Who Speaks for the Climate?
Making Sense of Media Reporting on Climate Change

This study makes sense of how the media report on climate change and how this influences science and policy decision-making.

Maxwell T. Boykoff (Author)

9780521115841, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 September 2011

240 pages, 13 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 1.9 cm, 0.51 kg

'In Who Speaks for the Climate?, Max Boykoff discusses many issues surrounding the coverage of climate change, including this question of framing the debate … in a dense, research-packed book, suitable for the classroom.' Natural Hazards Observer

The public rely upon media representations to help interpret and make sense of the many complexities relating to climate science and governance. Media representations of climate issues – from news to entertainment – are powerful and important links between people's everyday realities and experiences, and the ways in which they are discussed by scientists, policymakers and public actors. A dynamic mix of influences – from internal workings of mass media such as journalistic norms, to external political, economic, cultural and social factors – shape what becomes a climate 'story'. Providing a bridge between academic considerations and real world developments, this book helps students, academic researchers and interested members of the public make sense of media reporting on climate change as it explores 'who speaks for climate' and what effects this may have on the spectrum of possible responses to contemporary climate challenges.

1. The world stage: cultural politics and climate change
2. Roots and culture: exploring media coverage of climate change through history
3. Fight semantic drift: confronting issue conflation
4. Placing climate complexity in context
5. Climate stories: how journalistic norms shape media content
6. Signals and noise: covering human contributions to climate change
7. Carbonundrums: media consumption in the public sphere
8. A light in the attic? Ongoing media representations of climate change.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Environmentalist thought & ideology [RNA], Environment law [LNKJ], Media, information & communication industries [KNT], Comparative politics [JPB]