“We're the Ones to Blame”: Citizens' Representations of Climate Change and the Role of the Media

Abstract

In the discussion on how to meet the challenges of climate change the important role of news reporting is often emphasized; the media are considered to have significant influence on citizens' understandings of the issue. However, studies that empirically explore the media's role in shaping these understandings are rather scarce compared with analyses of media content alone. While fully acknowledging the fruitfulness of the study of media material, this article argues that there are tendencies in these studies to, in a somewhat “media-centric” fashion, reduce the complexity of the relationship between media content and audience reception. The article, which reports on findings from a focus-group study containing 53 Swedish citizens, starts from the premise that this relationship must be subjected to empirical analysis rather than axiomatically asserted, and aims to contribute empirically based knowledge on the connection between media staging of climate change and citizens' representations of this global risk.

Keywords:

• News Media
• Media Effects
• Media Audience
• Public
• Social Representation Theory
• Climate Change

Acknowledgements

This study was carried out with funding from Formas, the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ulrika Olausson

Ulrika Olausson is an Associate Professor in Media and Communication Studies at Örebro University, Sweden. She is currently involved in a research project about the news media and climate change