Media, ecology and conservation:using the media to protect the world's wildlife and ecosystems

The second book in The Converging World series, Media, Ecology and Conservation focuses on global connectivity and the role of new digital and traditional media in bringing people together to protect the world's endangered wildlife and conserve fragile and threatened habitats. New media offers opportunities for like-minded individuals, community groups, businesses and public organisations to learn and work cooperatively for the good of all species. One of the key themes of this book explores the important issue of how new information and communication technologies mediate the natural world, and our understanding of our place in it. By exploring the role of film, television, video, photography and the internet in animal conservation in the USA, India, Africa, Australia and the United Kingdom John Blewitt investigates the politics of media representation surrounding important controversies such as the trade in bushmeat, whaling and habitat destruction. The work and achievements of media/conservation activists are located within a cultural framework that simultaneously loves nature, reveres animals but too often ignores the uncomfortable realities of species extinction and animal cruelty.

Review

WHEN MEDIA ARE NEW: UNDERSTANDING THE DYNAMICS OF NEW MEDIA ADOPTION AND USE, JOHN CAREY AND MARTIN C. J. ELTON (2010) Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press (374 pp.), ISBN 978-0-472-05085-7, $47.50 (paperback). YOU ARE NOT A GADGET: A MANIFESTO, JARON LANIER (2011) New York: Vintage (240 pp.), ISBN 978-0307389978, $15 (paperback) EXTRAORDINARY CANADIANS: MARSHALL McLUHAN, DOUGLAS COUPLAND (2010) Toronto, Canada: Penguin Canada (208 pp.), ISBN 9780670069224, $26 (hardback)

The Library of Birmingham project:lifelong learning for the digital age

The Library of Birmingham (LoB) is a £193million project designed to provide a new space for lifelong learning and knowledge growth, a physical and virtual portal for Birmingham's citizens to the wider world. In cooperation with a range of private, public, and third-sector bodies, as well as individual citizens, the library, due to open in June 2013, will articulate a continuing process of organic growth and emergence. Key delivery themes focus on: arts and creativity, citizenship and community, enterprise and innovation, learning and skills and the new media ecology. A landmark design in the heart of the cultural district of the city, the LoB aims to stimulate sustainable economic growth, urban regeneration and social inclusion by offering a wide range of new digital learning services, real and virtual community spaces, and new opportunities for interpreting and exploiting internationally significant collections of documentary archives, photography, moving image, and rare printed books. Additionally, the LoB will offer physical space for creative, cultural, enterprise, and knowledge development. This paper outlines the cultural and educational thinking that informs the project and the challenges experienced in developing innovative service redesign.

Book reviews

Amor Technologiae: Marshall McLuhan as Philosopher of Technology – Toward a Philosophy of Human-Media Relationships, Yoni Van Den Eede (2012) Brussels, Belgium: ASP VUB Press, 517 pp., ISBN: 978-9057181870, p/bk, €29.95 Titanic Century: Media, Myth and the Making of a Cultural Icon, Paul Heyer (2012) Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 211 pp., ISBN 978-0-313-39815-5, h/bk, $48.00 Media Environments, Barry Vacker (ed.) (2010) San Diego, CA: Cognella, 546 pp., ISBN: 978-1935551348, p/bk, $142.50 Networked Reenactments: Stories Transdisciplinary Knowledges Tell, Katie King (2012) Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 392 pp., ISBN: 978-0822350729, p/bk, $25.95

The ecology of percolating filters containing a plastic filter medium in relation to their efficiency in The treatment of domestic sewage

The suitability of a new plastic supporting medium for biofiltration was tested over a three year period. Tests were carried out on the stability, surface properties, mechanical strength, and dimensions of the medium. There was no evidence to suggest that the medium was deficient in any of these respects. The specific surface (320m2m-3) and the voidage (94%) of the new medium are unlike any other used in bio-filtration and a pilot plant containing two filters was built to observe its effects on ecology and performance. Performance was estimated by chemical analysis and ecology studied by film examination and fauna counts. A system of removable sampling baskets was designed to enable samples to be obtained from two intermediate depths of filter. One of the major operating problems of percolating filters is excessive accumulation of film. The amount of film is influenced by hydraulic and organic load and each filter was run at a different loading. One was operated at 1.2m3m-3day-1 (DOD load 0.24kgm-3day-1) judged at the time to be the lowest filtration rate to offer advantages over conventional media. The other filter was operated at more than twice this loading (2.4m3m-3day-lBOD load 0.55kgm-3day-1) giving a roughly 2.5x and 6x the conventional loadings recommended for a Royal Commission effluent. The amount of film in each filter was normally low (0.05-3kgm(3 as volatile solids) and did not affect efficiency. The evidence collected during the study indicated that the ecology of the filters was normal when compared with the data obtained from the literature relating to filters with mineral media. There were indications that full ecological stability was yet to be reached and this was affecting the efficiency of the filters. The lower rate filter produced an average 87% BOD removal giving a consistent Royal Commission effluent during the summer months. The higher rate filter produced a mean 83% BOD removal but at no stage a consistent Royal Commission effluent. From the data on ecology and performance the filters resembled conventional filters rather than high rate filters.