Media Representations of Climate Change: A Meta-Analysis of the Research Field

A flurry of studies in recent years has analyzed the role of media in climate change communication. This article provides a systematic, large-scale, and up-to-date overview of the objects and characteristics of this research field through a meta-analysis. It identifies 133 relevant studies and analyzes them empirically. The results show that research activity has risen strongly over time, and that the analytical spectrum has expanded to include an increasing number of countries, more types of media including online and social media, and different methodological approaches. The analysis also demonstrates, however, that scholarship in the field still concentrates strongly on Western countries and print media.     

Between Guilt and Obligation: Debating the Responsibility for Climate Change and Climate Politics in the Media

ABSTRACT

The “common but differentiated responsibility” of developed and developing countries to mitigate climate change is a core principle of international climate politics—but there is disagreement about what this “differentiated responsibility” amounts to. We investigate how newspapers in developed countries (Australia, Germany, United States) and emerging economies (Brazil, India) covered this debate during the UN climate summits in 2004, 2009, and 2014. Newspapers in both types of countries attributed more responsibility to developed than to developing countries. In line with social identity theory, however, media in developed countries attributed less causal responsibility (blame) to other developed countries than media in emerging economies. The latter countries’ media, in turn, attributed less responsibility to other developing countries than media in developed countries. At the same time, in line with the “differentiated responsibility”, media in developed countries attributed more responsibility to their own countries than media in emerging economies.     

Risk and Responsibility in Public Engagement by Climate Scientists: Reconsidering Advocacy During the Trump Era

The election as US President of Donald J Trump, who denies the scientific consensus on climate change, raises questions about the role of scientists in public discourse. How far should scientists wade into the waters of advocacy before risking their credibility of fair arbiters of knowledge? The new study by Kotcher, Myers, Vraga, Stenhouse, and Maibach [2017. Does engagement in advocacy hurt the credibility of scientists? Results from a randomized national survey experiment. Environmental Communication. doi:10.1080/17524032.2016.1275736] is a reminder that scientists are among the most trusted people in public life and have some freedom to engage publicly without harming their reputation. However, with the power to influence public debate comes the responsibility to carefully consider the impact of statements and actions. This commentary discusses the challenges facing scientists at a time of great potential for public engagement, and for a gap between perceived and actual intent of public statements.     

食品安全网络舆情中网民微博转发行为影响因素研究——以上海福喜事件为例

食品安全网络舆情是公众参与食品安全监管的重要平台,若不加以科学的监管与引导,极易引发食品安全恐慌心理,甚至危害社会稳定。微博是食品安全网络舆情中重要的自媒体平台,主要通过微博转发行为扩散舆情事件的影响,推动舆情事件的发展。为了深入分析食品安全网络舆情中网民微博转发行为,本文以上海福喜事件为例,在事件发展与关注度分析的基础上,通过采集上海福喜事件的新浪微博数据,并运用多项Logistic回归模型展开分析,探讨网民在食品安全网络舆情中转发行为的特征与主要影响因素。研究结果表明,对于仅有主帖内容的微博(类型Ⅰ微博),发帖者微博的粉丝数、微博数、认证情况以及发帖者微博内容的情感倾向、是否有链接、是否有视频对其微博的被转发次数有显著影响;对于转发了他人内容的微博(类型Ⅱ微博),发帖者微博的粉丝数、微博数、认证情况、被转发者微博的粉丝数、被转发次数、被转发者微博内容是否有链接对发帖者微博的被转发次数有显著影响;基于上述结论,提出如下政策建议:具有较高粉丝数与微博数的微博用户所发布的微博影响力更大,应进一步加强对该类微博用户的关注,尤其是一些微博"大V";同时,应进一步发挥官方认证微博在舆论引导方面的积极作用;在舆论引导的过程中,可以通过诸如同时发布相关链接、视频等方式,提高微博内容形式的多元化程度,以增强微博的影响力;此外,在发布微博的过程中,客观、公正地表明态度立场,也是提高微博舆论引导作用的重要方面。     

Meeting the Climate Change Challenge (MC3): The Role of the Internet in Climate Change Research Dissemination and Knowledge Mobilization

This paper explores the role that Internet and online technologies played in research dissemination and knowledge mobilization in a recent climate change research project, MC³. In addition, the team looked at the potential of online expert-practitioner research collaborations for these purposes. Electronic communication was seen as a key element for creating distributed networks essential to the project and for building new practitioner/research knowledge collaboratives. The paper discusses how online communication strategies and technologies were used for wide dissemination of its research outcomes. MC³'s research dissemination and knowledge mobilization strategies are analyzed, using engagement as the primary measure, to gain insights on the effectiveness and challenges of using Internet-based tools for communicating climate change innovations and actions.     

Media Access and Political Efficacy in the Eco-politics of Climate Change: Canadian National News and Mediated Policy Networks

We use a discourse network analysis approach to answer two questions about national news coverage of climate change policy debate in Canada during the period 2006–2010. First, what is the media visibility of actors relevant to policy development and advocacy on climate change? Second, given the political and economic context of climate policy-making in Canada, does greater or lesser media visibility reflect effectiveness in climate policy advocacy? Multiple interpretive frameworks characterize Canadian political discourse about climate change, with fragmentation between the federal government, opposition political parties, provincial governments, and environmental organizations. Contrary to expectations, environmental organizations had high levels of media visibility while the relative invisibility of fossil fuel corporations was notable in the media coverage of Canadian climate discussions. Our findings challenge optimistic accounts of the relationship between media power and political power, and suggest that media power does not necessarily translate to political efficacy.     

Rebirth,Devastation and Sickness: Analyzing the Role of Metaphor in Media Discourses of Nuclear Power

Nuclear power plays an important but controversial role in policies to ensure domestic energy security, fuel poverty reduction and the mitigation of climate change. Our article construes the problem of nuclear power in terms of social discourse, language and public choice; specifically examining the role that metaphors play in the policy domain. We empirically analyze metaphors as framing devices in nuclear energy policy debates in the UK between April 2009 and March 2013, thereby capturing the impact of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. We employ documentary analysis of major UK national broadsheet and tabloid newspapers, using electronic bibliographic tools to extract the metaphors. We then map these metaphors using a Type Hierarchy Analysis, which examines how elements of the target domain (energy technologies and policies) originate from a different source domain. Type hierarchies identify and categorize metaphors, defining the affectual and emotional responses associated with them, providing us with grounded insight into their role in shaping discourse and as a consequence influence public engagement with energy policy. Our analysis highlights three emergent domains of discourse metaphors and discusses the implications of their deployment. Metaphors were found to be classified into three different categories: Rebirth (Renaissance), Devastation (Apocalypse, Inferno, Genie and Bomb) and Sickness (Addiction and Smoking).     

人力资本对农户兼业行为及其离农决策的影响研究——基于家庭整体视角

农户兼业行为演化的实质是由家庭成员个体就业行为决策和家庭集体劳动分工决策共同决定的,而人力资本通过影响非农就业对农户兼业决策具有内生作用,但这种作用机制既包括农民个体层面,更涉及农户整体层面。基于家庭整体视角分析了农户人力资本的理论特性,提出了农户人力资本对家庭兼业行为及其离农决策存在双重影响效应的研究假设,在此基础上,运用长三角地区1036户农户调研数据进行了实证研究。结果表明,农户劳动成员平均人力资本数量水平提升和成员间人力资本结构差距缩小,对提升农户非农化兼业程度以及增强其主动离农意愿具有积极意义,其中农户人力资本结构效应对农户离农决策更为显著;进一步比较发现,教育和迁移人力资本对长三角兼业农户的非农化发展和离农意愿具有显著促进作用,而受不同因素影响,健康和以非农工龄为衡量的技能人力资本的作用效应总体却并不明显。文章认为,要把促进兼业农户人力资本发展作为推动其非农兼业升级与离农决策的立足之本,在当前农地征用补偿政策思路上,要从单纯重视对失地农户短期"经济补偿",向扶持家庭成员人力资本投资以增强其长期非农就业发展之"能力补偿"转变,进而构筑可持续生计保障。     

Survival Under Conditions of Environmental Stress: Variability of Brain Morphology and Behavior in the House Mouse

Two populations of laboratory mice lived outdoors in open pens for two years. Thereafter, some of them were bred in the laboratory. Morphometric analysis showed that the size of the synaptic projection area of mossy fibers (in the CA3 region of the hippocampus), which has an important functional role, and some behavioral traits of the open-pen mouse progeny had significant genetically determined differences from those in the initial population. This was attributed to differential breeding accounted for by the influence of severe environmental factors. Under environmental stress, selection occurred in the population and the mice with behavioral and neuromorphological characteristics differing from those of the control group proved to be better adapted to such conditions.