Transmedia Educommunication for Sustainability in the Context of the Climate Crisis

The project addresses theoretical and methodological aspects of transmedia communication with a focus on planning educommunication strategies aimed at developing sustainability actions in the context of the climate crisis. We understand sustainability not only in terms of its environmental, social, cultural, and economic dimensions but also in terms of its communicational dimension, which is still understudied. In our proposal, communicational sustainability refers to both material aspects, such as energy infrastructure and equipment, and immaterial aspects, particularly the emotional, cognitive, cultural, and socio-political implications of socio-technical interactions. In this sense, we are interested in understanding the impact of immaterial aspects that “pollute” the communication process and affect its sustainability, such as disinformation, scientific and climate denialism, conspiracy theories, hate speech, and emerging forms of digital colonialism. Based on this understanding, the project seeks to investigate how and to what extent the notion of sustainability applied to transmedia communication can contribute to fostering educommunication strategies aimed at developing collective actions that promote cultural diversity, social responsibility, and environmental awareness in the context of the climate crisis. The methodological strategy is based on the project team’s previous experience with communication planning in transmedia education for public schools in Portuguese-speaking countries, with didactic experiments carried out in East Timor (2017), Mozambique (2018, 2019, 2021), and Brazil (2019, 2022, 2023). The methodology already tested comprises the following phases: diagnosis, planning, product development, implementation, and evaluation. The aim of this project is to improve the methodology with a focus on promoting communicational, social, economic, and cultural sustainability in the context of the climate crisis. The original methodological proposal is to be discussed with researchers from Sweden who work at the interface of communication, education, and sustainability, and then tested in public schools in Brazil and Mozambique. After any adjustments made during the evaluation phase, the methodology will be made available on the research website, aiming to contribute to greater global awareness of the climate crisis based on local experiences in a variety of school environments. The theoretical-methodological approach also involves a literature review, exploratory research, systematic observation, corpus configuration, and data analysis, with applications in teaching and extension activities at the proposing and partner institutions. It is hoped that this initiative will help stimulate the formation of an international research network in the area of transmedia communication, education, and sustainability, with a focus on tackling the climate crisis.

General Objective

• To investigate the sustainable perspective of transmedia communication and its application in educommunication strategies aimed at developing actions that promote cultural diversity, social responsibility, and environmental awareness in the context of the climate crisis.

Specific Objectives

• Reflect on the notion of communicational sustainability, considering its social, cultural, economic, and environmental dimensions.
  
  
• Examine the material and immaterial dimensions of communicational sustainability in transmedia dynamics.
  
  
• Evaluate the local impact of disinformation, scientific and climate denialism, conspiracy theories, hate speech, and emerging forms of digital colonialism on the immaterial sustainability of the communication process and on social understanding of the climate crisis.
  
  
• Develop an original methodology in transmedia educommunication with a focus on social sustainability, considering its cultural, economic and communicational dimensions in the context of the climate crisis.
  
  
• Apply the original methodology to be developed in school environments in Brazil and Mozambique, and evaluate its capacity to favor global sustainability actions in the context of the climate crisis based on local experiences.
  
  
• Discuss the original methodology with researchers from Sweden who work in the field of education and communication, with a specialty in sustainability, with the aim of improving it for public access on the research website.
  
  
• Stimulate the formation of an international research network in the area of transmedia educommunication focused on education and sustainability, aiming at socially confronting the climate crisis.