Laurier’s Mark Terry honoured with international award for environmental communication

Dec. 13, 2024

Wilfrid Laurier University’s Mark Terry has won the J. Robert Cox Award for Environmental Communication and Civic Engagement from the National Communication Association (NCA), awarded for outstanding research that significantly impacts global environmental justice.  

Terry, an adjunct professor in Laurier’s Department of Digital Media and Journalism, is being recognized for his Youth Climate Report project. In 2016, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted the project as a data delivery system to inform UN policymakers at COP conferences. Terry is the first Canadian to win the award in the NCA’s 110-year history. 

The award was presented Nov. 23 at a ceremony attended by more than 4,000 communications professionals and scholars. In its announcement, the NCA notes that Terry’s “impressive history as a journalist, documentary filmmaker and academic evinces major contributions to the study and practice of environmental communication.” 

The announcement also cites Terry’s monograph, Speaking Youth to Power: Influencing Climate Policy at the United Nations, as an important framework for facilitating communication between stakeholders, young climate activists and policymakers, particularly through film and video reports. 

“I am so humbled to be recognized in this way by my peers for my work on the Youth Climate Report project,” says Terry. “It is my goal to bridge the gap of communication between the academic world and real-world environmental challenges faced by young people around the planet through the Geo-Doc platform. Through specialized technology, we have revolutionized the collection of environmental data and, ultimately, the way researchers communicate data to policymakers in pursuit of global environmental justice and policy.” 

Terry developed the Geo-Doc platform, which uses geographic information system technology to map climate research videos globally.  

Previously, Terry has been honoured with the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television’s Humanitarian Award.