Fires of consciousness: The ‘Land of Fires’ – Multiple approaches of media studies for environmental studies

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century, a set of documentaries shot in Campania, particularly in the areas north of Naples and Caserta, narrated the destruction of a fertile land at the hands of the ‘ecomafie’. This article intends to reflect on the representation of the Land of Fires as a new model to explore how media studies can contribute to the critical evaluation of environmental problems. The focus of the analysis will be on identifying the types of narrative rhetoric constructed by filmic discourse. The selected films show that one of the main problems connected with the Land of Fires is the absence of accurate information, which in turn distorts the perception of the damage done to nature and humans. Finally, the subversive power of these film images provides these lands with a new visual perception.