Climate Change in the Media: Where have we been and where are we headed?
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Overview over social science research on climate change communication
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Climate Change in the Media: Where have we been and where are we headed?
- 1. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media ResearchIPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Climate Change in the Media Where have we been, and where should we be headed? Prof. Dr. Mike S. Schäfer University of Zurich – Dept. of Mass Communication & Media Research eMail: m.schaefer@ipmz.uzh.ch – Twitter: @mss7676 www.ipmz.uzh.ch/Abteilungen/Wissenschaftskommunikation.html
- 2. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 2 What‘s the Plan? Climate change in the media: Why should we talk about this? The Research Field: Development, Foci, and Gaps Where have we been? Main research findings Where should we be headed? Avenues for future research
- 3. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Introduction Climate change in the media: Why should we talk about this?
- 4. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 4 Climate change is an ‚unobtrusive‘ issue … … „one of the defining issues of our age“
- 5. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 5 Climate change is an ‚unobtrusive‘ issue … … „one of the defining issues of our age“ … but at the same time, not easy to grasp: complex, Nature 2010
- 6. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 6 Climate change is an ‚unobtrusive‘ issue … … „one of the defining issues of our age“ … but at the same time, not easy to grasp: complex, large-scale, IPCC 2014 (2007)
- 7. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 7 Climate change is an ‚unobtrusive‘ issue … … „one of the defining issues of our age“ … but at the same time, not easy to grasp: complex, large-scale, with major implications in the future DARA 2013
- 8. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 8 … which many people experience via media … „one of the defining issues of our age“ … but at the same time, not easy to grasp: complex, large-scale, with major implications in the future … in sum: it is an „unobtrusive“ issue, and therefore, communication about climate change is important Schäfer 2012
- 9. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research 9 … which many people experience via media … „one of the defining issues of our age“ … but at the same time, not easy to grasp: complex, large-scale, with major implications in the future … in sum: it is an „unobtrusive“ issue, and therefore, communication about climate change is important … particularly media are “important arenas and important agents in the production, reproduction, and transformation of the meaning” of climate change (Carvalho, 2010: 172) Schäfer 2012
- 10. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The Research Field
- 11. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time
- 12. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries
- 13. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries
- 14. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries
- 15. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries & media
- 16. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries & media
- 17. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries & media
- 18. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries & media … but gaps & analytical challenges remain – TV is under-researched !
- 19. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries & media … but gaps & analytical challenges remain – TV is under-researched, strong ‚Western‘ bias & focus on ‚responsible‘ countries
- 20. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research The research field … … expanded over time … diversified in analysed countries & media … but gaps & analytical challenges remain – TV is under-researched, strong ‚Western‘ bias & focus on ‚responsible‘ countries, but not ‚vulnerable‘ ones
- 21. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Introduction Where have we been?
- 22. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Stakeholder Communication and Agenda Building •different modes of agenda building with prominent involvement of scientists: successful scientific agenda building in GER, persistant „climate denial machine“ (McCright & Dunlap 2011) in US We‘ve been to many interesting places Der Spiegel 33/1986
- 23. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Stakeholder Communication and Agenda Building •different modes of agenda building with prominent involvement of scientists: successful scientific agenda building in GER, persistant „climate denial machine“ (McCright & Dunlap 2011) in US „Climate Journalists“ •professionalization of „climate journalists“ who mostly share IPCC positions We‘ve been to many interesting places
- 24. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Stakeholder Communication and Agenda Building •different modes of agenda building with prominent involvement of scientists: successful scientific agenda building in GER, persistant „climate denial machine“ (McCright & Dunlap 2011) in US „Climate Journalists“ •professionalization of „climate journalists“ who mostly share IPCC positions The Audience: Use and Effects •media as important & trustworthy sources of information about climate change •agenda setting effects, some cognitive effects; but limited attitudinal and behavioral effects We‘ve been to many interesting places Sampei & Aosagi 2009
- 25. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Media attention in 27 Countries over 15 Years •using quality print media, 1996-2010 •approx. 150,000 articles •measuring percentage of entire coverage that mentions CC •using complex search strings and extensive manual cross-checks CC is a relevant media issue around the world
- 26. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research CC is a relevant media issue around the world Schmidt et al. 2014 Media attention in 27 Countries over 15 Years • attention rises in all countries, particularly since mid-2000s • overall attention levels comparatively high (e.g. compared to „genohype“ (Racine et al. 2006)) • pronounced peaks around certain events, particularly COP 15 in 2009
- 27. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 28. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • time series regression models explaining amount of issue attention • for Australia, Germany, India Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 29. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • time series regression models explaining amount of issue attention • for Australia, Germany, India • explanatory factors: „problem indicators“, Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 30. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • time series regression models explaining amount of issue attention • for Australia, Germany, India • explanatory factors: „problem indicators“, „key events“, Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 31. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • time series regression models explaining amount of issue attention • for Australia, Germany, India • explanatory factors: „problem indicators“, „key events“, „societal feedback“ Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 32. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • showing low importance of climate/weather events Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 33. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • showing low importance of climate/weather events • high importance of key events, esp. political events Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 34. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Triggers of media attention for climate change • showing low importance of climate/weather events • high importance of key events, esp. political events as well as of political and NGO activity Media coverage is triggered mainly by socio-politics
- 35. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research There‘s a „societal turn“ in media coverage Trend towards societal issues in climate change reporting over time
- 36. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research There‘s a „societal turn“ in media coverage Trend towards societal issues in climate change reporting over time •not merely a science issue anymore: issue moves from science desk to politics & economy Ivanova 2013
- 37. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research There‘s a „societal turn“ in media coverage Trend towards societal issues in climate change reporting over time •not merely a science issue anymore: issue moves from science desk to politics & economy •content of coverage less scientific, more political & economic Ivanova 2013 scientific political economic
- 38. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research There‘s a „societal turn“ in media coverage Trend towards societal issues in climate change reporting over time •not merely a science issue anymore: issue moves from science desk to politics & economy •content of coverage less scientific, more political & economic Ivanova 2013 scientific political economic Kirilenko & Stepchenkova 2012
- 39. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research But considerable differences remain Apart from temporal changes and general trends, differences in content between countries/regions remain
- 40. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research But considerable differences remain Apart from temporal changes and general trends, differences in content between countries/regions remain •in the focus on science and the degree of climate change “skepticism” Painter & Ashe 2012
- 41. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research But considerable differences remain Apart from temporal changes and general trends, differences in content between countries/regions remain •in the focus on science and the degree of climate change “skepticism” •in the degree of ethnocentrism Ivanova 2013, vgl. Konieczny 2013
- 42. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research But considerable differences remain Apart from temporal changes and general trends, differences in content between countries/regions remain •in the focus on science and the degree of climate change “skepticism” •in the degree of ethnocentrism •in the framing of climate change between the ‘Global North’ and ‘South’ vgl. Schmidt 2015
- 43. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Where should we be headed?
- 44. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Where should we be headed? Follow the „societal turn“! Focus on communication about socio- political implications more.
- 45. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Where should we be headed? Follow the „societal turn“! Focus on communication about socio- political implications more. Account for the diversification of the media! Include online, social and mobile media as well as fictional/entertainment content.
- 46. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Where should we be headed? Follow the „societal turn“! Focus on communication about socio- political implications more. Account for the diversification of the media! Include online, social and mobile media as well as fictional/entertainment content. Account for multimodality! Include (audio)visuals and account for their interaction.
- 47. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Where should we be headed? Follow the „societal turn“! Focus on communication about socio- political implications more. Account for the diversification of the media! Include online, social and mobile media as well as fictional/entertainment content. Account for multimodality! Include (audio)visuals and account for their interaction. Connect media presentation to consumption!
- 48. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Where should we be headed? Follow the „societal turn“! Focus on communication about socio-political implications more. Account for the diversification of the media! Include online, social and mobile media as well as fictional/entertainment content. Account for multimodality! Include (audio)visuals and account for their interaction. Connect media presentation to consumption! De-Westernize Research! And analyse the (potential) transnationalization of communication.
- 49. IPMZ – Institute of Mass Communication and Media Research Thank you for your attention! Mike S. Schäfer m.schaefer@ipmz.uzh.ch; Twitter @mss7676 www.ipmz.uzh.ch/Abteilungen/Wissenschaftskommunikation.html
Hinweis der Redaktion
- Thanks for inviting me, I‘m honored to be here Will give overview over research field of CCC or, more specifically, CC in media
- I will focus on the presentation side, that is, on the ways in which climate change is presented in media I will first talk a bit about the relevance of this perspective and lay out the contours of the research field Afterwards, I will present some of the research I have done – as this is a research colloquium I thought I might mention some of my research! ;-) – but also try to blend it into a more general picture of the research field and its findings And after having talked about „Where have we been“, I will use the final part of my presentation to lay out shortly a few directions I think we should be headed
- Media effects reesarch has shown, e.g., that media are successful agenda setters when it comes to CC (as well as other isuses), i.e. that media influence the topics that audience members – and also politicians – have in their mind
- Accordingly, quite a lively research field has developed around climate change communication in the media I want to give you a short overview over this field, its foci and its gaps
- Very simple Study extracted articles from ISI Web of Knowledge: multidisciplinary database w/ some 1,700 scientific journals from fifty disciplines several advantages: includes leading interdisciplinary journals such as “Nature” and “Science” as well as the most relevant journals of arguably every scientific field, such as the “American Journal of Sociology”, the “Journal of Communication” and the “American Political Science Review” serves as a point of reference for information and orientation for scholars, committees and funding agencies second sampling strategy to address shortcomings of WoK (which does not represent all disciplines equally well and whose coverage of English language and US- or UK-based journals is better than that of other publications) systematically screened existing overview publications on climate change communication and extracted all relevant publications – books, book sections and journal articles – that were not already included in WoK. Broad search terms that operationalized the phenomenon of climate change as well as different kinds of mass media ((climate change) OR (global warming) OR (greenhouse effect))” in combination with “media OR press OR news OR internet OR web OR online OR television OR TV OR radio OR broadcast OR movie OR film OR cinema” Full search in terms of dates of publication, languages, countries; all texts from 1956 to 2013 Based on this search, we produced a preliminary sample of several thousand publications which were then screened manually If they included original research findings of how media present climate change, they were included final sample of 133 publications: 100 journal articles, 25 are book chapters, 8 books Information about these publications was coded: information about publication itself (author(s), title, journal, publication date), research objects (media types, countries of focus, periods of analysis), and methodology (cross-sectional, longitudinal, case study, qualitative vs. quantitative, random or other sampling strategy).
- I’ll show you some results from there Firstly you see that research on CC communication has grown
- We also looked at the research objects … and we did so over time, distinguishing three time periods
- What can you see here then? Early on, we had a lot of studies from the US And we still do, but less
- Early on, many studies used newspaper data, esp. quality broadsheets And still a lot!
- still contains a number of biases and gaps, e.g. that it analyzes mostly legacy print media, and less often online media or TV
- that it analyses mostly Western countries, esp. those from anglophone context
- When looking at this research field, what has been found out? – or in other words: „where have we been“ as scholars in this field? I will highlight some findings I think are relevant, not all of course
- As you know, the existence of climate change itself, its urgency, and the appropriate responses to it are contested, “with considerable competition among (and between) scientists, industry, policymakers and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), each of whom is likely to be actively seeking to establish their particular perspectives on the issues” in the public and in the media in order to influence the societal perceptions of climate change and decisions about paths of action A considerable number of studies from political science, sociology, communications, and public relations have analyzed these efforts They have shown that science is almost always involved, and some scientists very actively, in debates or even “climate wars”, as Michael E. Mann has called it in the US and they have shown different national trajectories, with Germany being a country where the “climate catastrophy” was introduced in the 1980s by scientists into the media after politics had not really heard them; and after media made it a big issue politics reacted quickly and made it a research and political priority And with the US being a country with a strong “climate denial machine” which works until today, which influences public perception of climate change, and which hampers political action on it
- There is some work on climate journalists – i.e. those journalists writing often or primarily on climate change It shows, for example, a professionalization in the topical focus: there are specialists in media focusing on this topic, but not necessarily from the science desks And these climate journalists largely support the main IPCC positions: Michael Brüggemann and Sven Engesser have surveyed climate journalists in Germany, India, Switzerland, UK, USA Frage: in welchem Maße teilen die Journalisten die Grundannahmen der IPCC-Position bzw. des hier vorgestellten Frames Ich zeige ihnen eine einfache Auswertung Man konnte auf Skala 1-5 antworten 5 heisst: “stimme voll und ganz zu” Journalisten teilen IPCC-Position sehr deutlich und wenn man genauer hinschaut, dass dies auf Vielschreiber zum Thema noch stärker zutrifft umgekehrt: sehen skeptische Positionen kritisch finden eher nicht, dass dies eine wichtige Perspektive ist und auch eher nicht, dass es sich dabei um gute Wissenschaft handelt
- You‘ve seen that already Mass Media are Important and Trusted Sources for Climate Change Information: mass media—particularly television and newspapers, but increasingly the internet as well—are the most important sources for people’s information about climate change mass media also seem to be credible sources
- Studies on the effects of media representations of climate change have mainly focused on individual-level effects on people’s problem awareness, their level of information, and their willingness to act, i.e. on potential first-level agenda-setting effects, on learning and mobilization Agenda Setting Effects Exist: They have demonstrated that the amount of climate change representations that people encounter in mass media is linked to their awareness of the issue, pointing towards an agenda-setting effect. Media Use Increases Knowledge: Cognitive effects of media representations of climate change have also been repeatedly shown. People acquire information about the issue from the media and learn something about it. This includes factual information about the phenomenon itself—the extent and causes of climate change—as well as potential solutions and options for (individual) action. effects on climate change-related behavior has not yet been established. Studies have found effects of media use on people’s information-seeking; those using media and learning from them are more likely to search for more information about climate change in the future. Regarding climate-related behavior and action, however, only some weak media effects have been found, and in practically all cases refer to behavioral intentions rather than actual behavior.
- But let us focus on media presentations – as this is my focus. What do we know about them? First, lets look at a simple – but not trivial – indicator: issue attention. the “carrying capacity” of news media is limited due to finite numbers of newspaper pages or airtime minutes So they can only give attention to some issues Media attention measures the outcome of this issue competition, i.e. the amount of attention given to one issue in relation to the amount of attention given to other issues at the same time. Therefore, we‘ve analyzed it in a project in Hamburg Amount of media coverage on climate change in 27 countries between 1996-2010 Focus on leading quality newspapers We tried to assemble all articles touching upon climate change, with a very complex, tedious, and hopefully thorough procedure Final number = 150,000 Articles
- You are not able to see details here, I know – but that‘s okay. What I wanted to show you are the general features of issue attention attention rises in all countries, particularly since mid-2000s overall attention levels comparatively high (e.g. compared to „genohype“ (Racine et al. 2006) climate change coverage accounts for 0.62 percent of all articles published between 1997 and 2009 in the 37 newspapers under study. This amount may appear to be low at first, but it is still considerable. Other frequently discussed scientific themes in the media, such as stem cell or human genome research, which were even deemed to be receiving ‘‘hype’’ coverage in the media (Racine et al., 2006), obtained significantly less media coverage in Germany, France, and the United States (comparison based on Gerhards and Scha¨ fer, 2006; Scha¨ fer, 2007; for aggregated numbers see Scha¨ fer et al., 2012, p. 126). pronounced peaks around certain events, particularly COP 15 in 2009
- But how can these peaks be explained, what drives issue attention? We tried to analyze this in another study
- Why these countries? Firstly, we included only democratic countries, in which freedom of the press was largely guaranteed throughout the period of investigation (according to Freedom House, 2012). Otherwise, the potential effects of some elements of our explanatory model would have been impossible to see – in an analysis of state-controlled media, the activities of domestic and international non-state actors might take a backseat to official state views. Secondly, we aimed to include countries with varying degrees of vulnerability to climate risks (Harmeling, 2009) and varying obligations to reduce GHG emissions (United Nations, 1998). Thirdly, we aimed to include Western as well as a non-Western countries.
- Theoretical framework follows a study by Liu et al.: agenda setting theory, which aims to describe the emergence of media and policy agendas as well as their effects on each other and on external audiences first group: “problem indicators” - “factual indicators surrounding the problem” (Liu, et al., 2011: 406) On the one hand, “baseline information” like average temperatures including long-term developments such as increasingly warmer winters or significantly hotter or colder summers On the other hand, “short-term extreme weather conditions” (Liu, et al., 2011: 406) that have high been hypothesized to have high news value due to the potential damage they do We included the mean temperature over time at the places of publication of the analyzed newspapers As well as international and domestic extreme weather events: for that we obtained data on the death toll, number of people affected and estimated damage for heat waves, wildfires, droughts, storms, storm surges and floods from the International Disaster Database EM-DAT (initiated by WHO and Belgian Government)
- second category: “focusing events” Which catalyze concerns, make them visible, “mobilize interest groups” and probably “introduce new dimensions and new policy alternatives” We included several focusing events on the international level Within the UN system, the annual COPs the United Nations Conferences on Environment and Development, the so called Rio (+x) summits, that deal with climate change Summits of the EU and the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, the Group of Eight, the ministerial meetings of the Gleneagles dialogue were also added if they focused at least partially on climate change we added the publication dates of IPCC assessment reports the international and national premieres of movies dealing with climate change (An Inconvenient Truth, The Day after Tomorrow, The Great Climate Swindle) and the Live Earth concerts
- Third factor: “societal feedback” - refers to the communications of stakeholders and pressure groups including the scientific community We included societal feedback by measuring the communication activities of different stakeholders the number of domestic parliamentary papers and debates on climate change the number of press releases issued by international NGOs Greenpeace International and WWF International The press releases of the respective national Greenpeace branches and in each case a second important national ENGO. scientific activities were included as the number of research articles on climate change published in the two top international journals Science and Nature and, for the domestic level, as the number of research articles published by scientists from the respective country in journals included in the ISI Web of Knowledge. the number of press releases issued by big national companies from the energy, automotive and energy sectors
- How to read this Only significant effects are indicated by checkmarks . Strong effects are indicated by two or more checkmarks depending on the strength of the effect First finding: Factual indicators, i.e. weather and climate data, do not systematically trigger issue attention in Australia and India Yet they play a role in Germany Likely due to 1 outstanding event: the “flood of the century” (“Jahrhundertflut”) on the river Elbe in 2002 triggered large amount of media coverage, was linked to climate change, coincided with parliamentary elections, management supposedly swung elections in favor of then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder A more detailed time-series analysis also revealed that floods were the only extreme weather events which had a significant effect on media attention. And when comparing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events in the three countries over time based on EM-DAT data, this particular flood stood out much stronger in Germany than any event in the other countries
- Second finding: Social Key events have consistently stronger effects particularly political events: the COPs but also (weaker) other events two other international political events show significant effects – the United Nations Conferences on Environment and Development (Rio summits) in Australia and the climate-related G8 summits in India As well as the cultural events in Australia
- Third finding Activities from international NGOs are also very important as well as domestic politics in Australia and Germany Also interesting: in India, only international triggers show an effect; it‘s an international issue there Mind you, however: This only explains the amount of issue attention media devote to climate change. But I am showing you this because I think these findings are indicative of a more general change on climate change communication:
- They hint towards what I would call a „societal turn“ in media coverage on climate change With a societal turn I mean that the media‘s focus on the existence of the phenomenon of climate change as such and the science underlying it is shifting towards an acceptance of that and to matters of „what to do about it“ politically, economically, in everyday life This turn is visible in other dimensions, too
- Based on research done by Ana Ivanova Nur Deutschland Basis etwa 15000 Zeitungsartikel 1996-2010 Show percentage of articles published in different newspaper segments Similar in US
- Diktionärsbasierte korpuslinguistische Analyse (keine LDA) selbe Datenbasis erstellt Induktiv und deduktiv – in einem iterativen Verfahren – Diktionäre („bags of words“) Kann dann deren Verlauf über längere Zeit ansehen Mehrere Inhalte pro Artikel möglich, daher Summe > 100% Ergebnisse: Wissenschaftliche Inhalte – gibt es den Klimawandel? Ist der menschengemacht? Wie sicher ist die Wissenschaft dazu? – sinken ab; von jedem 2. Artikel in 90ern zu jedem 3. Anstieg politische Aspekte (40 auf fast 70%) steigen wirtschaftlicher Aspekte steigen (Verdopplung von 10 auf 20%)
- LDA, nur New York Times 1995-2010
- For set of 10 countries (UK, US, AUSTR, NZ, CAN, IND, South Africa, Singapore, Namibia, ) - LDA results over all countries
- These two trends are similar in different countries – even though ou should keep in mind what countries research has mostly focused on: there‘s more issue attention There‘s a societal turn But parallel to these trends, there are still lingering, partly path dependent differences between countries
- Painter zeigt ähnliches in „Poles Apart“: in US/UK deutlich mehr skeptical voices – see this graph from his 2012 paper with Teresa Ashe
- Studie von Grundmann und Scott Zeigt Anteil von Skeptikern – blau – vs. „Advocates“ (Befürwortern des Klimawandels), NGOs und IPCC In Deutschland, UK, USA Was sieht man? In D ausgeprägte Debatte, fast keine Skeptiker In UK auch ausgeprägt, mehr Skeptiker als in D, aber Übergewicht der Befürworter In USA weniger ausgeprägt, noch immer mehr Skeptiker als in D und auch anteilig zur Berichterstattung; aber auch deutlicher Anstieg der Befürworter Denken Sie an die Befragung von Brüggemann/Engesser: das deckt sich auch mit aktuellen Journalisten-Befragungen
- What we see here are national (bold line) and international (slim line) speakers in Germany and the US In GER, ist an international debate In US, ist a domestic one
- So we have already seen many places we’ve been – or, not to over-stress this analogy – a number of findings that have been established. As it should be in a field like climate change communication where hundreds of studies have been published in recent years. But there are still significant gaps and challenges Partly due to the quickly changing media landscape Partly due to neglect from the scientific community Partly due to difficulties in actually tackling them In the last part of my presentation, I will point out some of these challenges which I think are important and which I think should receive more research attention. So: Where should we be headed?
- In many countries, media coverage about CC is not “balanced” anymore in the sense of Max Boykoff, i.e. in the sense of a balanced presentation of the scientific mainstream position towards climate change and climate change skeptics. Max Boykoff himself acknowledged this change in his 2007 paper “Flogging a dead norm” and showed the decline of skepticism in US newspapers over time. It is largely a social issue in many countries now, not a scientific one. So I think we, as researchers, should also stop focusing too strongly on climate change skepticism and the “science debate” – which is partly a phenomenon of American, UK and Australian exceptionalism – and focus more on communication about the social and political implications on climate change.
- Online communication about climate change and climate politics is taken up more and more by researchers, as you have seen earlier. Which is undoubtedly a good thing. And there are impressive studies by authors like Saffron O‘Neill, Brigitte Nerlich, and their colleagues, or from Hywel Williams et al. – whom you see here: you see follower, retweet and mention networks for the Twitter hashtags climatechange, globalwarming and agw. And you can see clear segmentations of the debate – so called echo chambers – about the latter hashtags – which are obviously more divisive – when compared to the climatechange hashtag Does not seem to hold up in European country based on some early findings from Adrian Rauchfleisch and me Such online and social media analyses are a great and relevant addition to the literature. But there is more to do: we don’t know much about mobile media, for example, not enough about fictional or entertainment programs And not enough about rather recent, largely visually based and very wide-spread social media like snapchat or Tumblr
- Which leads me to my next point: media articles and website like these ones here contain many layers of content: regular text, highlighted text, pictures, logos, even moving images But we don‘t know well how they are perceived, how they function in combination analyses of CC communication (too) often focuses on text only But we need more multimodal analyses which is certainly difficult, but also doable to some extent, as recent projects show My colleague Hartmut Wessler and his team, e.g., analyse multimodel frames results so far suggest that pictures and text mostly support the same frame but one exception: civil society actors and NGOs are textually under-represented and most deliver pictures about their claims which, however, often remain vague Such findings would be invisible with common content analysis.
- Media analysis – eventually – is based on the explicit or implicit assumption of media effects. We think it is important to analyse media portrayals of issues because we assume, and in some cases know, that they resonate in some way with the public. After many studies have analysed media portrayals recently, I think we need more integrated studies combining media presentation with media consumption. If we know that the Standard, the Kronenzeitung, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, or Jon Stewart portray the issue in a certain way: whom does it reach? In Germany, e.g., people with different attitudes towards climate change also use different media ensembles; so effects will likely be different – and we should know more about this on the individual, but also on the societal level
- And finally: Almost half of our findings stem from the US and the UK – and at the same time, we know that these countries are rather exceptional when it comes to climate change reporting This is not unsual in research on any issue, as you can see in the upper graph which maps the world according to how many scientific research papers stem from each country: The Northern hemisphere balloons beyond recognition, and the global south melts off the map. But this imbalance is particularly unfitting for CC, which is a transnational phenomenon in its causes and nature, and where solutions are sought on a global level – so a more holistic picture would be good here There are some new studies recently, but we need more! Also, convergence or divergence trends between different countries are of interest: Questions could be like: Is there a transnationalization of debates about solutions – and what are its implications for climate change politics?