Imke Hoppe

Climate change and media usage: Effects on problem awareness and behavioural intentions

This article examines the question of how climate change awareness and media usage are related to each other. An integrated model for explaining awareness of environmental problems and behavioural intentions is developed. The model is then tested using data from a Germany-wide representative survey. In contrast to most previous studies, this investigation focuses not on the effects of selective, topic-specific media usage, but on the differential effects of information usage on multiple dependent variables. The results show that media usage does have a certain influence on awareness of climate problems and on related behavioural intentions, but the results cannot be explained by a simple formula. The findings differ both with respect to the various dependent variables and across different media. The fact that media do not always have a mobilizing, awareness-enhancing effect is certainly one of the most interesting results of this study.

Climate Engagement in a Digital Age: Exploring the Drivers of Participation in Climate Discourse Online in the Context of COP21

ABSTRACT Various scholars underscore the importance of public engagement with climate change to successfully respond to the challenges of global warming. However, although online media provide various new opportunities to actively engage in climate discourse so far very little is known about the drivers of this form of engagement. Against this background, this study tested a theoretical model on the effects of media and interpersonal communication on participation in climate discourse online using data from a representative online survey of German citizens (n = 1392) carried out while COP21. Overall, the results show that receiving information on climate change from social media (social networks, Twitter, blogs), active information seeking online and interpersonal conversations about COP21 strongly encourage participation in climate discourse online. Moreover, results provide relevant insights on the role of interest in climate politics, personal issue relevance and climate scepticism as preconditions of communication effects.

Entertaining iTV applications for local communities

Through evolving technical conditions, television offers rising possibilities to interact with programs. Hence, it might become some kind of individualized mass medium. At the same time the media choice changes. Interactive media like digital games or Web 2.0 applications rise significantly. This paper therefore deals with the systematic design of interactive TV applications and sug-gests a design-process model. Local communities are focused as an ideal target group for such applications, as they soonest meet the technical and social conditions for interactive TV applications.

Klimawandel in den Medien

Die Menschen konstruieren den gegenwartigen Klimawandel in zweierlei Hinsicht: Der anthropogene Klimawandel ist Nebenfolge der Entwicklung von Gesellschaft und Technik. Und: Der Klimawandel als ein Phanomen, das offentliche Debatten, Politik, Wissenschaft und Kultur beschaftigt, unterliegt der gesellschaftlichen Deutung und ist insoweit ein gesellschaftlich konstruiertes Phanomen (Beck 1996, S. 128). Menschen verstandigen sich daruber, was sie unter Klimawandel verstehen, ob sie ihn als Problem ansehen und was dagegen zu tun ist. Gegenstand einer kommunikationswissenschaftlichen Analyse des Klimawandels sind genau diese Prozesse sozialer Deutungsproduktion und ihre Folgen fur die Gesellschaft: „Rather than starting with (scientific) ignorance and ending with (scientific) certainty, telling the story of climate change is in fact much more interesting. It is the unfolding story of an idea and how this idea is changing the way that we think, feel and act“ (Hulme 2009, S. 42).

What do people know about climate change — and how confident are they? On measurements and analyses of science related knowledge

The measurement and analysis of people’s knowledge on scientific topics, such as climate change, is challenging for researchers. One reason is that objectives are multi-dimensional and that probability is inherent. Moreover, uncertainties can exist on the individual’s level among the public, but are rarely grasped by existing scales. Therefore, researchers must thoroughly consider what to measure and how. This paper theorizes five different dimensions of climate change knowledge. Three response scales including different degrees of confidence are applied on data from a German online survey (n = 935); empirical results of multivariate regression analyses on attitudes are compared. Results highlight the importance of distinctively measuring dimensions and types of knowledge. Abstract