Climate Change in the Media

Scientists and politicians are increasingly using the language of risk to describe the climate change challenge.  Some researchers say stressing the ‘risks’ from climate change rather than the ‘uncertainties’ can create a more helpful context for policy makers and a stronger response from the public.  But understanding the concepts of risk and uncertainty – and how to communicate them – is a hotly debated issue.

In this book, James Painter analyses how the international media present these and other narratives around climate change. He focuses on coverage of reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and of the melting ice of the Arctic Sea. He includes six countries, Australia, France, India, Norway, the UK and the USA.

"How the media communicates risk and uncertainty about climate change is critically important. This book highlights good and bad practice by the media and provides extremely sensible suggestions for improvments in the future." Lord (Nicholas) Stern, Chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science.

James Painter, former head of the Journalist Fellowship Programme at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), Oxford University. He worked for several years for the BBC World Service and has written extensively on climate change and the media.  Recent publications include Poles Apart: The International Reporting of Climate Scepticism (RISJ, Oxford University).