Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2014

In order to analyse the relationship between communication and climate change and the problems involved in transmitting the scientific consensus to public opinion by means of the media, the researcher must undertake a special commitment beyond the presupposed ethical stance. The transcendence of the matter under study exceeds the scope of the routine of scholarly works and demands the deployment of interdisciplinary cooperation. That is, developing a proactive strategy which is useful for the public, that can participate in scientific actions aimed at mitigating the effects of global warming, and can cooperate in correcting its causes. There is also a theoretical hypothesis, the inability of the media, as the expression of a system in crisis, to clearly explain the real causes of the phenomenon and point out solutions, as well as the need to construct a new paradigm, prior to or as a consequence of a social contract of sustainability.

Journalism and science are forced into unavoidable coexistence, despite the mistrust that the scientific sphere has shown towards journalism, related to its historical wariness towards rhetoric. In fact, scientific discontent is not unfounded, faced with scarcely specialized coverage, secondary sources, rudimentary texts and genders, agenda marginalization, etc. However, other misgivings are the result of misunderstanding journalism, for which the pedagogical function is subsidiary to the informative function. Journalism is not a platform for scientific debate, but an activity that has its own logic, language and hierarchical criteria. Cooperation is, above all, necessary – journalism adds to the social value of scientific activity, it contributes visibility and even attracts resources – and collaboration is advisable in order to stimulate a more competent scientific journalism.

In the last few years, the issue of climate change has become a universal topic and its presence in political, institutional, social and media agendas continues to increase, due to its future repercussions and its current consequences, which are already evident in many points of the globe. This article expounds on the prevailing current of thought amongst the members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in particular amongst those coming from the Mediterranean-Latin American region. In line with what Vidal Beneyto (2008) asserts, it is assumed that the countries in this region share sufficient elements (history, languages, politics, etc.) to be part of the same study area. In total, 157 environmental scientists were invited to take part in a survey which examines the following issues amongst others: 1) the existing scientific consensus about global warming and climate change; 2) the degree of agreement between the scientific and media discourses; 3) the main errors transmitted by the media to public opinion; and 4) possible strategies to transmit truthful information about climate change that will bring about the adoption of measures to mitigate its effects. Twenty-seven experts collaborated in the study. Their responses have been translated directly into English and treated anonymously.

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.

The editorial section is the perfect space to investigate the identity of newspapers, as it reflects their ideological position. For this reason, this work analyses the editorial position on climate change of two highly prestigious newspapers: The New York Times (United States), which is a reference for the Anglo-Saxon world, and El País (Spain), which is a reference for the Spanish-speaking world. Both newspapers seem to share a similar editorial stance, in the sense that they both accept the consensus on climate change and support the objectives set in the Kyoto Protocol in relation to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG). However, the analysis of the editorials published over the fourteen years between the two climate summits, held in Kyoto and Durban, shows that political polarization has taken precedence over the need to spread public awareness about the seriousness of climate change. This implies that the editorial agendas of these newspapers are not giving importance to the dissemination of the causes of climate change, and are generally not providing opinions based on reliable and fully identified scientific sources.

On 25 June 2013 the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama announced the Climate Action Plan, a package of measures intended to slow the effects of climate change. If the political consequences of this speech are yet unknown, the media response to Obama’s announcement serves as a good example of how media covers news related to climate change. This article approaches the immediate response that the most important media in the United States had to Obama’s announcement and how climate change is a complex issue that needs to be responsibly addressed by the scientific community, politicians and journalists.

The aim of this article is to analyse the sense and evolution of advertising communication strategies since the phenomenon of climate change appeared and started to be projected by the media, which simultaneously sparked off the public opinion debate. Several publications are examined so as to understand how environmentalist keys about publicity are reflected in scientific literature. The article pays particular attention to how the business perspective becomes a social and communication agent.

Climate change has entered the public sphere thanks to the media, which are essential in providing information and raising awareness about the seriousness of the problem. Despite the fact that the media, and particularly public media, have the duty of providing adequate information, the coverage of a controversial issue such as global warming is not always properly accomplished by just complying strictly with the fundamental principles of good journalism. The British public broadcasting network, the BBC, is renowned as an international leader in terms of journalistic fairness, independence and clarity, but its news monitoring of everything concerning climate change is not devoid of problems and challenges, which are analysed in this article.

CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE MEDIA: REPORTING RISK AND UNCERTAINTY, JAMES PAINTER (2013) London: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and I.B. Tauris & Co., 150 pp., ISBN-10: 1780765886, ISBN-13: 9781780765884 (pbk), £11.00

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL: HEADS IN THE SAND, HAYDN WASHINGTON AND JOHN COOK (2011) London and New York: Routledge, 192 pp., ISBN-13: 9781849713368 (pbk), £11.00