Encoding and Decoding Story, Place, and Self: Towards Situated Environmental Journalism in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

Presented by: Beatriz Sprada Mira, PhD Candidate in Communication and Media Studies
Location: Virtual - Click here to join via Zoom

How can journalism help communities tell their own environmental stories? In this talk, Beatriz Sprada Mira shares insights from her fieldwork along Brazil’s Paraná coast—home to the largest remaining stretch of the critically endangered Atlantic Forest. Through interviews with 33 residents and journalists, newsroom observations, and community dialogues, Mira examined how environmental issues are represented in local news and how culture shapes both storytelling and audience engagement.

Her findings reveal deep gaps in media coverage—stories often focused only on tourism or catastrophe—yet also a strong desire among local communicators to reclaim their narratives. With support from CLLAS and other partners, Mira created a community advisory board and co-developed a Culturally Situated Environmental Journalism Guide to help journalists produce more inclusive, representative, and place-based reporting.

Join us as Mira discusses how centering local knowledge and cultural identity can transform environmental journalism and amplify the voices of communities most impacted by ecological change.

This event is presented by the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies at University of Oregon