The Effects of Establishing Intimacy and Consubstantiality on Group Discussions About Climate Change Solutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Frances Bloomfield ◽  
Lyn M. Van Swol ◽  
Chen-Ting Chang ◽  
Stephanie Willes ◽  
Paul Hangsan Ahn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Word Count ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
The Many

The many obstacles to productive climate change communication necessitate new approaches. Based on science communication strategies that promote engagement rather than knowledge transfer, we assigned participants ( N = 329) to randomized chat groups that discussed similarities between group members (intimacy condition) or information about climate change (information condition). This study combined Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and rhetorical analysis and found that groups in the intimacy condition were more likely to exhibit commonality than groups in the information condition. This study offers practical strategies for having productive discussions on controversial scientific topics such as climate change.

Fostering climate change consensus: The role of intimacy in group discussions

2021 ◽  
pp. 096366252110206
Author(s):  
Lyn M. van Swol ◽  
Emma Frances Bloomfield ◽  
Chen-Ting Chang ◽  
Stephanie Willes
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Group Consensus ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Self Disclosure ◽  
Group Attraction ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
To Come ◽  
Collective Engagement

This study examined if creating intimacy in a group discussion is more effective toward reaching consensus about climate change than a focus on information. Participants were randomly assigned to either a group that spent the first part of an online discussion engaging in self-disclosure and focusing on shared values (intimacy condition) or discussing information from an article about climate change (information condition). Afterward, all groups were given the same instructions to try to come to group consensus on their opinions about climate change. Participants in the intimacy condition had higher ratings of social cohesion, group attraction, task interdependence, and collective engagement and lower ratings of ostracism than the information condition. Intimacy groups were more likely to reach consensus, with ostracism and the emotional tone of discussion mediating this effect. Participants were more likely to change their opinion to reflect that climate change is real in the intimacy than information condition.

scholarly journals What Framework Promotes Saliency of Climate Change Issues on Online Public Agenda: A Quantitative Study of Online Knowledge Community Quora

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Shi ◽  
Changfeng Chen ◽  
Jie Xiong ◽  
Haohuan Fu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Knowledge Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Public Agenda

Though scientists have achieved consensus on the severity and urgency of climate change years ago, the public still considers this issue not that important, as the influence of climate change is widely thought to be geographically and temporally bounded. The discrepancy between scientific consensus and public’s misperception calls for more dedicated public communication strategies to get climate change issues back on the front line of the public agenda. Based on the large-scale data acquired from the online knowledge community Quora, we conduct a computational linguistic analysis followed by the regression model to address the climate change communication from the agenda setting perspective. To be specific, our results find that certain narrative strategies may make climate change issues more salient by engaging public into discussion or evoking their long-term interest. Though scientific communicators have long been blaming lack of scientific literacy for low saliency of climate change issues, cognitive framework is proved to be least effective in raising public concern. Affective framework is relatively more influential in motivating people to participate in climate change discussion: the stronger the affective intensity is, the more prominent the issue is, but the affective polarity is not important. Perceptual framework is most powerful in promoting public discussion and the only variable that can significantly motivate the public’s long-term desire to track issues, among which feeling plays the most critical role compared with seeing and hearing. This study extends existing science communication literature by shedding light on the role of previously ignored affective and perceptual frameworks in making issues salient and the conclusions may provide theoretical and practical implications for future climate change communication.

scholarly journals Establishing a climate change information source addressing local aspects of a global issue. A case study in New York State

2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (03) ◽  
pp. C06
Author(s):  
E. Lauren Chambliss ◽  
Bruce Lewenstein
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Information Source ◽  
New York State ◽  
The United States ◽  
York State ◽  
Climate Change Information

This case study describes the development of a climate change information system for New York State, one of the physically largest states in the United States. Agriculture (including dairy production and vineyards) and water-related tourism are large parts of the state economy, and both are expected to be affected dramatically by climate change. The highly politicized nature of the climate change debate in America makes the delivery of science-based information even more urgent and challenging. The United States does not have top-down science communication policies, as many countries do; this case will describe how diverse local and state agencies, corporations, NGOs, and other actors collaborated with university researchers to create a suite of products and online tools with stable, science-based information carefully crafted and targeted to avoid politicization and facilitate education and planning for community, agricultural and business planners and state policy makers who are making decisions now with 20 to 50 year time frames.

scholarly journals Exploring the digital media ecology: insights from a study of healthy diets and climate change communication on digital and social media

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. A02
Author(s):  
Emma Weitkamp ◽  
Elena Milani ◽  
Andy Ridgway ◽  
Clare Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Healthy Diets ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Media

This study explores the types of actors visible in the digital science communication landscape in the Netherlands, Serbia and the U.K. Using the Koru model of science communication as a basis, we consider how science communicators craft their messages and which channels they are using to reach audiences. The study took as case studies the topics of climate change and healthy diets to enable comparison across countries, topics and platforms. These findings are compared with the results from a survey of over 200 science communication practitioners based in these countries. We find that although traditional media are challenged by the variety of different new entrants into the digital landscape, our results suggest that the media and journalists remain highly visible. In addition, our survey results suggest that many science communicators may struggle to gain traction in the crowded digital ecology, and in particular, that relatively few scientists and research institutions and universities are achieving a high profile in the public digital media ecology of science communication.

scholarly journals Agricultural Extension Approaches and Climate Change Communication Within the Ndop Rice Sector, North West Region, Cameroon

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Moye Eric Kongnso ◽  
Nsahlai Loveline Kongla ◽  
Kiming Ignatius Ngala
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Agricultural Extension ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Extension Agents ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Climate Variability And Change ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
North West ◽  
Rice Farmers ◽  
Change Communication

Climate change communication is a pre-requisite for proper adaptation. This article seeks to examine the agricultural extension approaches used in the Ndop rice sector within the context of climate variability and change. Using a mixed research approach, questionnaires were administered to 216 purposively sampled rice farmers, interviews conducted with 16 extension agents and three focus group discussions were organized. Results revealed that extension workers have been using farm demonstrations, capacity building of farmers through training and participatory approaches. However, these approaches have proven to be limited and inefficient. Challenges in climate change communication are attributed to factors such as; low ratio of extension workers to rice farmers, inadequate communication in the mass media (7.14%), no access to internet (4.17%), low competencies of extension staffs (68.75%) and limited access to weather elements. Given that climate change communication is complex and requires a mastery of the climatic systems, the extension services need to continuously upgrade capacities of their staffs and strengthen the link between research institutions, extension workers and farmers.

scholarly journals Messaging on Slow Impacts: Applying Lessons Learned from Climate Change Communication to Catalyze and Improve Marine Nutrient Communication

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Nicole Canfield ◽  
Kate Mulvaney ◽  
Nathaniel Merrill
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Nutrient Pollution ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Comprehensive Management ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Environmental Causes

Building publics’ understanding about human-environmental causes and impacts of nutrient pollution is difficult due to the diverse sources and, at times, extended timescales of increasing inputs, consequences to ecosystems, and recovery after remediation. Communicating environmental problems with “slow impacts” has long been a challenge for scientists, public health officials, and science communicators, as the time delay for subsequent consequences to become evident dilutes the sense of urgency to act. Fortunately, scientific research and practice in the field of climate change communication has begun to identify best practices to address these challenges. Climate change demonstrates a delay between environmental stressor and impact, and recommended practices for climate change communication illustrate how to explain and motivate action around this complex environmental problem. Climate change communication research provides scientific understanding of how people evaluate risk and scientific information about climate change. We used a qualitative coding approach to review the science communication and climate change communication literature to identify approaches that could be used for nutrients and how they could be applied. Recognizing the differences between climate change and impacts of nutrient pollution, we also explore how environmental problems with delayed impacts demand nuanced strategies for effective communication and public engagement. Applying generalizable approaches to successfully communicate the slow impacts related to nutrient pollution across geographic contexts will help build publics’ understanding and urgency to act on comprehensive management of nutrient pollution, thereby increasing protection of coastal and marine environments.

“Global Warming” versus “Climate Change” and the Influence of Labeling on Public Perceptions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathon P. Schuldt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Survey Methodology ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Social Cognitive Models

Communicating about climate change involves more than choices about which content to convey and how to convey it. It also involves a choice about how to label the issue itself, given the various terms used to represent the issue in public discourse—including “global warming,” “climate change,” and “global environmental change,” among others. An emerging literature in climate change communication and survey methodology has begun to examine the influence of labeling on public perceptions, including the cognitive accessibility of climate-related knowledge, affective responses and related judgments (problem seriousness and personal concern), and certainty that the phenomenon exists. The present article reviews this emerging work, drawing on framing theory and related social-cognitive models of information processing to shed light on the possible mechanisms that underlie labeling effects. In doing so, the article highlights the value of distinguishing between labeling and framing effects in communication research and theory, and calls for additional research into the boundary conditions of these and other labeling effects in science communication.

The Information Deficit Model and Climate Change Communication

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brianne Suldovsky
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
News Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Communication Model ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Scientific Publications ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Change Communication

Many publics remain divided about the existence and consequences of anthropogenic climate change despite scientific consensus. A popular approach to climate change communication, and science communication more generally, is the information deficit model. The deficit model assumes that gaps between scientists and the public are a result of a lack of information or knowledge. As a remedy for this gap, the deficit model is a one-way communication model where information flows from experts to publics in an effort to change individuals’ attitudes, beliefs, or behaviors. Approaches to climate change communication that reflect the deficit model include websites, social media, mobile applications, news media, documentaries and films, books, and scientific publications and technical reports. The deficit model has been highly criticized for being overly simplistic and inaccurately characterizing the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, particularly for politically polarized issues like climate change. Even so, it continues to be an integral part of climate change communication research and practice. In an effort to address the inadequacies of the deficit model, scholars and practitioners often utilize alternative forms of public engagement, including the contextual model, the public engagement model, and the lay expertise model. Each approach to public engagement carries with it a unique set of opportunities and challenges. Future work in climate change communication should explore when and how to most effectively use the models of public engagement that are available.

Fast-food information, information quality and information gap: a temporal exploration of the notion of information in science communication on climate change

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carin Graminius
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Fast Food ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Analytical Point ◽  
Concept Of Information

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to discuss the concept of information in relation to temporality within the context of climate change communication. Furthermore, the paper aims to highlight the empirical richness of information as a concept by analysing its use in context.Design/methodology/approachThe discussion is based on 14 semi-structured interviews with initiators and collaborators of 6 open letters on climate change published in 2018–2019. By taking three specific notions the interviewees introduced—fast food information, information quality and information gap–as the analytical point of departure, the study aims for a contextual understanding of information grounded in temporal sensitivity.FindingsThe paper finds that information in the context of open letters is informed by different, and at times contradicting, temporalities and timescapes which align with various material, institutional and discursive practices. Based on this finding, the paper argues that notions of information are intrinsically linked to the act of communicating, and they should be viewed as co-constituting each other.Originality/valueThe paper contributes with an empirically informed discussion regarding the concept of information as it is used in a specific context. It illustrates how “information” is far from being understood in a singular fashion, but is made up of multifaceted and at times contradictory understandings. Ultimately, they correspond to why and how one communicates climate change information.

What Framework Promotes Saliency of Climate Change Issues on Online Public Agenda: A Quantitative Study of Online Knowledge Community Quora

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Shi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Scientific Literacy ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Knowledge Community ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Public Agenda

<p>Though scientists have achieved consensus on the severity and urgency of climate change years ago, the public still considers this issue not that important, as the influence of climate change is widely thought to be geographically and temporally bounded. The discrepancy between scientific consensus and public's misperception calls for more dedicated public communication strategies to get climate change issues back on the front line of public agenda. Based on the large-scale data acquired from the online knowledge community Quora, we conduct a computational linguistic analysis followed by regression model to address the climate change communication from the agenda setting perspective. To be specific, our results find that certain narrative strategies may make climate change issues more salient by engaging public into discussion or evoking their long-term interest. Though scientific communicators have long been blaming lack of scientific literacy for low saliency of climate change issues, cognitive framework is proved to be least effective in raising public concern. Affective framework is relatively more influential in motivating people to participate in climate change discussion: the stronger the affective intensity is, the more prominent the issue is, but the affective polarity is not important. Perceptual framework is most powerful in promoting public discussion and the only variable that can significantly motivate public's long-term desire to track issues, among which feeling plays the most critical role compared with seeing and hearing. This study extends existing science communication literature by shedding light on the role of previously ignored affective and perceptual frameworks in making issues salient and the conclusions may provide theoretical and practical implications for future climate change communication.</p>

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