Climate change communication: what can we learn from communication theory?

•  The literature on climate change communication addresses a range of issues relevantto the communication of climate change and climate science to lay audiencesor publics. In doing so, it approaches this particular challenge from avariety of different perspectives and theoretical frameworks. Analyzing the bodyof scholarly literature on climate change communication, this article criticallyreviews how communication is conceptualized in the literature and concludesthat the fi eld of climate change communication is characterized by diverging andincompatible understandings of communication as a theoretical construct. Insome instances, communication theory appears reduced to an ‘ad hoc’  toolbox,from which theories are randomly picked to provide studies with a fi tting framework.Inspired by the paradigm shift from transmission to interaction withincommunication theory, potential lessons from the fi eld of communication theoryare highlighted and discussed in the context of communicating climate change.Rooted in the interaction paradigm, the article proposes a meta-theoreticalframework that conceptualizes communication as a constitutive process of producingand reproducing shared meanings. Rather than operating in separateontological and epistemological perspectives, a meta-theoretical conceptualizationof communication would ensure a common platform that advances multiperspectiveargumentation and discussion of the role of climate changecommunication in society.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Meteorologi och atmosfärforskning (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Climate change communication

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)