Mediating the Science: Symbolic and Structural Influences on Communicating Climate Change Through New Zealand's Television News |
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| Authors: | Michael Bourk Jennifer Rock Lloyd S. Davis |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Michael Bourk was a Lecturer in the Department of Media, Film and Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand, now an Assistant Professor in the Mass Communication and Media Department at the Gulf University of Science and Technology in West Mishref, Kuwait.;2. Jennifer Rock is a Lecturer in the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand.;3. Lloyd Davis is Stuart Professor and Director of the Centre for Science Communication at the University of Otago, New Zealand. |
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| Abstract: | Climate change presents scientists, politicians, and media producers with a challenge of articulating to diverse stakeholders both the complexity of issues and the urgency of action. Analyses of how climate change is represented and constructed in broadcast media are useful to capture a reflection of contemporary values. We use an analysis of news frames and production values as well as a limited “circuit of culture” approach to explore climate change communication as both a news product and cultural phenomenon. Our focus is New Zealand, a country which ratified the Kyoto agreement but which is currently noncompliant. Using qualitative framing analysis and in-depth interviews with leading media producers, politicians, and scientists, we examine how climate change is produced, represented, and consumed by New Zealanders via their broadcast media. |
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| Keywords: | climate change news values media frames circuit of culture |
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