually would manage to create some of the desired basic social change • Jallov 2004

21. Issues • Supporting students –working in partnership-long process • Financial viability of local media organisations in current economic climate-example of local press

22. conclusions • a focus on developing core personal and interpersonal competencies, with a fundamental belief in both transformative and positive educational practices, are the best means to achieve long-term sustainability SachaKagan (2008)