This thesis reveals the potential pitfalls of relying on the Internet to communicate serious environmental issues. This exploratory research examines the consequences of aspects of the information society focusing on the effects of the Internet upon three reactions to climate communication: public understanding, perception of risk and support for climate change mitigation. It examines the implications of the rise of the information society on young people’s (18-25 year olds) consumption of media and climate science information. The information society literature emerged before the Internet, but predicted the increasing access to information that has arisen in the past two decades and its significant impacts on society and communication. An analytical framework is developed focusing on the sharing of information and the consequences of both misleading information and competition for the user’s attention. To explore the impact of the Internet upon public perception of risks posed by and their understanding of climate change, this research uses a mixed methodological approach. The qualitative approach of focus groups has been selected to establish how young people use the Internet and whether they share and actively engage with climate change information online. A quantitative approach of the experimental method has critically examined the impact of junk information (climate sceptic material) and information overload (competition for users’ attention) on reactions to climate science. The original contribution to knowledge of this thesis was the key finding that the lack of engagement with climate science online poses a more serious issue than the risk of climate sceptic information being virally shared. Simply having the information accessible is not enough when there is so much competition for users’ attention and the ease with which they can filter out climate change information.

The communication of anthropogenic climate change presents many challenges, for communicators, scientists, policymakers and publics alike. Particularly difficult is the issue of uncertainty, which can include ambiguity around the phenomenon of climate change, the possible impacts of this, and the timeframe within which such impacts will be seen. Previous research has established that audiences are often averse to uncertainty, and will disregard or ignore messages that contain it. This raises a theoretical and practical question of how best to manage uncertainty in climate change communication in order to maintain audience engagement. This question was the focus of this PhD research. Specifically, the aim of this thesis was to explore the process of climate change communication from the perspectives of the scientists, communicators, and the recipient. I achieved this research goal by utilising a mixed methods design. I firstly interviewed the originators (i.e., scientists) and professional communicators of climate change information to explore the process from their side (Chapter 2). This revealed a number of themes connecting to the different ways scientists and communicators understand the process of communication (e.g., as information exchange versus relationship building), the challenges of climate change communication and uncertainty in particular, and the (appropriate) role of scientists when communicating with the public about climate change. Next, in a series of studies I experimentally explored how audiences respond to variations in the informational content of climate change messages (such as the level of uncertainty) and the role of different communicative styles in further shaping audience engagement (Chapter 3). Broadly, the results of these studies suggest that while uncertainty can undermine audience engagement with climate change communications, the negative effects of uncertainty are buffered when the communicator is perceived to be high in morality and/ or when they use an open communication style. Interestingly, these effects of communication style were particularly evident among women, whereas men tended to react against this. Together, these studies show how relational factors (e.g., communication styles and perceptions of communication sources) can moderate the impact of informational content on audience responses. Finally, I ended this programme of research by looking in more detail at how audiences perceive a real scientific organisation engaged in climate change communication and the bases of their beliefs about organisation competence and morality (Chapter 4). This study combined qualitative and quantitative data to delve deeper into some of the insights gained in the experimental work, and to reconnect this to the real-world organisation context I began with. This study again showed how perceptions of communicator morality moderate responses to uncertainty, but also provide useful insights into the different origins of perceptions of morality and competence. Chapter 5 concludes by summarising the research presented in this thesis, discussing its strengths, limitations and ways forward. Here, I also consider the theoretical, methodological and practical implications of the thesis’ research findings. Briefly, it is argued that addressing the scientific uncertainties of climate change may not necessarily mean altering the form of information itself. Rather, modifying the language peripheral to the information that contains uncertainty, attending to the ways in which audiences perceive the sources of uncertainty, and considering variations amongst publics, may help to engage in effective communication around the complex issue of climate change.

Master of Science / Department of Communications and Agricultural Education / Lauri M. Baker / The purpose of this study was to explore the frames and messages, issue salience, and communication preferences agricultural producers in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas use and accept related to climate change and the impacts of a changing climate. It was of additional interest to explore the climate-change beliefs and preferred agricultural media sources for climate and climate change information. Specific research objectives to guide the study were RO1: describe the level of issue salience agricultural producers have related to climate change; RO2: investigate frames and messages agricultural producers prefer in reference to the scientifically designated phenomena of climate change and impacts; and RO3: identify the agricultural media and information channels agricultural producers use for climate change. Based on findings in previous research, one hypothesis was developed: H1: agricultural producers in the Southern Plains Regional Climate Hub area will be located within the audience segment groups of the concerned and the cautious as identified in the Six America’s (2012) study. An Internet survey was distributed to producers in Kansas, which was open from March 3 to March 14, 2016, with 158 responses to the survey. Agenda-Setting Theory served as the basis for the study including the tenants of issue salience and framing in relation to climate change. The study found that the majority (n = 158, 64.92%) of producers believed that climate change was occurring, however, the causes were still contested. The study identified that higher levels of risk perception and education level were linked to belief in anthropogenic climate change (ACC). Primarily, the study found that loss framing was most effective in communicating the impacts of climate change. Terminology and distance framing were less important in message framing. Regional and university publications were cited most frequently by producers as sources of climate and climate-change information and overall use of agricultural media publications was linked to higher levels of belief in ACC. Users of business reports and TV had the highest mean climate-change belief; non-users had the lowest. Audience segments aligned with cautious and concerned Six America’s (2013) audience segment group, which indicated a shift towards accepting climate change among agricultural producers.

The study of climate change communication has become a vital research field. It has evolved into being an essential translator between the scientific community and the public. The Conference of the Parties (COP) met in December 2015 to discuss the basis of a 54-page document on how the world will proceed with the challenges of climate change in the future. Throughout the conference the media was an important tool in spreading opinions and information about the on-going negotiations. This study analyzes how the COP21 was framed by the British newspaper the Guardian. Therefore, the empirical material consists of online newspaper articles from the period of the conference. A qualitative research approach was used to identify four frames and formulate themes. The findings mirror the central discussion points from the past 20 years of climate change negotiations: mitigation, adaptation, leadership, scientific proof of climate change and the urgency of change. In addition, the study identifies the politics of climate policy.

This study examines communication about global warming with an emphasis on encouraging a change in a viewers behavior, and how this can be practically visualised on websites. The study first gathers research from the fields of climate change communication, marketing and psychology, then a survey is sent out and an overview of websites about global warming is made. The findings from all this is then applied to a Hi-fi prototype of a website. The study aims to answer the question: How could visualized messages and information about global warming encourage change in a viewer’s behavior? User tests of the finished prototype gave mixed results. The results suggest that the site succeeded in creating a positive tone and emotional impact, but were not as successful at encouraging change and raising perceived self-efficacy. It may have been successful at encouraging hopefulness, and informing, but it is a bit unclear due to contradicting results from quantitative personal ratings and qualitative interview answers. / <p>Examensarbetet är utfört vid Institutionen för teknik och naturvetenskap (ITN) vid Tekniska fakulteten, Linköpings universitet</p>

Much work has been done in communicating environmental messages about climate change to promote pro-environmental beliefs and behaviours, yet individual-level behavioural changes are not occurring rapidly enough to make meaningful reductions in environmental harm. Studies have shown that although information-based and scientific means of communicating about climate change are the most common strategies, they are largely ineffective in encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. As an alternative to these fact-based narratives, stories are proposed as effective tools for environmental communication and promoting behavioural change. To determine the impact of the narrative structure of climate change communication on behaviour, this study examined how exposure to fact-based and story-based narrative structures of environmental messages differentially influence the extent of engagement in pro-environmental consumption behaviour. The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) was used as a framework to examine the attitudinal and behavioural responses to the story-based and fact-based communication conditions. Specifically, we examined the relationship between non-consumption attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, behavioural intentions, and non-consumption behaviour, and explored how narrative structure influences the TPB processes for non-consumption. Participants (n=291) were randomly assigned to read a story or factsheet about the environmental consequences of overconsumption of material goods, or a non-relevant text. Pre- and post-test measures of pro-environmental consumption behaviour were conducted 14 days apart. Post-test attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, and behavioural intentions towards practicing non-consumption were also measured. Results demonstrated that both story-based and fact-based narratives were effective tools for promoting pro-environmental consumption behaviour, providing some support for the information deficit theory. Four domains of pro-environmental consumption behaviour were determined as non-consumption, reuse, activism, and green shopping behaviour. The story-based narrative was more effective than the fact-based narrative and the control narrative in increasing non-consumption and green shopping practices, while activism and reuse behaviour were not influenced differently by narrative structure. The TPB was found to be a useful model for assessing non-consumption, such that non-consumption behaviour was predicted by attitudes, perceived behavioural control and subjective norms through the mediating role of behavioural intentions. Non-consumption attitude was the strongest predictor of intentions, and subjective norm was the weakest predictor of intentions. Narrative structures did not have significant effects on the participants’ reported non-consumption attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control or intentions, nor on the relationships between the TPB constructs. The findings suggest that story-based narrative structures are effective tools for delivering climate change information to broad audiences and encouraging pro-environmental behaviour. However, the role of information-based communication should not be discounted. The findings also contribute to the body of research on pro-environmental consumption behaviour by providing a deeper understanding of the psychological mechanisms of non-consumption, an essential yet understudied domain of sustainable behaviour. / Graduate / 2023-01-12

There is a considerable gap between what scientists argue is necessary to avoid the most dramatic consequences of climate change and what governments around the world are currently achieving with their mitigation strategies and national pledges. This is partly due to the general inability to communicate solutions to climate change in a desirable way. Strategic narratives have been found to be a great tool to improve the effectiveness of climate change communication. Common narratives in climate change communication are the “Gore” narrative, “End of the World” narrative, “Climate Target” narrative and the “Green Living” narrative. Sweden has been considered a leading country in the field of sustainability in recent years. However, the newly formed government does not seem to be overly concerned with improving environmental sustainability, considering that their proposed policies would lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions for Sweden for the first time in decades. The Swedish Climate Policy Council has been formed in order to evaluate whether Swedish policies are aligned with Sweden’s national climate targets on an annual basis. This thesis examines recent reports of the Swedish Climate Policy Council through a document analysis in order to estimate the effectiveness of their climate change communication. The reports were coded using framework analysis and corresponding narrative statements were identified and categorized in the above mentioned narrative categories. Relative frequency of different types of narratives is analyzed and, based on recent climate change communication research, recommendations for improvements are given. It has been found that the Swedish Climate Policy Council should create a strategic narrative for climate change communication, based on the values of the current government.

The purpose of this analysis is to investigate how communication can convey its messages inorder to convince. Climate change is a multi-faceted problem with unique challenges, onekey challenge being the disconnect of opinions between the public, scientists and the politicalsphere. One part of this challenge is effectively communicating the scientific consensus to thepublic. To better understand how visual rhetoric can be deployed in climate changecommunication this essay analyzes a WWF campaign from 2010, which consists of 6 images.The theoretical basis for this analysis is primarily visual rhetoric but also includes theoriesfrom comics and sequential storytelling due to the nature of the images being analyzed.Through its analysis this essay concludes that visual rhetoric is an important and powerfultool for graphic designers amongst others that can be used to reframe and include the viewerin the meaning making process to persuade them, which is especially important in thequestion of climate change.

While previous research into understandings of climate change has usually examined general public perceptions and mainstream media representations, this thesis offers an audience-specific departure point by analysing climate change frames and frame formation in Swedish agriculture. The empirical material consists of Swedish farm magazines’ reporting on climate change, as well as eight focus group discussions among Swedish farmers on the topic of climate change and climate change information. The analysis demonstrates that while Swedish farm magazines frame climate change in terms of conflict, scientific uncertainty, and economic burden, farmers in the focus groups tended to concentrate on whether climate change was a natural or human-induced phenomenon, and viewed climate change communication as an issue of credibility. It was found that farm magazines use metaphorical representations of war and games to form the overall frames of climate change. In contrast, the farmers’  frames of natural versus human-induced climate change were formed primarily using experience-based and non-experience-based arguments, both supported with analogies, distinctions, keywords, metaphors, and prototypical examples. Furthermore, discussions of what constitutes credible climate information centred on conflict-versus consensus-oriented frames of climate change communication along with different views of the extent to which knowledge of climate change is and should be practically or analytically based. This analysis of climate change communication in the Swedish agricultural sector proposes that the sense-making processes of climate change are complex, involving associative thinking and experience-based knowledge that form interpretations of climate change and climate change information. / Den här avhandlingen studerar uppfattningar om klimatförändringar och bidrar med sin målgruppsorienterade utgångspunkt till tidigare forskning kring hur klimatförändringar kan förstås och uppfattas. Avhandlingen studerar klimatkommunikation inom den svenska lantbrukssektorn genom analyser av 10 års klimatrapportering i tidningarna ATL samt Land Lantbruk, samt åtta fokusgruppsdiskussioner med svenska lantbrukare. Analysen visar att medan svensk lantbruksmedia ramade in klimatförändringar som en fråga om konflikter, vetenskaplig osäkerhet och ekonomisk börda, rörde lantbrukarnas diskussioner om klimatförändringar (i) dess orsaker; naturliga eller antropogena, (ii) olika faktorer som påverkar huruvida klimatinformation anses trovärdig. Därtill visar avhandlingen att lantbrukstidningar använde krigs- och spelmetaforer för att gestalta klimatförändringar medan lantbrukarna formade klimatinramningar genom analogier, distinktioner, nyckelord, metaforer och prototypiska exempel. Tillsammans med lantbrukarnas upplevda erfarenheter bildade dessa kommunikativa verktyg olika gestaltningar av klimatförändringar. Lantbrukarna visade på olika uppfattningar kring trovärdighet och klimatinformation. Vanligen efterfrågades ett informationslandskap karaktäriserat av en mångfald av perspektiv. Återkommande i materialet var också uppfattningen att kunskap om klimatförändringar borde vara praktiskt baserad snarare än teoretisk hållen för att öka i trovärdighet. Denna avhandling kring klimatkommunikation inom den svenska lantbrukssektorn pekar på komplexiteten i tolkningsprocesser och visar att associativt tänkande och erfarenhetsbaserad kunskap tillsammans utgör grunden för hur klimatförändringar och klimatinformation uppfattas.

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