Lost in translation? Public perceptions and mass media coverage of climate change risks

This chapter addresses how the mass media cover scientific subjects matters in many ways, whether scientists like it or not. Stem cells, genetically modified organisms, cloning, the environmental or health implications of chemicals or climate change: whatever the subject, media coverage has helped to shape public perception and, through it, affected how science is translated into policy, most notably in regard to the environment, new technologies, and risks. The intersection of mass media, science, and policy is a particularly dynamic arena of communication, in which all sides have high stakes. The integral role played by the media is not surprising, as it is still the main source of information and opinion for millions of readers and viewers--and voters--through newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the internet. As people gain most of their political, economic, or other news from the media, so they do with scientific stories. Various studies have shown that the public gathers much of its knowledge about science from the mass media, with television and daily newspapers being the primary sources of information. Given their wide reach, it is therefore important to investigate the media's coverage of scientific topics and how it influences both science and policy. In this viewpoint, the media's portrayal of climate science and man-made climate change and its coverage has to be surveyed as an important example of how science, politics and the media intersect and interact. Here, we explore the public perceptions of global warming and the diverse meanings that lay people attribute to the phenomenon. A range of possible explanations for this are discussed in conjunction with the different, intersecting factors that play a relevant role in determining these opinions: economic trends, media coverage of climate change, knowledge, individual ideology/values. In particular, this chapter focuses on the role played primarily by knowledge and by mass-media coverage of climate change, introducing also two relevant concepts that can help us to face the actual and future climate change impacts and reduce risk for future generations and ourselves: the concepts of climate risk and climate resilience. Furthermore, this chapter discusses how the mass media representation of both concepts influences the public understanding of them.