Enhancing climate change communication: strategies for profiling and targeting Australian interpretive communities

Abstracthis research aimed to provide practical information about how to design communications on climate change adaptation and target these to the Australian population.   This was achieved by: (1) identifying and increasing awareness of different climate change audiences in Australia, and (2) evaluating how each audience responds to different types of climate change messages. Phase 1 of the study used audience segmentation analysis to identify the main climate change interpretive communities within Australia; that is, groups of Australians who share similar views and understandings about climate change.   A nationwide sample consisting of 3,096 Australian residents (aged 15 to 108 years, 47% male and 53% female) completed an online survey assessing a broad range of psychological and behavioural factors related to climate change.   Latent profile analysis applied to the psychological variables suggested that this Australian sample consists of five distinct interpretive communities: Alarmed (26%), Concerned (39%), Uncertain (14%), Doubtful (12%), and Dismissive (9%). Validation analyses revealed that these groups differed in terms of how they responded to perceived climate change threats, and also in their support for particular climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.   Phase 2 of the project examined how Australian interpretive communities respond to climate change adaptation messages and identified the specific message attributes that drive these responses. 1,031 Australian residents (aged 18 to 66 years, 49.8% male, 50.2% female) completed an online survey assessing a similar set of psychological and behavioural responses to climate change to those assessed in Phase 1.   Respondents subsequently viewed six climate change adaptation messages that were randomly allocated from a pool of 60 messages sourced from the internet.   Messages were pre-coded on 10 communication cues (e.g., language complexity, normative influence), and respondents rated them on four judgement dimensions: perceived threat, perceived efficacy, fear control (message rejection), and danger control (message acceptance).   Latent profile analysis applied to the psychological variables identified three climate change interpretive communities in this sample: Alarmed (34.4%), Uncommitted (45.2%), and Dismissive (20.3%).   Judgement analysis methodology (Cooksey, 1996) found that the three interpretive communities based their threat and efficacy evaluations on unique combinations of communication cues, and that high perceived threat and high perceived efficacy were related to message acceptance for all communities.   Effective messages for Dismissive respondents used simple language and did not emphasise descriptive social norms.   Uncommitted audience members responded positively to messages that focused on preventing losses and had a strong emotional component.   Alarmed respondents preferred messages that focused on local issues and had a collectivist frame. Providing specific adaptation advice in messages was found to be effective for all communities. The results largely support the Extended Parallel Processing Model of risk communication (Witte, 1992), and suggest that message attributes should be adjusted to effectively communicate with different climate change interpretive communities within Australia.Please cite this report as:Hine, D, Phillips, W, Reser, J, Cooksey, R, Marks, A, Nunn, P, Watt, S, Ellul, M 2013 Enhancing climate change communication: Strategies for profiling and targeting Australian interpretive communities, National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, pp. 95.his research aimed to provide practical information about how to design communications on climate change adaptation and target these to the Australian population.   This was achieved by: (1) identifying and increasing awareness of different climate change audiences in Australia, and (2) evaluating how each audience responds to different types of climate change messages. Phase 1 of the study used audience segmentation analysis to identify the main climate change interpretive communities within Australia; that is, groups of Australians who share similar views and understandings about climate change.   A nationwide sample consisting of 3,096 Australian residents (aged 15 to 108 years, 47% male and 53% female) completed an online survey assessing a broad range of psychological and behavioural factors related to climate change.   Latent profile analysis applied to the psychological variables suggested that this Australian sample consists of five distinct interpretive communities: Alarmed (26%), Concerned (39%), Uncertain (14%), Doubtful (12%), and Dismissive (9%). Validation analyses revealed that these groups differed in terms of how they responded to perceived climate change threats, and also in their support for particular climate change mitigation and adaptation policies.   Phase 2 of the project examined how Australian interpretive communities respond to climate change adaptation messages and identified the specific message attributes that drive these responses. 1,031 Australian residents (aged 18 to 66 years, 49.8% male, 50.2% female) completed an online survey assessing a similar set of psychological and behavioural responses to climate change to those assessed in Phase 1.   Respondents subsequently viewed six climate change adaptation messages that were randomly allocated from a pool of 60 messages sourced from the internet.   Messages were pre-coded on 10 communication cues (e.g., language complexity, normative influence), and respondents rated them on four judgement dimensions: perceived threat, perceived efficacy, fear control (message rejection), and danger control (message acceptance).   Latent profile analysis applied to the psychological variables identified three climate change interpretive communities in this sample: Alarmed (34.4%), Uncommitted (45.2%), and Dismissive (20.3%).   Judgement analysis methodology (Cooksey, 1996) found that the three interpretive communities based their threat and efficacy evaluations on unique combinations of communication cues, and that high perceived threat and high perceived efficacy were related to message acceptance for all communities.   Effective messages for Dismissive respondents used simple language and did not emphasise descriptive social norms.   Uncommitted audience members responded positively to messages that focused on preventing losses and had a strong emotional component.   Alarmed respondents preferred messages that focused on local issues and had a collectivist frame. Providing specific adaptation advice in messages was found to be effective for all communities. The results largely support the Extended Parallel Processing Model of risk communication (Witte, 1992), and suggest that message attributes should be adjusted to effectively communicate with different climate change interpretive communities within Australia

Interpretive communities of resistance: Emerging counterpublics of immigration alarmism on social media

Debates over immigration have become a defining political cleavage closely related to moral values, perceptions of threat, and the rise of online anti-immigration networks and agitation. Based on in-depth interviews with immigration alarmists, this article discusses how the participants’ anti-immigration position is sanctioned in their everyday social networks and how they find alternative networks online for information, community, and support. This online community takes the form of an emerging counterpublic, characterized by active curation and different levels of participation aimed at optimizing the trade-offs between gaining visibility (moderation and mobilization) and creating an alternative moral community (a “safe space” for peers). Combining notions of interpretative communities of resistance with the theory of counterpublics, the study provides insight into the internal life and values of emerging anti-immigration online communities.Interpretive communities of resistance: Emerging counterpublics of immigration alarmism on social mediapublishedVersio

Closing the concern-action gap through relational climate conversations: Insights from US climate activists

Several studies have found that relational climate conversations can be an effective method of increasing conversational participants’ concern about the climate crisis and encouraging them to take collective action. However, little work has yet examined how such conversations are practiced by climate activists, a group with expertise in relational organizing. Drawing on surveys and semi-structured interviews with climate activists across the USA, this analysis finds that activists frequently have climate conversations with friends and family, most of whom are politically progressive and somewhat to very concerned about the climate crisis. These findings might seem to suggest that climate activists only have climate conversations with like-minded others, producing an echo chamber effect that could entrench the political polarization of the issue. However, climate activists report strategic reasons for choosing like-minded audiences, such as personal response efficacy. Additionally, they report that one of their primary conversational goals is to move people who are already concerned about the climate crisis to take collective action in accordance with values of climate justice. The results identify obstacles to collective climate action even among concerned audiences and suggest that relational climate conversations can be useful in overcoming these obstacles

Science and rhetoric in a globalizing public sphere: mediating systems of climate change knowledge and action

Classification (PsychINFO): 3000 Social Psychology 3040 Social Perception & Cognition 4070 Environmental questions e attitudesPeople’s knowledge and beliefs about intangible problems such as climate change rely heavily on mediated discourses of science and policy. This thesis employs a dialogical and rhetorical approach to social representations to examine how two mediating systems -the mainstream press and environmental non-governmental organizations- represent and reconstruct climate change. The first empirical chapter focuses on the articles published over one decade (1999-2009) in the mainstream Turkish press. The analyses reveal that climate change emerged as a matter of public concern after 2005 in relation to the ecological extremes faced with in the country (Study 1), and that high levels of dramatization in the press in this national context were achieved by drawing on these local impacts and dire risks, and divorcing them from the global and political aspects of the problem (Study 2). Through this separation between the global and the local, and by reconstructing an image of solid scientific knowledge, a hegemonic representation of a serious ‘human-caused threat’ was established, without identifying by whom or how it would be dealt with (Study 3). The second empirical chapter focuses on the interviews (N=22) with non-governmental actors involved in climate change information and policy in Turkey and Portugal. The analyses show that when responding to less reflexive tasks, the non-governmental experts also confine themselves to the hegemonic representation: ‘a human caused problem’ (Study 4). Yet, in their reflexive representations, they focus more on the solutions to the problem, bringing into play, contrasting and reconciling two more representations: ‘an environmental problem’ and ‘a socio-political problem’ (Study 5). It is shown how these representations interfere with each other in two argumentative contexts, in which the interviewees organized the points of agreement and disagreement in a way which makes their views more acceptable to others (Study 6). Overall, these studies show that, in pursuit of persuasion, the mainstream press mainly resorted to a unifying threat and to emotions, whereas the non-governmental actors resorted to negotiation and reconciliation of divergent views

From Alarm to Action: Closing the Gap Between Belief and Behavior in Response to Climate Change

The degree to which the climate continues to change will largely be determined by choices made by individuals and nations regarding greenhouse gas emissions. Many Americans engage in energy conservation actions. But, the political will in the United States to adopt emissions reduction policies is unlikely to exist without public demand. Therefore, public mitigation actions of individuals (e.g., contacting elected officials in support of emissions reduction) are critical to induce legislative response. The majority of individuals who are most concerned about climate change (the “Alarmed” segment) do not engage in public mitigation actions, but some do. The purpose of this study is to examine the social-psychological factors that drive the public mitigation actions of the Alarmed. This was done through a comparison of the original value belief norm (VBN) model to eight author-created models that added predictor variables to the VBN. The objective was to determine which model was most effective at explaining public mitigation action. Drivers of these actions were also assessed by comparing those who took action (“actors”) with those who did not (“non-actors”). Electronic survey responses of 702 Alarmed Vermonters, analyzed with structural equation modeling, revealed that the modified VBN that included four efficacy variables and descriptive social norms was the best fitting and most explanatory model. Additionally, actors had significantly higher efficacy scores and descriptive social norms scores than non-actors. Results suggest that individuals are more inclined to engage in public mitigation action if they feel capable of taking action, believe that their individual and collective efforts are effective, and think others are participating. Two core contributions of this study are: (1) an improved VBN model in the context of climate change, and (2) greater understanding of the precursors to public mitigation action. These findings have broad implications for climate change communication strategies. The electronic version of this dissertation is in the open-access OhioLINK ETD Center (http://etd.ohiolink.edu)

From Alarm to Action: Closing the Gap Between Belief and Behavior in Response to Climate Change

The degree to which the climate continues to change will largely be determined by choices made by individuals and nations regarding greenhouse gas emissions. Many Americans engage in energy conservation actions. But, the political will in the United States to adopt emissions reduction policies is unlikely to exist without public demand. Therefore, public mitigation actions of individuals (e.g., contacting elected officials in support of emissions reduction) are critical to induce legislative response. The majority of individuals who are most concerned about climate change (the “Alarmed” segment) do not engage in public mitigation actions, but some do. The purpose of this study is to examine the social-psychological factors that drive the public mitigation actions of the Alarmed. This was done through a comparison of the original value belief norm (VBN) model to eight author-created models that added predictor variables to the VBN. The objective was to determine which model was most effective at explaining public mitigation action. Drivers of these actions were also assessed by comparing those who took action (“actors”) with those who did not (“non-actors”). Electronic survey responses of 702 Alarmed Vermonters, analyzed with structural equation modeling, revealed that the modified VBN that included four efficacy variables and descriptive social norms was the best fitting and most explanatory model. Additionally, actors had significantly higher efficacy scores and descriptive social norms scores than non-actors. Results suggest that individuals are more inclined to engage in public mitigation action if they feel capable of taking action, believe that their individual and collective efforts are effective, and think others are participating. Two core contributions of this study are: (1) an improved VBN model in the context of climate change, and (2) greater understanding of the precursors to public mitigation action. These findings have broad implications for climate change communication strategies. The electronic version of this dissertation is in the open-access OhioLINK ETD Center (http://etd.ohiolink.edu)

Alldred, P. (2003) Globalno razmisljanje, lokalno delovanje: price aktivistkinja, TEMIDA, 4 (6) p23-31

Anti-globalisation activists have been thoroughly demonised in the UK national media in the past year, receiving the kind of coverage usually reserved for ‘anarchists’ in the tabloid press. That is, the ‘mindless thugs’ caricature of young white men in black ‘hoodies’ intent on violence. Needless to say, this type of coverage isn’t often accompanied by any representation of protestors’ own views. In fact, when reports of protest can focus on ‘violence’, actual political grievances – the issues and the need for direct action responses to them - are ignored. Even more rare is the chance to hear women’s anger at the injustice of global capitalism and frustration at the broken promises of democracy. This piece presents the accounts of UK-based women activists against global and globalising capitalism. Contested though they are within ‘the movement’, at least the terms ‘anti-globalisation’ or ‘anti-capitalism’ say something about what is protested against, and understood together best represent the perspectives of women such as these

Spartan Daily, March 17, 1961

Volume 48, Issue 87https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/4141/thumbnail.jp

Determinants of Human Behavioral Change : Environmental Attitudes and Values Among Norwegian High School Students in Light of the Fridays for Future Movement

Master's thesis in Global Development and Planning (UT505)There is wide scientific consensus that climate change is greatly impacted by anthropogenicfactors. This has been the origin for studies on human attitudes in a range of disciplines; if humans are responsible for the current climate crisis, we must surely also want to alter behaviors which significantly affects the prospects of safe living conditions for our own species? This question lays the foundation for my thesis whichfocuseson attitudes and values of Norwegian high school students in wake of the Fridays for Future movement. By drawing on wider contextual forces of ideology and world order this research investigates how Norwegian youth reflect upon their Western lifestyle, and particularly its carbon footprints impacting global climate change. It further explores to what extent their environmental attitudes have changed in light of the global school strikes. The results indicate that self-enhancement and achievement is prioritized over universal values amongst the students interviewed

Labor\u27s stake in Peace

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