Why do characters in Quebec television shows drive SUVs so much? Is it that important to the story that they use single player? Could they take a Flex, use car sharing or, why not, hop on a bike? These are questions that the Quebec Council for Eco-Responsible Events (CQEER) likes to ask local television workers through the conclusions of its micro-study. Eco-gestures on screen.
“We talk a lot about the ecological impact of filming, the industry is actively thinking and looking for ways to improve them, but we don’t talk at all about what we see on screen,” explains Sophie-Laurence H. Lauzon, co-director of the CQEER, in a telephone interview with Duty.
However, several of the characters in our television fiction are more or less stupid. “The vehicles of the protagonists are often too big or too polluting in relation to the real needs linked to the scenario”, we read in the small study – a survey that the CQEER carried out in 2022 by observing two episodes of ten of our series : District 31, All the life, 5e rank, The eye of the storm at Radio-Canada; The escape, The fault, Happiness And Leo to VAT; Counter offer in Noovo and From Pierre to girl on Tou.tv (and currently broadcast on ICI Télé).
When television repeatedly shows us actions that are not eco-responsible, it normalizes them
What do we see there? “The use of the solo car is over-represented compared to other modes of transport. » And “among the times when residual materials were thrown away – even if it was rare to see the sorting gesture – 75% of the times, they were not sorted correctly”, we can read in the study. However, the representation of eco-gestures on screen is progressing, says the analysis. But slowly. We can now see a character using a reusable cup or water bottle in the office much more often.
Why focus on these details? “When television repeatedly shows us actions that are not eco-responsible, it normalizes them,” explains the co-director of the CQEER.
Act on the imagination
Culture really has the power to change behavior and imagination, she adds. “Studies on behavior change say that the more a behavior is made normal, the less it is devalued, the more likely it is to be adopted. » In other words: people want to do like everyone else, specifies Mme H. Lauzon.
The analysis repeats it differently, recalling that, when the films Rebelfrom Disney, and Hunger Games came out, both in 2012, the percentage of girls practicing archery had skyrocketed — so to speak.
Of course, the images on our screens are not all so symbolic, strong, striking, concedes the co-director. That a character of District 31 throwing away recyclable papers will impregnate the imagination less than seeing the red-headed Princess Merida bending her bow, for example. “But these gestures that we have recorded, they carry no story! » underlines Mme H. Lauzon. “Whether a character walks alone in an SUV or in a carshare changes nothing, neither to his psychology nor to the story. Whether we see him eating a steak at a restaurant or a vegetarian meal either. »
“And these are very easy elements to change: it’s easy on a tray to put reusable cups next to a coffee machine rather than paper cups — much easier than changing the energy sources that ‘we use to shoot…’ Within the reach of a single screenwriter, or the film crew.
Our magical waste
With this little analysis, the CQEER does not want to impose absolutely anything on creators, specifies the co-director: freedom of expression must remain absolute. “We just want to put things in perspective, and start discussions and reflections. »
The CQEER approach was inspired by the study Flip The Script: Can Hollywood Help Us Imagine a Future Without Plastic?made at the end of 2021, on the use of single-use plastics in American television dramas.
We learn in particular that, in the broadcasts observed, when the sorting gesture was shown on the screen, single-use containers were thrown in the trash in 80% of cases. And for 93% of single-use items, the sorting gesture does not appear on the screen. “This would contribute to what the authors call “the magically disappearing trash” [le déchet qui disparaît par magie]perpetuating the false belief that our waste disappears without generating environmental impacts,” summarizes the CQEER study.