Abstract

Environmental campaign awareness is a precursor to partaking in environmentally sustainable actions promoted by formal organizations. Although it is presumed relevant media visibility will lead to greater awareness, little research has investigated how media presence relates to individuals’ awareness of, or participation in, the national and international environmental campaigns available in Australia. This study presents key findings from secondary analysis of newspaper and Internet mentions of eight environmental organizations and compares this with an online survey of 412 higher education employees and students at an Australian university seeking to improve its organizational environmental sustainability literacy and activity levels. Findings reveal differential trends between media presence and specific campaigns as well as varied levels of awareness and participation among the campaigns. Contextualized in critical theory, key recommendations make conceptual and practical suggestions for augmenting communication and engagement strategies with environmental issues and groups in light of existing research.