Summary: Changing the Climate: Utopia, Dystopia and Catastrophe | Zita Joyce George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead opens at a transitional point between ordinary life and the dystopian future. A television studio is in chaos as its staff argue about the zombie crisis, unable to communicate authoritatively with their viewers or to comprehend what is happening ‘outside’. This scene is emblematic of the role of broadcasting in accounts of the transition to dystopia, triggered by zombies, plagues, climactic shifts or extraterrestrial events. News or weather reports document the dissolution of everyday life, static fills the screen or speaker, the empty dial is scanned for human voices, signs of other survivors, the last hopes that all is not yet lost. This paper will trace the role of broadcast media in accounts of the zombie (or other) apocalypse, recalling early utopian dreams of radio’s ability to communicate with the dead, and the more pragmatic concerns of broadcasting’s role in the crises to come. Zita Joyce is a lecturer in Media and Communication at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
