Greens: what Greens? - Environmentalism and the Media

The next Media Central public forum, held on 7 October, will explore
recent media coverage of the Greens in light of the forthcoming election
and contextualise environmental protests from the Franklin to the Styx.

The Greens are set to hold the balance of power in the Senate in the
coming election on October 9, but the mainstream media seem determined
to ignore them. Bob Brown has to fight for media coverage and when he
gets any he's immediately branded a 'media-slut'. Likewise
throughout the last two decades environmental protest groups such as the
Wilderness Society have often been given the same kind of treatment.
Initially the media covers the protests but then withdraws its favours.

Journalist Libby Lester has covered environmental politics for the
Sunday Age, Melbourne Herald, Launceston Examiner, Hobart Mercury,
The Age and The Good Weekend. Her series on boat people received a
UNAA Media Peace Awards special citation in 1997. She now lectures in
the Journalism and Media Studies Program at the University of Tasmania.

Amanda Lohrey is a freelance writer and author of a number of novels;
The Morality of Gentleman (APCOL & Picador), The Reading Group,
(Picador), and Camille's Bread, (Harper Collins) which won the ASAL
Gold Medal for 1996 and the Victorian Premier's Prize for Fiction
1996. Her most recent piece of non-fiction is Groundswell, The Rise of
the Greens, Quarterly Essay 8 (Black Inc Books 2001). She lectures at
the University of Queensland.

What: Greens: what Greens? - Environmentalism and the Media with
speakers Libby Lester and Amanda Lohrey.
Where: Upstairs at the Gaelic Club (64 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills)
- near Central Station, Sydney.
When: Thursday, 7 October. 6:30pm for a 7pm start. (6:30-9:30pm).
Drinks may be purchased at the bar.

For more information on MEDIA CENTRAL contact Christine Jones at
cjones@scmp.mq.edu.au or on (02) 9850 8786, or visit
http://www.media.mq.edu.au/mediacentral/