Art of Green Learning: From Protest Songs to Media Mind Bombs

This article examines the role of "public education" as a component of social movement strategy. Its focus is on the environmental movement and its need to develop methods for widespread dissemination of the "green" message. The author examines the history of public education in a host of social movement organisations (SMOs) including the labour and civil rights movements, and draws comparisons about the potential for the use of these same tactics by the green movement. The author develops a Progressive Social Learning and Social Change Model based on the usage of the arts, formal and informal education, the media and non-governmental organisation (NGO) activities in past and contemporary social movement settings.

The author suggests that public education of the type necessary to advance the green movement must go beyond the standard communication channels and their emphasis on media, advertising and community networks. Learning channels like music, drama, and literature are under-appreciated in their importance and potential. This requires a more extensive "map" of societal learning channels; multiple audiences are involved, including the immediate SMO constituent members, the larger public, and governments. According to the author, one of the least examined areas is the interaction between culture and learning, an increasingly important feature of social change.

One example of this is the history of protest music, which is important because it encompasses much more than its immediate message and has the special quality of inter-era survivability. The role of music in social movement learning can be characterised in three stages. First was the grassroots folk music that was an integral part of the early labour and civil rights movement experiences. Music has multiple roles of entertainment, learning, and providing for emotional links with movement participants. The second stage is identified with the topical songs of the 1960s, and seminal artists such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. These songs helped spread progressive ideas into mass culture and drew attention to the Vietnam War, women's issues, and the nuclear debate. The third phase is that of the international mega-musical events that occurred throughout the 1980s, beginning with the LiveAid concerts that drew attention to the severe famines occurring in Africa. The main contribution of these events is their large reach to otherwise inattentive public audiences through mass communication media. The green movement has been less successful in seizing on music in any of these ways as a medium for large-scale communication of its message. There are relatively few environmental folk-music songs, though a host of artists take environmental positions and contribute their time and energy and large environmental concerts are rare.

While the arts play an important role in learning, the media has been the traditionally recognised format for awareness and social change campaigns: the "media mind-bomb." The author points out some of the reasons for this dominant position. First is the agenda setting power of the media and its role as the main source of information for the mass public - it is able to prime audiences with regard to discussion about particular topics and events. Second is the mass media's ability to change world-views, largely through the crafting of images instead of the presentation of deeper content. Greenpeace has been particularly active in the development of a communications department with the sophistication and skills necessary to craft powerful image based messages. Thirdly, media can function as an impetus for social change, though there is debate about how and which acts of protest receive coverage and thus might contribute. This works as a double edged sword for most SMOs because the media encourages them to concentrate their energies on events that will draw attention, such as demonstrations and direct action, a strategy that often requires increasing levels of militancy which inevitably alienates movements from the general public.

In order to better control their image vis-à-vis the media, SMOs have often turned towards the increasingly complex networks of alternative media in order to pursue their goals and objectives. These alternative medias include NGO newsletters, telephone trees, and independent presses. The environmental movement has been more active in this field, even though the mainstream media remains the focus owing to the necessity of reaching the largest possible audiences. The weak contextual presentation of issues (the sound-bite effect) of the mass media is, however, a substantial limitation for environmental learning.

Another avenue for social learning is the usage of informal schools. These played an important role in training labour activists during the 1930s and again during the civil rights drive in an attempt to improve voter registration and educate southern blacks about the important role that they played in the political process. The environmental movement has not used this particular strategy to much effect, though some direct action training camps have been set-up in recent years. On the other hand, formal environmental education has become widespread throughout elementary, secondary and post-secondary curriculums and institutions.

All of these methods can be linked and better understood using a Progressive Social Learning and Social Change Model that takes into account the importance of arts, media, and educational systems for achieving various types of social education. All three channels interact with each other, though they operate on different levels. The results are also likely to vary depending on the audience. While newspapers may be useful for reaching portions of the populace and conveying deeper information, they are less likely to reach the "inattentive public," which requires the far broader penetration of television, and both are largely ineffective for the deep learning needed to contribute to genuine behavioural changes.

The end result is to attempt to effect change on several different levels within society, beginning with efforts to impact civil society itself and the organised collectivities. An educated and activated public can then influence governments and intergovernmental organisations to adopt positive policy changes and can eventually contribute to actual government learning about the issues at hand so that government itself becomes the impetus for change. The author provides several suggestions for concrete strategies that will contribute to improved environmental education - these include:

• greater emphasis on cultural activities
• more independent media
• a network of green schools for activists
• green Sunday schools for children

The environmental movement is, however, faced with a challenge that other social movements did not encounter - namely the separation between the individual's sense of "self" and the environment. While civil rights and labour activists argued for better conditions for them-"selves", the environmental movement must first get the public to internalise the environment in the manner proposed by deep ecology advocates. There is also the challenge of creating a greater sense of community within the movement - participants are drawn from a much wider pool and they typically spend less time together than did participants in the civil rights or labour movements. In concluding, the author argues that the key for the environmental movement is to use the full range of learning channels in order to effect changes on the mass public and through them on government policy.