In 2015 the United Nations set out an ambitious plan under UN Resolution 70/1 to prioritize seventeen separate goals over a fifteen-year period to promote health, life, equality, and the environment. The Sustainable Development Goals include ending poverty and hunger; Reducing Inequality; promoting good health and well-being; quality education; gender equality; clean water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation, and infrastructure; sustainable cities and communities; responsible consumption and production; climate action; life under water; life on land; peace, justice, and strong institutions; and developing partnerships to achieve these goals. This book examines the way in which SDG initiatives have been disseminated by mainstream media, in government discourse and by NGO's, charitable organisations, and campaign groups. It questions to what extent sustainability narratives are being supported and how they represented; how saving the environment can be made pertinent to someone who has no access to clean food or running water; and why local initiatives (in which indigenous populations are making a real difference) are overshadowed by multinationals whose attempts to rectify the damage their goods have done gains more credible reportage.
Ben Harbisher is a senior lecturer at De Montfort University, Leicester.
Introduction, Ben Harbisher Part I: Social Theory and Politics Chapter 1: The Social Construct of Sustainability in Media Development, Michel Leroy Chapter 2: United Nations SDG on Gender Equality, Mariana Abreu and Barbara Lima Chapter 3: 'Collateral Benefits' and the 'International Community': discursive realignment after the fall of Kabul, Stuart Price Part II: Mediation and Framing Chapter 4: The Forgotten SDGs, Delayney Harness, Julius Klingelhoefer, and Shiv Ganesh Chapter 5: Greenwashing Bali: How Multinationals Appropriated the UN SDG Environment Agenda, Ben Harbisher Chapter 6: What Difference Does It Make? The importance of Documentary Film to Sustainable Development Goals in a post-truth world, Rhys Davies Chapter Seven - Richard Irwin - Fragments of Nature Chapter 8: Nigerian Data Policies - New Developments in State Surveillance; Jenifer Ere Part III: Sustainability and Education Chapter 9: Transversal Feminism, SDGs, and Digital Media Literacy in Mexico: an Oaxacan Study, Jason Lee Chapter 10: Promoting Sustainable Development Goals to University Students in Cambodia, Steven Graham Chapter 11: A Communication Strategy for Climate Change Solutions, Candy Marisol Hernandez and Heidy Isabel
