From “Communicating” to “Engagement”: Afro-Relationality as a Conceptual Framework for Climate Change Communication in Africa

ABSTRACT

This study interrogates the conventional understanding of and practice within mediated climate change communication (CCC) as a forum where transformative ideas on sustainability practices are shaped. Besides the dominance of non-African contexts and epistemologies in literature analyzing the media-climate change and public nexus, there is little attention given to problematizing public engagement. Common assumption pitches “the public” on the one side and “the communicator” on the other side. This bifurcated model of “communicating” climate change has import for the forms of subjectivity in climate (in)action, including a weakened citizenship representation in climate discourse and the de-pluralization of ideas. This study argues that for people to be actually engaged in climate campaigns, it is important to draw attention to what understanding of “person” and “community” undergird current CCC practice. The work draws insights from African political theories and communication studies to position CCC toward inclusive public engagement.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the reviewers, Hafte Gebreselassie and Moses Nyangu, for their contributions to improving the writing of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The first author benefited from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) scholarship award Number 91699301;Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst [91699301].