Communication of the scientific consensus on climate change to the citizenship: Knowledge and perception of young university students from five countries regarding the media treatment of global warming

This study focuses on how young university students perceive media communication of the scientific consensus. It has been carried out based on a non-probabilistic sample of 484 students from universities in Brazil, Spain, Italy, China and the United States. The study sets off from two assumptions. Firstly, that the survey participants belong to a global culture that shapes their identity through electronic interaction regardless of their geographical location. Secondly, as part of their ranking of priorities, which sets them apart from their predecessors, environmental issues are one of their main concerns. In response to environmental problems, they consider that interdisciplinarity is essential in tackling the causes that generate climate change and minimizing its consequences and they consider that it is the media’s duty to construct a specialized message in accordance with the discourse that the scientific community agrees on and which is free of business, economic or ideological interests.