CS 412I
Oil Sands Media
Holding 97% of Canada’s oil, whose proven reserves are the third largest on the planet, Alberta’s oil sands are, to put it lightly, a contentious project. The sands are seen by some as a source of widespread wealth that fuels the Canadian economy. But they have also been described by journalist Chris Turner in The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands (2017) as “the first major battleground in a global conflict over the future of energy in the Anthropocene epoch.” This course takes Turner’s observation as a point of departure to investigate how competing representations of the oil sands have culminated in something of an oil culture wars in Canada. Oil culture wars draws attention to how the conflict between those content with the present fossil fuel society and those who seek to move beyond it has moved from boardrooms and streets into an expanded media landscape. In these ways, culture, which includes how we think, feel, and relate to Canadian oil, and the broader media landscape has become a site of struggle over our energy futures. This course examines the contours of the oil culture wars in Canada through an engagement with media campaigns and communications strategies produced and employed by key oil sands stakeholders who support or challenge the oil sands megaproject from its inception in the late 1960s to the present. These stakeholders include government, industry, Indigenous communities and nations, Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs), and civil society. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the political economy and ecology of the oil sands region, the state of environmental, science, and climate change communication today, as well as current debates within environmental media studies and the energy humanities. Assignments will be both creative and critical in nature.
Holding 97% of Canada’s oil, whose proven reserves are the third largest on the planet, Alberta’s oil sands are, to put it lightly, a contentious project. The sands are seen by some as a source of widespread wealth that fuels the Canadian economy. But they have also been described by journalist Chris Turner in The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands (2017) as “the first major battleground in a global conflict over the future of energy in the Anthropocene epoch.” This course takes Turner’s observation as a point of departure to investigate how competing representations of the oil sands have culminated in something of an oil culture wars in Canada. Oil culture wars draws attention to how the conflict between those content with the present fossil fuel society and those who seek to move beyond it has moved from boardrooms and streets into an expanded media landscape. In these ways, culture, which includes how we think, feel, and relate to Canadian oil, and the broader media landscape has become a site of struggle over our energy futures. This course examines the contours of the oil culture wars in Canada through an engagement with media campaigns and communications strategies produced and employed by key oil sands stakeholders who support or challenge the oil sands megaproject from its inception in the late 1960s to the present. These stakeholders include government, industry, Indigenous communities and nations, Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs), and civil society. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the political economy and ecology of the oil sands region, the state of environmental, science, and climate change communication today, as well as current debates within environmental media studies and the energy humanities. Assignments will be both creative and critical in nature.
Holding 97% of Canada’s oil, whose proven reserves are the third largest on the planet, Alberta’s oil sands are, to put it lightly, a contentious project. The sands are seen by some as a source of widespread wealth that fuels the Canadian economy. But they have also been described by journalist Chris Turner in The Patch: The People, Pipelines, and Politics of the Oil Sands (2017) as “the first major battleground in a global conflict over the future of energy in the Anthropocene epoch.” This course takes Turner’s observation as a point of departure to investigate how competing representations of the oil sands have culminated in something of an oil culture wars in Canada. Oil culture wars draws attention to how the conflict between those content with the present fossil fuel society and those who seek to move beyond it has moved from boardrooms and streets into an expanded media landscape. In these ways, culture, which includes how we think, feel, and relate to Canadian oil, and the broader media landscape has become a site of struggle over our energy futures. This course examines the contours of the oil culture wars in Canada through an engagement with media campaigns and communications strategies produced and employed by key oil sands stakeholders who support or challenge the oil sands megaproject from its inception in the late 1960s to the present. These stakeholders include government, industry, Indigenous communities and nations, Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations (ENGOs), and civil society. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the political economy and ecology of the oil sands region, the state of environmental, science, and climate change communication today, as well as current debates within environmental media studies and the energy humanities. Assignments will be both creative and critical in nature.
