Climate change is a frequently discussed topic in several news mediums, not the least in Swedish news media and nature documentaries. Existing research on the perception of climate change messages has primarily focused on aspects of trust in the news source, pro-environmental attitudes and behavior, and audience engagement; the role of believability in a message, however, has been overlooked. This paper addresses this research gap by investigating the believability of climate change messages in Swedish news media and nature documentaries. By being situated in the paradigm of the social construct of ionismmediatization, drawing on media trust and the believability theory, and utilizing a quantitative framework and questionnaires, I find that there are differences between Swedish news media and nature documentaries. The differences are not as extreme as existing research claims, although in analyzing the four elements of believability in messages; plausibility, completeness, consistency, and coverage, different aspects of believability in climate change messages in the two news mediums are pinpointed. This study reveals that the respondents (n=325) of the questionnaire tend to accept and believe messages in nature documentaries on a higher level than in Swedish news media. Further, an audience's general perception and attitudes towards climate change correlate with the believability of climate change messages. This research extends current knowledge about believability in news sources by adding the dimension of believability in messages. The results also offer suggestions as to what aspects of a message most likely will implicate pro-environmental behavior, and what needs further attention in the field of media and communication such as specific narratives in nature documentaries and their effects on an audience.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-476461 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Thorsén, Kajsa |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informatik och media |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
Page generated in 0.0014 seconds