MEDIA RELEASE: R00008 – 17 January 2017
Ten years ago this month Steve Jobs announced an electronic gadget that would turn into a cultural phenomenon: the iPhone.
Since then, the release of each generation of the device has been surrounded by media buzz. But Brock University researcher Jennifer Good says the media pays alarmingly little attention to the other end of the line — when billions of electronic devices become trash.
That lack of awareness-raising, she says, is largely why the public remains indifferent to an environmental nightmare that should be setting off alarm bells.
The United Nations Environment Program says that, in 2017 alone, consumer goods like computers and smart phones will likely generate more than 50 million tonnes of e-waste around the world, contributing to the planet’s towering “waste mountain.”
And because most of it is illegally dumped to avoid the cost of safe disposal, e-waste poses a serious threat to human health and the environment due to the hazardous elements it contains.
Good, an associate professor in Brock’s Department of Communication, Popular Culture and Film, studies how the media covers electronics consumption, and shares her findings in “Creating iPhone Dreams: Annihilating E-waste Nightmares,” published in a recent issue of the Canadian Journal of Communication.
Her studies show a stark contrast between the media fixation on hyped product launches, versus apparent media indifference to the threat created when these goods are recklessly discarded.
She says people aren’t more worried about the situation because they’re ignorant to it.
“Stories that make connections between iPhones and electronic wastes are annihilated,” says Good, “but these stories need to be told, since every stage of electronics’ life cycle takes a huge toll on humans and the environment.”
In its conclusion, Good’s study in the Canadian Journal of Communication concedes that people cannot know about or be interested in issues that they’re not reading or hearing about.
“In the absence of the manufacturing corporations and news outlets putting our voracious electronics consumption in a context of human and environmental suffering, perhaps we need another institution to help. Perhaps education is the bridge between iPhone dreams and environmental nightmares.
“Education can help us make sense of not only electronic waste but also the entire life cycle of our electronics,” she says.
For more on Good’s research, including more detailed facts and figures, see the story on The Brock News.
Associate Professor Jennifer Good is available for interviews to discuss her research.
For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:
* Dan Dakin, Media Relations Officer, Brock University ddakin@brocku.ca, 905-688-5550 x5353 or 905-347-1970
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