Klimatkommunikation under covid-19-pandemin

Abstract

Dealing with the consequences of climate change is one of humanity's greatest challenges. Researchers, advocates and other actors have long tried to communicate to the public about climate change, but it seems to be more difficult than expected. A paradox has arisen which means that the more facts that are presented, the less concern. A clear example of where and how it can be expressed is in the media. Another global challenge is the ongoing covid-19 pandemic. At an early stage, we began to observe how different types of media started to link the covid-19 pandemic to climate change. Based on the background of climate communication and this observation, the purpose of this study is to investigate how climate communication is expressed during the covid-19 pandemic via debate articles. A latent content analysis was performed and the results was analyzed with Per Espen Stoknes model on the five psychological barriers and theory on strategies in climate communication. The results show that climate communication was expressed in different ways through both barriers and strategies, but mainly through strategies. The study can further increase the understanding of how climate change can be communicated to create climate commitment and can thus serve as a springboard for further research.