In this project, we have explored a wide range of perspectives on climate news reporting to better understand how the media may contribute to preventing post-truth tendencies.
BACKGROUND
Despite strong scientific consensus on the human impact on climate change, 6% of Swedes and 24% of Norwegians don’t think climate change is caused by human activities, i.e. they are climate change skeptics. In this research project, we wanted to understand if there is anything editorial news media could do to counter these post-truth tendencies and prevent more people from developing a negative attitude to fact-based news reporting on climate change.
WHAT WE DID
Our research was conducted in Sweden and Norway. We worked with three different groups:
Known skeptics (self-identify as climate change skeptics)
Possible skeptics (fit academic criteria for skepticism)
“Impossible” skeptics (young people concerned about climate change)
We used interviews, email conversations, guerilla research, surveys and workshops when working with the groups. Some broader pain points that they, despite being different in many ways, have in common:
The narrative in climate reporting presented by the news media is perceived as too negative.
The groups are missing their own perspective in climate reporting.
News on climate issues are seen as something distant, not connected to their own reality.
FEEDBACK
The findings from the report were presented at a breakfast seminar in Oslo in May 2023 hosted in collaboration with Faktisk.no. Results have also been shared throughout 2023 with different Schibsted news brands in Sweden and Norway.
TEAM Molly Grönlund Müller, Community Researcher, IN/LAB
Belenn Bekele, Community Researcher, IN/LAB
LINKS
You can read the full report here.
