Page Center grants focus on ethics in environmental communication

A book about ethics in environmental communication is the planned outcome for most of the $48,800 in research grants just awarded to 14 scholars by the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication at Penn State.
 
Since its founding in 2004, the Page Center has awarded approximately $336,000 in grants to academics and professionals making important contributions to knowledge, practice and public understanding of ethics and responsibility in public communication. 

This year the center received 33 proposals from researchers at 30 academic institutions and four professional organizations in 18 states and five foreign countries before selecting 10 academic projects to fund.

Those who received environmental communication grants and the titles of their projects are:

• Brant Short of Northern Arizona University, “From Greenwashing to Social Advocacy: The Ethical Imperative in Green Branding”;
• Janas Sinclair of the University of North Carolina and Barbara Miller of Elon University, “The Values Basis of Public Response to Marketplace Advocacy and Effects on Environmental Attitudes”;
• Harsha Gangadharbatia and Kim Sheehan of the University of Oregon, “Framing the Environmental Issue: Implications for Advocates”;
• Jacob Park  of Green Mountain College, “BP and the Beyond Petroleum Campaign: Ethical Organizational Environmental Communication Case Study in the Business Context”;
• Joe Brewer of Cognitive Policy Works and Tom Crompton of the World Wildlife Federation, United Kingdom, “Cognitive Impacts of Environmental Communications.”
• Charles T. Salmon of Michigan State University, “Examining Unintended Consequences of Environmental Social Marketing”; and
• Lee Ahern and Denise Bortree of Penn State, “Changing themes in strategic environmental communication: A 30-year history of green ads in National Geographic magazine” 

“We’re funding projects this year that will inform theory and practice in this growing and critically important area,” said Center associate director Cinda Kostyak.
 
“We hope the research generated by this year’s grant winners will form the basis of an edited volume on current ethical issues in environmental communication,” said Ahern, an assistant professor of communications at Penn State and co-principal investigator for the Project for Ethical Environmental Communication. Bortree, also an assistant professor of communications at Penn State, is the other principal investigator. 

“We see this as an exercise in engaged scholarship,” said Ahern. “It should inform practitioners from industry, government and advocacy organizations in their work on raising awareness, changing attitudes and promoting pro-environmental behaviors.” 

One of the spurs for the Page Center’s “Ethical Environmental Communication Project” is a 2008 essay by Tom Crompton titled “Weathercocks & Signposts: The Environmental Movement at a Crossroads.” The paper caused a stir in the environmental community and beyond.

“It calls for a better understanding of the organizational voices that are being heard on environmental issues, what those voices are saying and to what effect,” said Ahern. “The scholarship being underwritten by the Page Center is an important step in that direction.”

Three other research projects also were funded by the Page Center for 2009-10. The grant recipients and their projects are:

• David Remund, doctoral candidate at the University of North Carolina, “The World’s Work: Editorial Writings of Arthur W. Page, 1919–1927, and the Advent of Social Responsibility in Corporate Communications.”
• Nancy Snow of Syracuse University, “Truth is the Best Propaganda: Edward R. Murrow at the U.S. Information Agency.”
• Richard H. Cummings, an independent scholar, “The Great Fund Raiser: Arthur W. Page’s role in the evolution of Radio Free Europe and the success of the nation-wide Crusade for Freedom.”  

The Page Center is named for the man who is considered the world’s pioneer in corporate public relations. Arthur W. Page joined AT&T in 1927 and became known for setting high standards for ethical communication. His views have been distilled into the Page Principles, his guidelines for ethical and effective communication.

The Center was created with a leadership gift from Lawrence G. Foster, retired corporate vice president for Johnson & Johnson, and distinguished Penn State alumnus. The Johnson family foundation and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation also have given significant support. Robert Wood Johnson was the long-time chair of Johnson & Johnson, the family business that he built into the largest health and medical product company. He was well known as a practitioner and promoter of corporate social responsibility. 

The Center, a unit of Penn State’s College of Communications, seeks to foster a modern understanding and application of the Page Principles and Johnson’s business philosophy by supporting innovative research, educational or public service projects in a variety of academic disciplines and professional fields. In honor of Arthur W. Page and Robert Wood Johnson, grant recipients are called Page or Johnson Legacy Scholars. 

The deadline for the next round of grant proposals is March 5, 2010.