Climate on Cable

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

The notion that the media’s principal role regarding public opinion is reinforcement of pre-existing attitudes – and that this idea is relative inconsequential politically – is pervasive, across many political and social science sub-disciplines, and in non-academic commentary. This article comprehensively challenges the evidential and theoretical underpinnings of this thesis, drawing on a wealth of contemporary survey data and media coverage research, across a range of issues, including climate change, Brexit, immigration, the economy and benefit fraud. It also argues that ‘reinforcement’ is an important and consequential power, and that the processes involved have significant implications for public misperception of salient political issues. It makes the case that the media create attitudinal uncertainty, and can have pervasive but subtle influences on political attitudes, particularly when there are persistent patterns of coverage across a range of media. But also that in contexts...

Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Monographs, 2013

Cancer is both highly feared and highly newsworthy, and there is a robust body of research documenting the content and effects of cancer news coverage on health behaviors and policy. Recent years have witnessed ongoing, transformative shifts in American journalism alongside rapid advances in communication technology and the public information environment. These changes create a pressing need to consider a new set of research questions, sampling strategies, measurement techniques, and theories of media effects to ensure continued relevance and adaptation of communication research to address critical cancer control concerns. This paper begins by briefly reviewing what we know about the role of cancer news in shaping cancer-related beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and policies. We then outline challenges and opportunities, both theoretical and methodological, posed by the rapidly changing news media environment and the nature of audience engagement. We organize our discussion around thre...

Science Communication

Politicization of science occurs when the inherent uncertainty of science is emphasized to cast doubt on scientific consensus. Climate change has become particularly susceptible to this kind of politicization. In this article, we report the results of a survey experiment in which we manipulated text frames and visual imagery associated with two types of environmental hazards linked to climate change—sea level rise with associated flooding and increased heat levels with associated drought and wildfires. We present evidence that the use of visual imagery can counter the effects that science politicization has on climate change beliefs and behaviors.

Journal of Communication

This article provides evidence that affective polarization is an important mechanism linking conservative media use to political misperceptions. Partisan media’s potential to polarize is well documented, and there are numerous ways in which hostility toward political opponents might promote the endorsement of inaccurate beliefs. We test this mediated model using data collected via nationally representative surveys conducted during two recent U.S. presidential elections. Fixed effects regression models using three-wave panel data collected in 2012 provide evidence that conservative media exposure contributes to more polarized feelings toward major-party presidential candidates, and this growing favorability gap is associated with misperceptions critical of the Democrats. Further, these effects are more pronounced among Republicans than among Democrats. Cross-sectional analyses using data collected in 2016 provide additional evidence of the mediated relationship. The theoretical and r...

Middle school students are learning about climate change in large part through textbooks used in their classes. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how the language employed in these materials frames this topic. To this end, we used systemic functional analysis to study the language of the chapters related to climate change in four sixth grade science textbooks adopted in the state of California. The linguistic variables investigated were: types of nominal groups; processes; circumstances; and the modality system. Our findings showed that these textbooks framed climate change as uncertain in the scientific communityboth about whether it is occurring as well as about its human-causation. The implications for science education are discussed in relation to how the current political and public discourses of climate change, rather than the scientific discourse, is influencing how textbooks discuss this topic.

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 2021

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed weaknesses and placed great stress on the agri-food system in the U.S. Many believe that it could be a catalyst event that leads to structural changes to improve the food system’s resilience. We use a sample of 220 articles published in prominent national newspapers and agricultural trade journals from March to May 2020 to explore the extent to which farmer responses to COVID-19 covered in the media represent examples of resistant, adaptive, or transformative strategies. The pandemic disrupted the U.S. food system and impacted farmers by reducing access to markets, lowering commodity prices, restricting access to farmworker labor, and shifting consumer demand. Media coverage of farmer responses to these stressors were coded into three alternative pathways: (i) reactive or buffering responses, (ii) adaptive responses; and (iii) transformative responses. Most news media coverage focused on the pandemic’s disruptive impacts on the U.S. food system, rela...

Environmental Politics, 2018

How do choices among information sources reinforce political differences on topics such as climate change? Environmental sociologists have observed large-scale and long-term impacts from news media and think-tank reports, while experimental science-communication studies detect more immediate effects from variations in supplied information. Applying generalized structural equation modeling (GSEM) to recent survey data, previous work is extended to show that political ideology, education, and their interaction predict news media information choices in much the same way they predict opinions about climate change itself. Consequently, media information sources serve as intervening variables that can reinforce and, through their own independent effects, amplify existing beliefs about climate change. Results provide empirical support for selective exposure and biased assimilation as mechanisms widening political divisions on climate change in the United States. The findings fit with the reinforcing spirals framework suggesting partisan media strengthens climate change beliefs which then influences subsequent use of media.

Environmental Practice, 2018

Despite the consensus that exists in scientific literature on the reality of anthropogenic climate change, the American public still has doubts. Research shows that mass media play a role in how this gap developed and why it persists. We assessed cable news coverage from 2013 to ascertain if and how it covered climate science and compared this to a similar study using coverage from 2007 and 2008. We further compared the percentage of coverage affirming climate change in the scientific community to the percentage of coverage affirming climate change in cable news coverage to see if there is a statistically significant difference between the two groups. For the news data we used a Union of Concerned Scientists dataset on MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News. Our results reveal good and bad news regarding cable news coverage of climate science. We found that while the overall level of affirmation was higher in the scientific community than it was in cable news coverage, MSNBC offered the highest number of media segments and all of them affirmed climate science. Fox News featured segments that challenge climate science, but the overall number of Fox News segments discussing climate science declined compared to 2007-2008 data.

Opinião Pública

This article investigates how three media outlets (the digital written editions of CNN, Fox News, and the BBC), perceived as politically partisan, framed the news on Edward Snowden, who disclosed sensitive cybersecurity issues. As the media is an influential actor in domestic and international politics, how the news coverage on Internet security flaws framed the facts under narrative dispute matters. Sentiment analyses were conducted on hundreds of articles published on the free-access written news websites between 2013-2018. The results show positive or negative sentiments expressed in most headlines, while more neutral texts are found in the news cores.

Ethnicity & Health, 2020

Objective: To investigate factors associated with the stigmatization of people of Asian descent during COVID-19 in the United States and factors that can mitigate or prevent stigmatization. Design: A national sample survey of adults (N = 842) was conducted online between May 11 and May 19, 2020. Outcome variables were two dimensions of stigmatization, responsibility and persons as risk. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed. Results: Racial prejudice, maladaptive coping, and biased media use each explained stigmatization. Racial prejudice, comprising stereotypical beliefs and emotion toward Asian Americans, was a stronger predictor of stigmatization than maladaptive coping or biased media use. Fear concerning the ongoing COVID-19 situation and the use of social media and partisan cable TV also predicted stigmatization. Low self-efficacy in dealing with COVID-19, when associated with high estimated harm of COVID-19, increased stigmatization. High perceived institutional efficacy in the handling of COVID-19 increased stigmatization when linked to high estimated harm of COVID-19. On the other hand, high perceived collective efficacy in coping with COVID-19 was associated with low stigmatization. More indirect contacts with Asians via the media predicted less stigmatization. Conclusions: Efforts to reduce stigmatization should address racial stereotypes and emotions, maladaptive coping, and biased media use by providing education and resources to the public. Fostering collective efficacy and media-based contacts with Asian Americans can facilitate these efforts.

Political Psychology, 2022

This study examined the newsjunkie characteristic-intrinsic need for orientation (INFO)-as a predictor of being registered to vote, intention to vote, and voter conscientiousness among a large sample of U.S. adults (N = 2,059), while controlling for media use, news consumption, political partisanship, and demographics. INFO assesses the extent to which people access news in their downtime, feel discomfort when they cannot get news, check news among the first things they do daily, and believe that following news connects them with others. The current study is the first to examine relationships between the sustained, psychological INFO trait and political participation. INFO rests upon theoretical frameworks of uses and gratifications and selfdetermination theory, both of which are employed in this study. INFO was positively correlated with being registered to vote, with intending to vote in the 2020 U.S. election, and with voter conscientiousness, even after controlling for numerous other variables. Additionally, INFO was still positively associated with the political participation variables after political news consumption was included as a mediator in three mediation analyses.

WIREs Climate Change, 2018

Despite extensive exploration into the use of language in climate change communication, our understanding of the use of visual images, and how they relate to public perceptions of climate change, is less developed. A limited set of images have come to represent climate change, but rapid changes in the digital landscape, in the way media and information are created, conveyed, and consumed has changed the way climate change is visualized. We review the use of climate imagery in digital media (news and social media, art, video and visualizations), and synthesize public perceptions research on factors that are important for engaging with climate imagery. We then compare how key research findings and recommendations align with the practical strategies of campaigners and communicators, highlighting opportunities for greater congruence. Finally, we outline key challenges and recommendations for future directions in research. The increasingly image-focused digital landscape signals that images of climate change have a pivotal role in building public engagement, both now, and in future. A better understanding of how these images are being used and understood by the public is crucial for communicating climate change in an engaging way. This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change 1 | INTRODUCTION Recent years have seen a proliferation of studies seeking to communicate climate change more effectively, most of which focus on language-based communication. But our understanding of the use of visual images in communication, and how they shape public perceptions of climate change, is less developed. Perhaps surprisingly given the complex and global nature of the issue, a rather limited set of images has come to represent climate change in the public discourse. The typical iconography includes polar bears and other animals (

Mass Communication and Society, 2019

A c c e p t e d M a n u s c r i p t POPULIST AUDIENCE RESPONSES TO CLIMATE MESSAGES 2 As a rise in anti-elite populist sentiment becomes an increasingly notable object of study in political realms, it is important to also consider how populism operates outside the electoral sphere. Americans' support for climate change-related policy has been understood primarily in a political affiliation context, with Democrats likely to support such policy and Republicans likely not to. However, populist beliefs cross ideological divides. Study of the interaction of populist sentiment, perceived elitism of a climate messenger, and support for climate change-related policy sheds additional insights onto research about climate change communication and strategic message design. Furthermore, populist sentiment is tied strongly to two emotions empirically linked to climate change attitudes: anger and fear. Grounded in principles from the Elaboration Likelihood Model and the Appraisal Theory of Emotions, we conducted an online surveyexperiment (N = 406) testing audience responses to climate change messages from Pope Francis and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, two messengers that have the potential to be perceived as elite. The data revealed an important interplay between populist sentiment, perceived elitism of a climate change messenger, and emotional responses to the message in shaping post-message support for climate change-related policy.

The Information Society, 2018

Social media and news use arguably contribute to the prevalence of contentious politics because individuals may express dissent through their social networks as they consume news. This study seeks to test whether individuals might be more open to political persuasion in this context, especially if they are exposed to political disagreement or discuss politics in a civil manner. Relying on survey data from the UK, results based on a moderated moderation model show that (a) social media news use predicts political persuasion on social media (direct effects) and, (b) discussion disagreement and civil reasoning moderate this relationship in two-way and three-way interactions.

Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 2019

Climate change communication" is taking the strategic position in the international and national politics around the globe. In the recent decade, different developing nations have started considering "climate change communication" as an integral part of the political campaigns and sustainable development. Specifically, the current document comprised of two sections. In the first section of the study, authors briefly compared the attributes related to "climate change communication" in the mainstream political parties' manifesto for the general election 2018 in Pakistan in a qualitative manner. In the second part, the difference of opinion among voters of mainstream political parties towards "climate change" was examined. In a bird's eye view, the perceived seriousness of "climate change" as a real challenge among voters mapped by the independent factors of "urbanization," "industrialization," "transportation," and "waste management" for sustainable development through the primary quantitative survey of 732 voters in the country. The finding highlights (1) public understanding of "socio-scientific issues," i.e., climate change is easy to communicate, and (2) how political parties are framing and communicating about "climate change" plays a significant role in climate change communication. The study concludes that "climate change communication" holds a critical role in developing regions' future political discourse to shape sustainable development policies. Keywords Climate change communication. Politics. Pakistan. Socio-scientific issues. Pro-environmental behavior biggest hurdle for the United Nations' sustainable development goals which are targeted to be accomplish by the year 2030 (Biagini et al. 2014). The action regarding climate change can be labeled as initiatives to adapt and mitigate. Adaptation measures the effect of climate change over the lives of individuals and society. However, mitigation highlights the causes and sources of climate change worldwide. To communicate the seriousness of climate change, different communication strategies have already been proposed by different researchers in the literature to trigger social and behavioral change (Corner et al. 2010). Moreover, the social and cultural factors affect critically to define the framing strategies for communicating about climate change and for redefining public perception about global warming (Akerlof et al. 2013). For any socio-psychological and behavioral modeling in the case of socio-scientific issues, the micro-and macro-level factors are inevitable to address, as they amplify the effectiveness of any strategic initiative (Abildtrup et al. 2006). Brulle et al. (2012) indicate that the effect of economic conditions and elite cues is much larger than the scientific risk communication when it comes to policy preferences. The Muhammad Azfar Anwar, Rongting Zhou and Aqsa Sajjad contributed equally to this work.

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, 2019

Climate change communication integrates climate education theory and practices. It indicates the public understanding of scientific knowledge on climate change, communicative context, public engagement, and adaption. It is important to communicate climate change messages successfully to various groups in society, including residents, environmental educators, policymakers, researchers, to increase public understanding of climate change. This study examines 454 journals, 1,408 articles and 51,786 references to explore the intellectual development and research fronts in the knowledge area of climate change communication.

European Journal of Psychology of Education, 2021

In pandemic crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals’ behavior has a strong impact on epidemiological processes. Compliance with prevention guidelines, such as social distancing, is critical to avoid further spreading an infectious disease or to slow down its spread. However, some individuals also or instead engage in panic behavior, such as hoarding. We investigate how education prepares individuals to respond adequately by modelling the path from seeking information about COVID-19 to eventual behavior. Based on a sample of N = 1182 adult Americans, gathered at the pandemic’s onset (March 2020), we conclude that science knowledge helps individuals convert information into coronavirus knowledge. This knowledge then helps individuals avoid panic behavior. Individuals lacking coronavirus knowledge and science knowledge still comply with prevention guidelines when they have a general trust in medicine. Individuals lacking knowledge still follow prevention guidelines when they ...

The International Journal of Press/Politics, 2013

Spiral-of-silence theory assumes that a monolithic stream of messages from mainstream media, leaving little ability for audiences to seek ideologically congruent news, affects people’s perceptions of the distribution of opinion in society. While these assumptions may have been valid when Noelle-Neumann developed her theory forty years ago, the new media landscape, characterized by the proliferation of ideological media outlets, makes them seem outdated. Do audiences of conservative-leaning media perceive a conservative opinion climate while audiences of liberal-leaning media perceive a more liberal distribution of opinion? And if so, what are the consequences? We examine these questions using two data sets collected in extremely different contexts (Study 1 in the context of the 2005 Israeli disengagement from Gaza, n = 519; Study 2, in the context of the 2004 U.S. presidential elections using the National Annenberg Election Survey, n = 9,058). In both studies, selective exposure to ...

Vaccines

The purpose of this paper was to explore online media coverage of COVID-19 vaccination and user reactions to the different types of coverage. The authors aimed to investigate possible boomerang effects that arise when COVID-19 media coverage is assertive and confident, and to determine the effects of balanced reporting. A two-stage random sample comprised a total of 300 articles published in three Croatian online news sites during a period from 1 February 2020, through 15 January 2022. The data were categorized using human coding content analysis, while reliability of coding was checked by using two coders and calculating reliability coefficients. The data were analyzed by means of negative binomial regression analysis. The results revealed that COVID-19 reporting was mainly consensual, i.e., it provided largely affirmative information about vaccines. However, user comments were highly polarized and mostly negative, with the majority of anti-vaccination tropes linked to the “corrupt...

Communications Earth & Environment

Recent scholarship suggests that groups who oppose acting on climate change have shifted their emphasis from attacking the credibility of climate science itself to questioning the policies intended to address it, a position often called ‘response skepticism’. As television is the platform most used by audiences around the world to receive climate information, we examine 30 news programmes on 20 channels in Australia, Brazil, Sweden, the UK and USA which included coverage of the 2021 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the Physical Science. Using manual quantitative content analysis, we find that skepticism about the science of climate change is still prevalent in channels that we have classified as ‘right-wing’, but largely absent from channels classified as ‘mainstream’. Forms of response skepticism are particularly common in ‘right-wing’ channels, but also present in some ‘mainstream’ coverage. Two of the most prominent discourses question the perceiv...

GeoHealth, 2018

Americans tend to see global warming as a distant threat, but a small body of previous research suggests that information about the health implications of global warming may enhance public engagement with the issue. We sought to extend those findings with a longitudinal study that examined how Americans react to information about eight specific categories of health impacts from global warming. In winter 2017, we conducted a two‐wave survey experiment using a quota sample of American adults (n = 2,254). Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group who read eight brief essays about different categories of health impacts from global warming or to a control group who received no information. Participants answered questions before reading the essays, immediately after reading each essay and at the conclusion of all essays (treatment participants only), and 2–3 weeks later. Reading the information had small‐ to medium‐sized effects on multiple indicators of participants' c...

Environmental Communication, 2018

This article examines the conditions under which environmental beat journalists can gain credibility as expert informants. It shows that media storms foster a particular dynamic that can add to this credibility. Comparing a media storm over shale gas development in Quebec with regular coverage of the same issue in British Columbia, this article shows that the coverage space given to environmental beat journalists during a media storm can render their alliance with protest groups mutually beneficial. Beat journalists can benefit from the willingness of these groups to participate in their stories, while the groups benefit from increased visibility. Beat journalists also benefit by being perceived as expert informants in policy networks, a role that they use to encourage policy-makers to take the concerns of protest groups seriously. This dynamic also increases the negativity of the news coverage. The article makes a contribution to knowledge on the role of environmental journalists in policy-making processes.

Science & education, 2022

Like all SSI, the COVID-19 pandemic requires decisions that are contentious, involve scientific thinking, and vary across social groups. This investigation determined how perceptions about COVID-19 science and sociocultural membership associate with 557 university biology students': (1) COVID-19 behaviors after stay-at-home orders and (2) support for future societal COVID-19 responses. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses demonstrate that students' COVID-19 mitigating actions after stay-at-home orders were significantly and positively associated with, in order of importance: (1) higher levels of COVID-19 spread prevention knowledge; (2) espousing more liberal, as opposed to conservative, political orientations; (3) being female; and (4) increased disbelief of COVID-19 misinformation/disinformation claims. Furthermore, the students' political orientation moderated the relationship between their trust in scientific models to guide COVID-19 decisions and their personal COVID-19 actions, with trust in scientific models to guide COVID-19 decision-making being a significant positive predictor of moderate, conservative, and very conservative student groups' COVID-19 mitigating actions. Conversely, there was no association between trust in scientific models to guide COVID-19 decisionmaking and very liberal and liberal students' conducting COVID-19 actions. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses revealed that students' support for societal-wide COVID-19 mitigating measures going forward is positively associated with, in order of importance: (1) espousing more liberal, as opposed to conservative, political orientations; (2) higher levels of COVID-19 spread prevention knowledge; (3) increased disbelief of COVID-19 misinformation/disinformation claims; (4) trust in scientific models for guiding COVID-19 decision-making; and (5) beliefs that factors beyond science and technology (e.g., personal actions) are necessary for pandemic resolution. Implications discussed include the importance for helping students analyze how sociocultural membership, personal biases, and trust in science interactively influence socioscientific decision-making. Further recommendations discussed include how science communication strategies must account for sociocultural variance in order to optimize trust in science and reasoned and responsible action.

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Social media platforms are becoming an increasingly important venue for public debate. Twitch, in particular, is a popular streaming platform that targets young adults. Originally created for online video game players, the platform also includes other types of content, such as politics, leisure, and science. Here, we present a study that examines climate change discourse on this understudied platform. Unlike previous studies, this work does not only focus on users’ reactions to streamer discourse but, using an ad-hoc methodology, also analyzes the content of the videos. Indeed, an added value of this research is the development of an objective evaluation based on automatic speech recognition (ASP) and natural language processing (NLP). We found that Twitch is an emergent locus for climate discussion with a thriving community of young users interested in the topic. Our findings challenge the understanding of social media discourse on climate change and suggest that platform architect...

Environmental Communication, 2017

The news media are a central source of information about climate change for most people. Through frames, media transmit information that shape how people understand climate change as well as the actions they are ultimately willing to support to address the problem. This article reviews the rise of climate change in the U.S. news media and the emergence of related frames in public discourse. In doing so, it traces the roots of partisan divisions over climate change and highlights the role that events, journalistic practices, technological changes, and individual-level factors such as ideological and partisan identity have played in fostering polarization. The article concludes by identifying the core challenges facing communicators who seek to build consensus for action on climate change and highlights the most viable solutions for achieving success.

Climatic Change

In this paper, we consider climate scepticism in the Russian context. We are interested in whether this has been discussed within the social scientific literature and ask first whether there is a discernible climate sceptical discourse in Russia. We find that there is very little literature directly on this topic in either English or Russian and we seek to synthesise related literature to fill the gap. Secondly, we consider whether Russian climate scepticism has been shaped by the same factors as in the USA, exploring how scientists, the media, public opinion, the government and business shaped climate scepticism in Russia. Climate scepticism in the USA is understood as a ‘conservative countermovement’ that seeks to react against the perceived gains of the progressive environmental movement, but we argue that this is not an appropriate framework for understanding Russian climate scepticism. Articulated within a less agonistic environment and situated within an authoritarian regime, ...

Social Media + Society, 2021

Despite a wealth of research examining the effectiveness of correction of misinformation, not enough is known about how people experience such correction when it occurs on social media. Using a study of US adults in late March 2020, we measure how often people witness correction, correct others, or are corrected themselves, using the case of COVID-19 misinformation on social media. Descriptively, our results suggest that all three experiences related to correction on social media are relatively common and occur across partisan divides. Importantly, a majority of those who report seeing misinformation also report seeing it corrected, and a majority of those who report sharing misinformation report being corrected by others. Those with more education are more likely to engage in correction, and younger respondents are more likely to report all three experiences with correction. While experiences with correction are generally unrelated to misperceptions about COVID-19, those who correc...

Coastal Research Library, 2020

Climate change has become a politically polarized issue within the past 30 years, as interest groups and certain political leaders sought to dispute the growing scientific consensus about its causes and impacts. This chapter synthesizes a large body of survey, experimental and methodological literature that places the empirical study of South Florida in context. Past survey research has shown conclusively that party identification and ideology are the strongest predictors of climate change beliefs of Americans. Other predictors that are less consistent include demographic characteristics, cultural worldviews and personal experience. Survey and laboratory research has been directed at understanding the processes involved in accepting or denying messages about climate change. Among the findings are that strategically framed messages can shift opinion, that a belief in scientific consensus about climate change may increase acceptance of its reality, that prior beliefs, group identities and cultural worldviews moderate the acceptance of climate change information through motivated reasoning, and that best practices involve describing climate change as a personal risk, using social group norms to convince skeptics, and emphasizing social consensus on the issue. Prior research suggests that a message about environmental risk that is local and specific will be relatively more effective, particularly when the immediate threat is already visible.