The role of media between expert and lay knowledge: A study of Iberian media coverage on climate change

Areia, Neide P.; Intrigliolo, Diego S.; Tavares, Alexandre Oliveira; Mendes, José Manuel; Sequeira, Mário David

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.191

Cited by 25 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 29 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Without doubt, media is a key contributor to shaping public perceptions, attitudes, and action regarding environmental issues [20,21]. Indeed, media is considered a mediator between the produced climate science and lay knowledge and, thus, is now called to improve its communication of climate change in order to promote individuals' climate action [7]. However, up to this point in time, the media seems to be failing to properly educate and engage citizens with climate change [1], thus contributing to society's climate inertia.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, three Mediterranean countries-France, Portugal, and Spain-and two northern European countries-Ireland and the United Kingdom. The study follows a similar research design employed in previous studies on the same topic of research [7,10,14,18] and was conducted through four main sequential phases: (1) establishment of a research equation, (2) definition of a time frame, (3) selection of most relevant news, and (4) quantitative content analysis. Each study phase is further described below.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The established research equation was entered into the Google News search engine repeatedly for each of the six time frames. For each time frame, an average of 60 news articles was selected, according to the defined quota suggested in previous studies [7].…”

Section: Selection Of the Most Relevant Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The method employed to analyze the gathered data was a quantitative content analysis [16]. A standardized codebook was developed based on Areia et al (2019) [7], to further code the obtained content systematically, considering two types of variables: (1) news' characteristics; and (2) specific themes. News' general characteristics included: publishing period, according to the six pre-defined time frames; type of newspaper; geographical focus; actors involved; and type of knowledge in which actors' narratives are based on.…”

Section: Quantitative Content Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Media may play a crucial role in mitigating the actual social inertia about climate [7]. Indeed, it is well known that the media, as the primary source of information for common citizens, plays a key role in shaping and affecting public understanding and engagement to climate change [8,9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

The European Media Portrayal of Climate Change: Implications for the Social Mobilization towards Climate Action

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Beyond other social actors, such as policymakers and scholars, common citizens are also expected to actively engage with climate change, by adopting sustainable actions and supporting environmental policies. However, and despite the actual growing of environment-related social movements, a kind of inertia still prevails in the social climate of our society. The media should play a key role in promoting, among common individuals, the adoption of new and more sustainable practices. However, it is argued that the media seems to be failing to effectively address the climate crisis. As such, this study aims to identify the main weaknesses of climate change media communication to further discuss possible opportunities of communication improvements. For that, 1609 news articles published between 2017 and 2018 in five European countries were analyzed in-depth, through quantitative content analysis. The news’ general characteristics, specifically reported themes, and the specificities of actors’ discourses were taken into account for the analysis. It was verified that the European media tends to report climate change by using distant (e.g., future-focused) and outcome (e.g., threatening messages) framings, based on non-resilient, scientific, and political narratives, whilst overlooking the role of civil society on adapting to climate change. These results demonstrate that instead of promoting society’s climate action, the media may be contributing to a widespread social apathy about the climate and the disengagement of individuals regarding environment-related matters. Evidence-based forms of improving the media’s communication on climate change will be further discussed.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Selection Of the Most Relevant Newsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Quantitative Content Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The European Media Portrayal of Climate Change: Implications for the Social Mobilization towards Climate Action

et al. 2020

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

New Zealand's media and the crisis in the ocean: News norms and scientific urgency

Armoudian

Stevens

Stephenson

et al. 2023

Aquatic Conservation

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

1. To date, no studies have analysed New Zealand's media coverage of oceanrelated threats, potential harms, or sources used for their coverage. This is concerning given that marine media coverage is linked to public support, awareness of conservation issues, and policymaking.2. This research helps fill this gap, examining all ocean-related articles 2 weeks before and after the 2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report's release on the oceans and cryosphere.3. It first analyses the media's reporting of threats, potential harms arising from the threats, and the sources on whom journalists relied and gave voice, then it tests a report of global significance for influence on reportage.4. Second, it examines whether the threats covered by media align with scientists' main concerns (from the IPCC report and a survey of New Zealand scientists). 5.In contrast to previous studies on media sources for environmental conservation, this study found that journalists in New Zealand relied considerably on scientists as key sources. However, it found that coverage of ocean-related threats did not match scientists' main concerns. 6. Finally, the research found that the IPCC report appeared to influence coverage in two areas: reporting on threats to island nations, and multiple potential harms.Otherwise, New Zealand's media covered the IPCC report as any other news item, reporting on it and then shifting to other matters.7. The lack of coverage on primary scientific concerns and that a globally significant momentous report did not dramatically impact the marine media landscape is problematic for conservation of ocean habitats, species, and broader environmental and societal outcomes owing to poor understandings by policymakers and the public, which can lead to inaction and policy failures.8. The potential reasons and solutions to advance communication of marine conservation issues for a more educated and mobilized public are explored.

show abstract

A cultural framework for Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems in ecology and natural resource management

Varghese

Crawford

2020

Ecological Monographs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The relationship between Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems has been the subject of much debate over the past few decades, especially in ecology and natural resource management. In this monograph, we review available scholarship to develop a pragmatic framework for representation of knowledge systems in general, with specific emphasis on productive engagement between individuals from different communities and cultures. We distill operational definitions/explanations of fundamental concepts associated with data, information, knowledge, and wisdom. With these concepts clarified, we reconsider previous applications of sociocultural knowledge system thinking, focusing on system structure and function. Our analysis leads to convergence on a set of fundamental knowledge system processes and actor roles that have emerged repeatedly across many of the scholarly disciplines. We embed these key concepts within a general framework for operational characterization of sociocultural knowledge systems. In order to demonstrate existing and potential applications of the knowledge system framework, we present and discuss major trends in recent ecology and natural resource management literature. Finally, we propose that continued and collaborative development of this general framework can serve as a pragmatic tool for individuals from Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems who wish to engage in reciprocal and meaningful dialogue with members of other knowledge systems, especially regarding the highly uncertain global future of ecology and natural resource management.

show abstract

The role of media between expert and lay knowledge: A study of Iberian media coverage on climate change

Cited by 25 publications

References 29 publications

The European Media Portrayal of Climate Change: Implications for the Social Mobilization towards Climate Action

The European Media Portrayal of Climate Change: Implications for the Social Mobilization towards Climate Action

New Zealand's media and the crisis in the ocean: News norms and scientific urgency

A cultural framework for Indigenous, Local, and Science knowledge systems in ecology and natural resource management

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About