Abstract
The quotes above—one from a handbook by social scientists and one from an action manifesto by a radical global journalist and author—say the same thing in different ways. Climate change is a historically unique problem. Indeed, it is key proof that humans and their actions have become “central” on a planetary scale. This importance betrays a daunting sense of weakness. Perhaps we have become too central in our political and organizational capacities. Thus, paradoxically, from the overwhelming complexity of climate change as a challenge (in Dryzek), dawns a glimmer of radical system critique (in Klein): in order to adapt to what is coming, we must transform ourselves.
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Notes
- 1.
For a more exhaustive list of publications by the MediaClimate network, see mediaclimate.net
- 2.
In many European countries, newspapers continue to be read by a large proportion of the population. In developing countries, where illiteracy and poverty are widespread, they cater (even more) to elites. There are several reasons why studying newspapers remains our priority. One is the availability of the material. Another is that newspapers, even if poorlydistributed among the population at large, still play an important role for political and cultural elites—and their debates—in any country. In some countries it was difficult to restrict the study to print newspapers due to the dominant role played by online versions. Thus, some of our results are higher than they would have been if only print items were considered. In addition, one member of the research network has done separate (limited to fewer countries and a shorter time span) research on television coverage of the four IPCC reports (Painter 2014, 2015a, c).
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Kunelius, R., Eide, E. (2017). The Problem: Climate Change, Politics and the Media. In: Kunelius, R., Eide, E., Tegelberg, M., Yagodin, D. (eds) Media and Global Climate Knowledge. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-52321-1_1
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