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2014). One response has been to partner with non-government organisations (Grayson 2014; Myers 2008) – an image-hungry sector that Popular Photography magazine advises its readers is the eighth largest economy in the world, worth more than US$1 trillion a year (Myers 2008). The position of landscape and wildlife photographers is not entirely congruent with that of other photographers made vulnerable by disruptions to the business models of corporate media. The subjects and attractiveness of their images mean they may be well placed to take advantage of any editorial preference for the soft commercial genres of travel and lifestyle journalism. It is also noteworthy that working closely with ENGOs is nothing new for conservation photographers – many have been doing it for decades (Mittermeier 2005), albeit that ENGOs often expect them to donate their time and supply images free of charge (ibid). Conservation photographers are defined as nature photographers who go beyond ‘documenting nature or creating works of art’ to make images that help ‘protect the subject they depict’: RESEARCH PAPER Conservation photography showcases both the vanishing beauty of our planet and its disappearing spirit, and it puts the image ‘to work’. It is the pictorial voice used by many conservation organizations to further their messages (ibid: 8). In addition to working with ENGOs, photographers committed to conservation usually conduct their own distribution via personal websites and social media, books, workshops, presentations and exhibitions (Seelig 2014). Some run their own ENGOs. Nevertheless, professional nature photographers are likely to make a portion of the income they derive from their images by licensing them to mainstream media, other corporations or government agencies. Many conservation photographers believe that distributing their work through multiple outlets – mainstream media as well as ENGO and personal channels – increases the likelihood their images will reach both environmentally conscious and uncommitted audiences (see, for example, ibid). Although some conservation photography also documents environmental damage (ibid; Peeples 2011), arresting images of wildlife and unspoiled nature continue to play an important part in ENGO marketing and mobilisation (Schwarz 2013). But there are many examples of the visual discourse of environmental concern and action being appropriated by commercial interests (Hansen and Machin 2008; Doyle 2007; Linder 2006). An attractive image of nature that functions well as activism can also be an effective advertisement for tourism (see Urry and Larsen 2011) or – abstracted and decontextualised – an array of other brands and commodities (see Hansen and Machin 2008; Doyle 2007; Linder 2006). On the one hand, conservation photographers who partner with ENGOs Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016 17
Lyn McGaurr travel to sites of environmental risk or conflict they might otherwise have been unable to visit, ensuring a flow of issue-related images for distribution in not-for-profit and mainstream media. On the other hand, subsequent distribution and associated processes of post-production may see images stripped of their political charge and re-purposed in ways that contribute to consumerism. Hansen and Machin (2008: 779) highlight the value of ‘representations that locate and connect … issues in actual concrete processes such as global capitalism and consumerism’. One tactic conservation photographers may use to attract mainstream distribution for photographs of this kind is the image event. These actions are forms of activism deliberately designed and staged ‘to attract the attention of the mass media and disseminate persuasive images to a wide audience’ (Johnson 2007: 2). They put alternative or activist media to use in an attempt to engage, disrupt or penetrate mainstream media or in other ways make social movement concerns into highly charged issues to which decision-makers will feel compelled to respond (DeLuca 1999). The case study I present in this paper unpacks some of the possible implications of image events for the public sphere and ENGOs by examining a Rapid Assessment Visual Expedition (RAVE) organised by the non-profit International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) in the Great Bear Rainforest of British Columbia, Canada, in September 2010, in association with the Gitga’at First Nations, ENGO Pacific Wild, the National Geographic Society and EP Films, among other partners. The RAVE can be described as an image event because the visual novelty of many famous conservation photographers working together in one wild and beautiful place at one time to promote an environmental issue was intended to attract mainstream media coverage and provide opportunities for participants’ images to be widely disseminated. The event featured in an allied documentary that screened internationally, a travelling exhibition, and in mainstream media such as the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) television programme Nightline and the online news site of the Guardian. The Great Bear Rainforest RAVE was also covered by participatory journalism outlets such as the Commonsense Canadian and the Tyee. Participatory journalism ‘adopts the values and practices of mainstream news production and public opinion to cover issues, concerns, perspectives and communities that are ordinarily sidelined in mainstream press’ (Lievrouw 2011: 215). It is one of five genres Lievrouw identifies as alternative or activist new media. The other four are culture jamming, alternative computing, mediated mobilisation and commons knowledge. The definition of ‘activist media’ I adopt in this paper combines aspects of the last two of these genres. When I refer to ‘activist media’, I am describing digital and non-digital media products created, curated, packaged 18 Copyright 2016-2/3. Ethical Space: The International Journal of Communication Ethics. All rights reserved. Vol 13, No 2/3 2016
Page 1 and 2: Beyond clickbait and commerce The e
Page 4 and 5: Contents Editorial Looking beyond t
Page 6 and 7: EDITORIAL Looking beyond the tradit
Page 8 and 9: These questions of independence are
Page 10 and 11: of the work produced by foundation-
Page 12 and 13: Crisis Center, for example, has a g
Page 14 and 15: library that spotlights progress in
Page 16 and 17: journalists working on the developm
Page 18 and 19: Note on the contributor Dr Mel Bunc
Page 22 and 23: and/or distributed by ENGOs to mobi
Page 24 and 25: democratic dissent’, while DeLuca
Page 26 and 27: ecording the interviews, I engaged
Page 28 and 29: spent two weeks collecting images a
Page 30 and 31: Although photographs of spirit bear
Page 32 and 33: up the article ‘Pipeline through
Page 34 and 35: Alexandra Garcia, iLCP communicatio
Page 36 and 37: killed/, accessed on 27 December 20
Page 38 and 39: Dave Harte ‘Tell it like it is’
Page 40 and 41: Veronica Coatham and Lisa Martinali
Page 42 and 43: which content its audience is most
Page 44 and 45: in the 1990s and early 2000s. Borge
Page 46 and 47: in Leeds, he notes the valuable rol
Page 48 and 49: Yet the nature of the journalism at
Page 50 and 51: Foucault, Michel (1980) Power/Knowl
Page 52 and 53: Unitec research colleagues; media p
Page 54 and 55: voice in seven unique contexts was
Page 56 and 57: therefore, challenging to strike th
Page 58 and 59: 7 The Pacifica Mamas, ‘matriarchs
Page 60 and 61: sharing approach to collaboration,
Page 62 and 63: programme, and they wanted the spot
Page 64 and 65: and that I was entrusting myself to
Page 66 and 67: ecosystem (Cooren 2015b). In a 2015
Page 68 and 69: Saifoloi, Malama, Stowers-Ama, Jarc
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informed citizenry. Most see journa
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While there is no universally accep
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news organisation are decisions to
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is largely seen as unethical to ask
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open to paying for content. Others
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Conclusions Overall, oppositional n
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Foster, Michelle (2012) Calling the
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Judith Townend ‘Charitable journa
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In the second category, where the r
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Among the issues is the Charity Com
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House of Lords (2012) House of Lord
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press in a democracy to campaign, l
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The tribunal’s decision For the p
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charitable journalism may be recogn
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Denis Muller Conflict of interest:
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Tanner et al. (2005: 187) identify
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to its audiences. To engage in jour
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creating a commercial climate in wh
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that a sponsor would have no role i
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Items about Dove not labelled as sp
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their public-interest responsibilit
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Murtha, Jack and Gourarie, Chava (2
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Recognising the shadow elements of
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admits that ‘systematic’ may be
Page 118 and 119:
Rather than ethics being an issue t
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