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Wu, M.; Long, R.; Yang, S.; Wang, X.; Chen, H. Climate Change Communication. Encyclopedia. Available online: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/27526 (accessed on 05 July 2024).
Wu M, Long R, Yang S, Wang X, Chen H. Climate Change Communication. Encyclopedia. Available at: https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/27526. Accessed July 05, 2024.
Wu, Meifen, Ruyin Long, Shuhan Yang, Xinru Wang, Hong Chen. "Climate Change Communication" Encyclopedia, https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/27526 (accessed July 05, 2024).
Wu, M., Long, R., Yang, S., Wang, X., & Chen, H. (2022, September 23). Climate Change Communication. In Encyclopedia. https://encyclopedia.pub/entry/27526
Wu, Meifen, et al. "Climate Change Communication." Encyclopedia. Web. 23 September, 2022.
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Climate change communication is a crucial strategy for addressing the major challenges of climate change, and the knowledge mapping analysis and overview of it helps to clarify research progress. Based on CiteSpace, 428 pieces of domestic and foreign literature are collected to clarify the basic status of climate change communication research and summarize research hotspots and prospects.
climate change communication
CiteSpace
knowledge mapping
literature review
1. Introduction
In the middle and late 1980s, climate change first appeared on the public agenda. In recent years, it has become an important global issue with the emergence of the greenhouse effect and the frequency of extreme weather [1]. As a social communication activity, climate change communication not only serves as a vital tool for influencing public opinion to advance understanding of climate change issues, but also as a channel for fostering effective government action on climate change [2]. Climate governance requires not only top-level design, but also public understanding, support, and action. Climate change communication is closely related to taking part in global climate governance and creating a community of human destiny. Therefore, a systematic review of climate change communication research at home and abroad and an analysis of the characteristics and attributes of its knowledge evolution can help to grasp the research progress and is of great significance for encouraging further research in this field.
Since climate change communication originated in western countries, the research at home and abroad is different. Regarding reviews of climate change communication, the majority of them currently use the qualitative analysis method. For example, Moser (2010) reviewed the history of climate change communication and discussed the challenges it faced [1]. By concentrating on reviews related to climate change communication since 2010, Moser (2016) summarized the significant progress, emerging trends, and research topics in this area, and described the essential requirements and opportunities in the future [3]. Few systematic reviews of climate change communication have been conducted through quantitative research methods such as econometric analysis using CiteSpace software. Quantitative analysis can incorporate a large amount of literature related to a field into analysis to make up for the lack of comprehensive samples in qualitative analysis. Therefore, CiteSpace is used to make a quantitative visual analysis of the research literature on climate change communication, reveal the research status of climate change communication at home and abroad, and predict future research directions. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of climate change communication, scholars from different professional backgrounds have studied climate change communication from different starting points. This study aims to help researchers and related practitioners have a deeper understanding of the current status and trends of climate change communication research, identify key literature, summarize research hotspots and main research contents, and form a panoramic knowledge network structure.
2. Concepts Related to Climate Change Communication
According to Wang (2018), climate change communication research as a whole started late and has absorbed the characteristics of related research in the development process, mainly including environmental communication, development communication, health communication, science communication, risk communication, and political communication [4].
This also reflects the professionalism of climate change issues and their gradual expansion. Similarly, Moser (2010) argues that much of the information and assumptions about climate change communication have evolved from other fields [1]. To sort out the research progress of climate change communication, it is first necessary to compare communication on topics such as environmental communication, risk communication, and health communication (Table 1).
Table 1. Comparison of concepts related to climate change communication.
| Related Concepts | Concept Connotation |
|---|---|
| Environmental communication | Any kind of communication practice and approach to the expression of environmental issues that aims to change the structure and discourse system of social communication [5]. |
| Risk communication | Risk communication refers to the interactive process of exchanging information and opinions among individuals, groups, and institutions, which include natural or human-made hazards, such as flooding, wildfires, heatwaves, and droughts [6]. |
| Health communication | Health communication is a social activity that uses various methods to promote and popularize health science and technology knowledge related to human physical and mental health, advocate health science methods, and communicate health science ideas [7]. |
| Science communication | Science communication refers to the communication activity of popularizing scientific knowledge, promoting scientific ideas, and cultivating scientific spirit in the public through mass media [8]. |
| Political communication | Political communication is the operation process of the organic system of political information diffusion, acceptance, identification, and internalization within and among political communities, and it is the flow process of political information within and among political communities [9]. |
Risk communication, scientific communication, environmental communication, and other research related to climate change communication all emphasize “one-way dispersion” to “equal dialogue” [10]. Since climate change is characterized by a lack of visibility and immediacy, delay or lack of sense of achievement in taking action, the contest between cognitive limitations and technological progress, and the complexity and uncertainty of climate change [1], climate change communication is more challenging than environment, crisis, or health problem communication.
3. The Conceptual Connotation of Climate Change Communication
Due to the short history of climate change communication, there is no consensus in the academic community on the definition of climate change communication. The Climate Communication Project of Yale University proposes that climate change communication should achieve two major goals: one is to improve the public’s understanding and participation in climate change science and solutions. Second, the general public, government leaders, enterprises, academia, and the media are urged to jointly cope with climate change through climate change communication. The European Space Program’s Climate Change Project believes that the goal of climate change communication research is to make more people aware of climate change, enhance the public’s crisis awareness of climate change, improve the public’s sense of responsibility for adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change, and provide best practice suggestions and examples for adapting to climate change and reducing emissions. According to the American scholar Priest (2019), climate change communication is a type of mass communication, which is classified by the research object [11].
Professor Zheng was the first scholar to define climate change communication in China, and this definition is also the most widely used one at present: climate change communication is a kind of communication activity, which aims to understand and master climate change information and related scientific knowledge for society and the public, raise the public’s awareness of climate change, enhance their sense of crisis, and adapt to the sense of responsibility of mitigating the impact of climate change, and seek solutions to climate change problems through changes in public attitudes and behaviors [12]. This definition not only clarifies the mass communication nature of climate change communication, but also emphasizes the goal of this communication activity [13].
References
- Moser, S.C. Communicating climate change: History, challenges, process and future directions. Wiley Interdisc. Rev. Clim. Chang. 2010, 1, 31–53.
- Hu, Y.; Zhang, X.M. The absence of science: Climate change communication in the new media environment in China: A case of online video sharing sites. J. Res. 2018, 1, 73–80, 151. (In Chinese)
- Moser, S.C. Reflections on climate change communication research and practice in the second decade of the 21st century: What more is there to say? Wiley Interdisc. Rev. Clim. Chang. 2016, 7, 345–369.
- Wang, B.B. Chinese path: Climate communication and governance from the perspective of a two-tier game. Beijing Soc. Sci. Acad. Press. 2018, 21–22, 28–35.
- Luhmann, N. Ecological Communication; University of Chicago Press: Chicago, IL, USA, 1989.
- Covello, V.T.; Slovic, P.; Von Winterfeldt, D. Risk communication: A review of the literature. Risk Abstr. 1986, 3, 171–182.
- Li, W.F. Discussion on strategies of health communication in post-epidemic era. J. Lover 2022, 5, 74–76. (In Chinese)
- Bernal, J.D. The Social Function of Science; George Routedge and Sons: London, UK, 1939.
- Jing, X.M.; Su, Y. The academic path and realistic dimension of Chinese political communication research. Soc. Sci. China 2014, 2, 79–95. (In Chinese)
- Zheng, B.W.; Qin, Z.; Zheng, Q. The public’s role orientation and action strategy in climate communication—Thinking based on China’s "green development" concept. News Writing. 2021, 6, 45–51. (In Chinese)
- Climate Change and Communication: Coping Strategies for Media, Scientists and the Public; Fangfang, G., Translator; Zhejiang University Press: Hangzhou, China, 2019; Volume 20–26, pp. 48–51. (In Chinese)
- Zheng, B.W.; Li, Y.J. The role of news media in climate communication and its strategies and methods—Taking the report of the Copenhagen Climate Conference as an exampl. Mod. Commun. J. Commun. Univ. China 2010, 11, 33–36. (In Chinese)
- Zheng, B.W.; Li, Y.J. Research on climate change and climate change communication. Chin. J. Commun. 2011, 33, 56–62. (In Chinese)
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