Case
It must be recognized that humanity cannot live without industry; whether it is people’s lives or the economic development of some areas, the sector is in the dominant position. Moreover, developed industries can solve the employment and financial problems of local residents. However, people have ignored the harm to local communities and residents behind the pursuit of accelerated development, and racial discrimination has become one of the factors. The place with the shocking name “Cancer Alley” is located in the southern part of the state of Louisiana in the United States. Compared to people living in other parts of the United States, residents of this community are 50 times more likely to get cancer (Colarossi). “Cancer Alley” is the code name for St. James Parish in Louis Ann. The community whose residents are mainly African Americans is located in the center of local industry. There are about 150 polluting factories nearby, such as chemical plants, oil refineries, and plastic factories. The factories near the community are still expanding, and they defile the surrounding water and the air. Due to the peculiarities of this community, experts believe that this is not a simple environmental pollution case, it is environmental racism. The polluting factories gathered around this community are violating the human rights of local African American residents. These factories are also threatening black people’s right to equality and non-discrimination, the right to life, the right to health, the right to an adequate standard of living, and cultural rights (“Environmental Racism in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Must End”)
Media Object
The presented interactive media object would visualize the release of harmful substances from the plant into the atmosphere. The reader would be able to rotate space and observe the movement of substantial poisonous clouds. In addition, schemes would be presented with the connection between the harmful substance and its damaging effects on people’s health. Moreover, visitors of the site would be invited to watch several short videos with a total duration of 20 minutes. Heroes of the videos would tell the stories of 20 black residents of “Cancer Alley ” affected by toxic emissions. It would also be possible to attract the reader to help solve this problem by greening the space of this community. They would be asked to purchase a tree and watch it being planted in real-time. Thus, the media object would convey to the site visitor that environmental pollution adversely affects communities of color.
Justification
Environmental network media projects are one of the most modern ecological education methods, bringing it to a new level of accessibility for the audience. Such projects are unique media products of an ecological orientation obtained from the joint work of scientists-naturalists, editors, programmers, and marketers (Choksey 7). Project materials can be of research, creative, game, or educational nature and are placed on various online platforms which are used by their target audience (Stormydhae and Cabral 82). This media project has an informational, educational, socio-cultural, and entertainment orientation; the social exposure raises such topical issues as racism.
This project is designed for a broad audience, is necessarily presented in an accessible language, is based mainly on spectacular visual content, and, along with other purposes, is entertaining. It involves a wide range of bright content of different types that will be well perceived by the mass consumer – videos, graphic materials (visualizations, diagrams). This media object would destroy the popular stereotype that saving the environment and responsible human behavior in nature is attractive only to a “narrow circle of limited people” (Choksey 7). With its help, it would be possible to demonstrate how to talk about ecology in a non-boring and diverse way. It is easier to awaken the viewer’s awareness and attract them to the problem through interactive and game animation form because traditional social advertising rarely motivates a modern person (Antal 39). An interactive format and video interviews with real people will resonate with the audience and encourage them to change their environmental habits.
Works Cited
Antal, Attila. “Environmental Justice and Autocracy in Eastern Europe.” The Case of Hungary, edited by Stacia Ryder et al., 2021, pp. 31-42.
Choksey, Lara. Environmental Racialisation and Poetics of Influence in The Postgenomic Era: Fire, Soil, Spirit. 2021, Web.
Colarossi, Natalie.”10 Egregious Examples of Environmental Racism in the US.” Insider, 2020, Web.
“Environmental Racism in Louisiana’s ‘Cancer Alley’ Must End, Say UN Human Rights Experts.” UN News, Web.
Stormydhae, Kelsey, and Nuala Cabral. “Presenting Our Perspective on Philly Youth News.” Engaging Youth in Critical Arts Pedagogies and Creative Research for Social Justice, edited by Kristen P. Goessling et al., 2021, pp. 81 – 83.