METIS · Media studies and Ethnographic techniques for Transformative Insights and Shifts after Climate-Related Disasters

The proposed research project METIS – Media studies and Ethnographic techniques for Transformative Insights and Shifts after Climate-Related Disasters – aims to address a persistent gap in the contribution of social sciences to Disaster Research (DR), specifically regarding the impact of social media discourse production on everyday experience in the aftermath of climate-related disasters. By approaching social media as an integral component of social reality, the project aims to bring together digital methods and focused ethnography, tracing an interdisciplinary journey between media studies and DR to investigate how the main narratives present in social media contribute to shaping the experience of affected people. METIS focuses on floods, a specific form of climate-related disaster, and selects Italy (IT) and Australia (AU), two countries repeatedly affected in recent history, yet presenting distinct morphological, political, and cultural features. The public discourse on digital media – overloaded and fast-paced during emergencies, and central to the flow of aid, emotional sharing, and solidarity support – continues to play a key role, helping to convey and shape the different epistemic positions about the future of territories and housing conditions. The overall goal of METIS is the analysis of public discourse, aimed at understanding whether the epistemic issues raised by disasters in affected territories also become matters of public debate, vice versa whether the local issues become mainstream topic, and what impact the discourse have on the everyday experience of inhabitants of the affected areas.