Last class, we discussed the articles by Gabrys, Miller and Maxwell in which they drew attention to relative absence of interest in the environment consequences of media culture in Media and Communication Studies. While this may seem like an empirical issue, their broader argument is a theoretical conceptual one that asks us to examine why these are issues that are only now coming to our attention. While scholarly work is an important part of this project, the importance of raising awareness about the “dirty” secrets of our immaterial information economy is a project that has also involved a variety of other forms of creative contributions. There have been a number of films that have drawn attention to this issue, as well as come other digital media that have brought light to these issues.

Website for the game Phone Story.

Following up on our class last week, here are some of the games that we discussed. These include Phone Story, which was banned from the Apple App Store among others. There has also been increased coverage about the conditions in various factories, for example this story about Apple’s factories as recently as this past December. Finally, there have been a number of films, including the film E-wasteland.