The public communication of climate science in the platform era

This Seed funded project seeks to create a set of resources to support innovative inter-faculty collaborations around a central theme: public communication about climate science in today’s increasingly platform-oriented media landscape.

More than ever before, scientists working on the issue of climate change and sustainable futures are using media to communicate with the public about their knowledge, however paradoxes exist in the changing media environment for communication about the urgent issue of climate change and this requires dedicated, collaborative consideration by scholars and stakeholders across disciplines and sectors.

This project brings together media scholars, science communication researchers, climate scientists, history of science scholars, policymakers (from the Dutch Ministries of Environmental Affairs & Climate and Infrastructure & Water Management), and platform media producers to contribute to the creation of a set of academic and practical resources. This project aims to achieve the following outcomes:

  1. Develop an interfaculty thematic network on climate communication. 
  2. Organise a workshop with the title: “The Public Communication of Climate Science in the Platform Era.”
  3. Develop an interactive field guide for science communication. 
  4. Create a course module that brings together knowledge from media studies and science communication education. 

Update: Workshop Video and Report 

On Friday, 27 October 2023, the workshop Publicly Communicating Climate Science in the Platform Era was organised in the Serre of the Botanical Gardens at Utrecht University. The programme was introduced and chaired by Donya Alinejad (Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Culture). Two main questions were raised in relation to the workshop’s theme and to address these questions, a range of speakers with experience and expertise within and beyond academia presented their insights and perspectives.

Hear more about the workshop findings in the video above, or read the workshop report here.