This paper aims to outline a renewed research agenda for media studies on climate change. This fi... more This paper aims to outline a renewed research agenda for media studies on climate change. This field is rather young, and so far, researchers have primarily tended to analyse media content and –although to a much lesser extent –citizens’ representations of climate change in relation to media discourse. Thus, the field is still in the phase of mapping out media representations of climate change from various perspectives (scientific, democratic, political, visual, emotional, etc.). Admittedly, this is an essential task for obtaining basic knowledge on climate reporting and its implications, but the timely question now is how media research on climate change might theoretically and empirically evolve, and move into the next phase. In this paper, we identify four important research challenges which we believe should be considered by scholars in the field: 1) the practical challenge, 2) the normative challenge, 3) the discursive challenge, and 4) the interdisciplinary challenge
Within the field of global media studies, there is an ongoing conflict between the globalists, wh... more Within the field of global media studies, there is an ongoing conflict between the globalists, who emphasize the media’s pertinent role in globalization processes, and the skeptics, who stress the continuing stability of the nation-state paradigm as regards the media. Nonetheless, these two positions share one fundamental view on global media: that the proper objects of study are those media whose global nature is defined in terms of geographic reach. In the discourse perspective theorized in this article, however, “globality” is instead viewed as a discursive feature. It is argued that the established understanding of global media as media of transnational reach needs to be complemented with a discourse approach―focusing on the very knowledge production of “the global.”
This study takes as its point of departure the theorizing on citizenship and globalization. Today... more This study takes as its point of departure the theorizing on citizenship and globalization. Today it is common to discuss a “flexible” citizenship beyond the paradigm of the nationstate, which, bes ...
The structural repression of the transnational : social representations of the nation-state in th... more The structural repression of the transnational : social representations of the nation-state in the news media
Individualisation and nationalisation of the climate issue : two ideological horizons in Swedish ... more Individualisation and nationalisation of the climate issue : two ideological horizons in Swedish news media
Gaining knowledge about laypeople’s representations of nature is crucial to meeting the sustainab... more Gaining knowledge about laypeople’s representations of nature is crucial to meeting the sustainability challenges ahead. However, the ways laypeople discursively construct nature in digital settings have received scant attention. Guided by Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding and multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the ways laypeople construct the human-nature relationship on social media. This is accomplished through a reception study of YouTube users’ discussions about two of the films in the campaign “Nature Is Speaking.” The results show that the human-nature dichotomy largely prevails notwithstanding the pluralist nature of YouTube users’ interpretations, but also indicate the (embryonic) potential of social media to open up for a politics revolving around new visions of the socio-environmental future.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Fojo Media Institute and five other organisations are jointly promoting in... more In sub-Saharan Africa, Fojo Media Institute and five other organisations are jointly promoting independent journalism and protecting the space for civil society organisations and human rights defenders. Bringing together academics and researchers in four universities in South Africa and Sweden, this project is part of the project: Consortium to Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms and Media Development (CHARM) project. The main objective is to introduce the concept of sustainable journalism, define what the concept could entail in a sub-Saharan context and investigate the implications for media development in sub-Saharan Africa. Stakeholder discussions were held with relevant media actors in four countries within sub-Saharan Africa on the subject matter. The findings, which provide clear policy directions, are shared in this report.
In recent times we have allegedly witnessed a “post-truth” turn in society. Nonetheless, surveys ... more In recent times we have allegedly witnessed a “post-truth” turn in society. Nonetheless, surveys show that science holds a relatively strong position among lay publics, and case studies suggest that science is part of their online discussions about environmental issues on social media — an important, yet strikingly under-researched, debate forum. Guided by social representation theory, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the role of science in everyday representations of livestock production on social media. The analysis identifies two central themata, namely lay publics' contestations of (1) facts and non-facts, and (2) factual and non-factual sources.
Research shows that news consumption plays a positive role in youths' environmental engagemen... more Research shows that news consumption plays a positive role in youths' environmental engagement. This article examines if this also holds true for sceptics by comparing Swedish climate change sceptics with non-sceptical youngsters in their early and late adolescence. We conceptualise news consumption as foci of public connection and orientation rather than a source of environmental information. The results show that in their early teens, heavy news consumers among both sceptics and non-sceptics are indeed more engaged with environmental issues than their less news-oriented peers. However, in late adolescence, sceptics among news consumers show very little environmental engagement.
This paper aims to outline a renewed research agenda for media studies on climate change. This fi... more This paper aims to outline a renewed research agenda for media studies on climate change. This field is rather young, and so far, researchers have primarily tended to analyse media content and –although to a much lesser extent –citizens’ representations of climate change in relation to media discourse. Thus, the field is still in the phase of mapping out media representations of climate change from various perspectives (scientific, democratic, political, visual, emotional, etc.). Admittedly, this is an essential task for obtaining basic knowledge on climate reporting and its implications, but the timely question now is how media research on climate change might theoretically and empirically evolve, and move into the next phase. In this paper, we identify four important research challenges which we believe should be considered by scholars in the field: 1) the practical challenge, 2) the normative challenge, 3) the discursive challenge, and 4) the interdisciplinary challenge
Within the field of global media studies, there is an ongoing conflict between the globalists, wh... more Within the field of global media studies, there is an ongoing conflict between the globalists, who emphasize the media’s pertinent role in globalization processes, and the skeptics, who stress the continuing stability of the nation-state paradigm as regards the media. Nonetheless, these two positions share one fundamental view on global media: that the proper objects of study are those media whose global nature is defined in terms of geographic reach. In the discourse perspective theorized in this article, however, “globality” is instead viewed as a discursive feature. It is argued that the established understanding of global media as media of transnational reach needs to be complemented with a discourse approach―focusing on the very knowledge production of “the global.”
This study takes as its point of departure the theorizing on citizenship and globalization. Today... more This study takes as its point of departure the theorizing on citizenship and globalization. Today it is common to discuss a “flexible” citizenship beyond the paradigm of the nationstate, which, bes ...
The structural repression of the transnational : social representations of the nation-state in th... more The structural repression of the transnational : social representations of the nation-state in the news media
Individualisation and nationalisation of the climate issue : two ideological horizons in Swedish ... more Individualisation and nationalisation of the climate issue : two ideological horizons in Swedish news media
Gaining knowledge about laypeople’s representations of nature is crucial to meeting the sustainab... more Gaining knowledge about laypeople’s representations of nature is crucial to meeting the sustainability challenges ahead. However, the ways laypeople discursively construct nature in digital settings have received scant attention. Guided by Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding/decoding and multimodal critical discourse analysis, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the ways laypeople construct the human-nature relationship on social media. This is accomplished through a reception study of YouTube users’ discussions about two of the films in the campaign “Nature Is Speaking.” The results show that the human-nature dichotomy largely prevails notwithstanding the pluralist nature of YouTube users’ interpretations, but also indicate the (embryonic) potential of social media to open up for a politics revolving around new visions of the socio-environmental future.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Fojo Media Institute and five other organisations are jointly promoting in... more In sub-Saharan Africa, Fojo Media Institute and five other organisations are jointly promoting independent journalism and protecting the space for civil society organisations and human rights defenders. Bringing together academics and researchers in four universities in South Africa and Sweden, this project is part of the project: Consortium to Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms and Media Development (CHARM) project. The main objective is to introduce the concept of sustainable journalism, define what the concept could entail in a sub-Saharan context and investigate the implications for media development in sub-Saharan Africa. Stakeholder discussions were held with relevant media actors in four countries within sub-Saharan Africa on the subject matter. The findings, which provide clear policy directions, are shared in this report.
In recent times we have allegedly witnessed a “post-truth” turn in society. Nonetheless, surveys ... more In recent times we have allegedly witnessed a “post-truth” turn in society. Nonetheless, surveys show that science holds a relatively strong position among lay publics, and case studies suggest that science is part of their online discussions about environmental issues on social media — an important, yet strikingly under-researched, debate forum. Guided by social representation theory, this study aims to contribute knowledge about the role of science in everyday representations of livestock production on social media. The analysis identifies two central themata, namely lay publics' contestations of (1) facts and non-facts, and (2) factual and non-factual sources.
Research shows that news consumption plays a positive role in youths' environmental engagemen... more Research shows that news consumption plays a positive role in youths' environmental engagement. This article examines if this also holds true for sceptics by comparing Swedish climate change sceptics with non-sceptical youngsters in their early and late adolescence. We conceptualise news consumption as foci of public connection and orientation rather than a source of environmental information. The results show that in their early teens, heavy news consumers among both sceptics and non-sceptics are indeed more engaged with environmental issues than their less news-oriented peers. However, in late adolescence, sceptics among news consumers show very little environmental engagement.
In sub-Saharan Africa, Fojo Media Institute and five other organisations are
jointly promoting in... more In sub-Saharan Africa, Fojo Media Institute and five other organisations are jointly promoting independent journalism and protecting the space for civil society organisations and human rights defenders. Bringing together academics and researchers in four universities in South Africa and Sweden, this project is part of the project: Consortium to Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms and Media Development (CHARM) project. The main objective is to introduce the concept of sustainable journalism, define what the concept could entail in a sub-Saharan context and investigate the implications for media development in sub-Saharan Africa. Stakeholder discussions were held with relevant media actors in four countries within sub-Saharan Africa on the subject matter. The findings, which provide clear policy directions, are shared in this report.
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jointly promoting independent journalism and protecting the space for civil
society organisations and human rights defenders. Bringing together academics and researchers in four universities in South Africa and Sweden, this project is part of the project: Consortium to Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms and Media Development (CHARM) project. The main objective is to introduce the concept of sustainable journalism, define what the concept could entail in a sub-Saharan context and investigate the implications for media development in sub-Saharan Africa. Stakeholder discussions were held with relevant media actors in four countries within sub-Saharan Africa on the subject matter. The findings, which provide clear policy directions, are shared in this report.