This book explores the urgent challenges of communicating climate change in the media. While many books have been written about climate change—this book goes to the very heart of what makes humans care about stories enough to act. In a direct and sympathetic approach, Denisova offers ideas on practical application as she tackles problems of greenwashing, news narratives, colonial framings and more. This fresh perspective acknowledges the pressing challenge with public disengagement and the anxiety people feel when faced with increasingly bleak headlines as the climate crisis intensifies. Taking climate anxiety as a starting point, the author positions herself with empathy on the side of the reader. By asking the question: ‘what slows down citizen action?’, blame is shifted away from the individual to look at cultural and social dynamics and the political economies that fuel them. There is a surprising challenge to apocalyptic storytelling and a hero’s narrative, which Denison argues are counter-productive, while solutions and new approaches to storytelling are provided for media storytellers. This book is essential reading for anyone seeking to ease climate-related anxiety and foster a deeper sense of empowerment in their audience.
1. Introduction.-
2. Ten news values for climate communication. From
crisisation to attribution, emotional offsets, pragmatic instructions and
compelling storytelling.-
3. Global South and Global North discrepancies in
climate coverage.-
4. The many faces of greenwashing.-
5. The ignorance as a
choice paradox, and the role of depleted resources in the responses to
climate messages.-
6. From emotions to determination the communication
tools for free riders, social proof, and conditional cooperators.-
7.
Climate optimism or climate pessimism? Self-efficacy boosters, and
storytelling for change.-
8. Conclusion.
Anastasia Denisova is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the Communication and Media Research Institute, University of Westminster, UK. She specialises in viral cultures, internet memes, and climate change communication and is the author of the book Internet Memes and Society (2019) and the policy brief Fashion Media and Sustainability (2021). She has published widely in top academic journals, including Social Media + Society; Media, Culture and Society; and Journalism. Dr Denisova is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a board member of Westminster Papers in Communication and Culture.
Lisainfo e-raamatute kohta