Climate Change and the Media: Volume 2

It is now more than a quarter of a century since the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published their first comprehensive report on the dangers posed by anthropogenic global warming. Over the last twenty-five years the weight of evidence about the causes and consequences of climate change has become compelling. The solutions are fairly simple—we must switch to more sustainable and efficient forms of energy production. And yet they remain elusive—globally we produce significantly more greenhouse gases now than we did back in 1990. The sad truth is that this inaction has made climate change inevitable—the only question that remains is whether we can prevent it spiraling out of control. How do we explain this colossal global failure? The problem is political rather than scientific: we know the risks and we know how to address them, but we lack the political will to do so. The media are pivotal in this equation: they have the power to set the public and the political agenda. Climate Change and the Media, Volume 2 gathers contributions from a range of international scholars to explore the media’s role in our understanding of the problem and our willingness to take action. Combined, these chapters explain how and why media coverage has, to date, fallen short in communicating both the science and the politics of climate change. They also offer guidance about how the media might shift from being the problem to becoming part of the solution.

Table of Contents:
List of Tables – List of Figures – Introduction – Stuart Capstick/Lorraine Whitmarsh: Public Perceptions of Climate Change – Benedetta Brevini/Terry Woronov: Ignoring Climate Change, Celebrating Coal: Propaganda and Australian Debates on the Carmichael Mine – James Painter/Mike S. Schäfer: Global Similarities and Persistent Differences: A Survey of Comparative Studies on Climate Change and Communication – Neil T. Gavin: Online Coverage of Paris 2015: The View from the BBC – Anabela Carvalho/Eloisa Beling Loose: Climate Change in Brazilian Media – Sibo Chen: Environmental Journalism in China: Challenges and Prospects – Paolo Magagnoli: ‘How Mining Made Australia’: Populist Nostalgia and the Spectre of Climate Change in the Television Documentary Dirty Business – Lyn McGaurr/Libby Lester: See It Before It’s Too Late? Last-Chance Travel Lists and Climate Change – Victoria Dando: The Representation of Risk in the British Press: Comparing Reporting of Climate Change and Terrorism – Richard Maxwell/Toby Miller: The Media Produce Climate Change: Fake News, Post-Truth and Journalistic Pollution – Alana Mann: The Politics of Place: Networking Resistance to Coal Seam Gas Mining – Contributors.