Peter Berglez

The post-political condition of climate change : an ideology approach

Scholars have argued that environmental discourse in general and climate change discourse in particular have contributed to a post-politicization of the public sphere, meaning there is now an absence of deeper conflicting viewpoints about the future direction of society; capitalism has been naturalized as the only conceivable option for the organization of socio-political-ecological life. The aim of the study is to empirically explore the ways in which the post-political condition of climate change is established in public discourse. Applying an ideology-theoretical approach to a focus-group study with Swedish citizens, the article analyzes how the post-politicization of the climate issue is shaped by 1) belief in a “climate threat,” 2) personal experiences of a “climate threat,” and 3) integration of a “climate threat” into everyday practices. We conclude that the post-politicization of climate change could be explained by a consensual discourse constituted by the particularization of climate change causes, a lack of passionate emotions, and “neurotic” micro-political action.

Media and Climate Change: Four Long-standing Research Challenges Revisited

This paper suggests some further avenues of empirical and theoretical investigation for media research on climate change. “Old” suggestions, whose significance, as we see it, needs to be further reinforced, are included, as are “new” ones, which we hope will generate innovative research questions. In order to integrate the analysis with knowledge generated by media research at large, we revisit four research challenges that media scholars have long grappled with in the investigation of journalism: (1) the discursive challenge, i.e. the production, content and reception of media discourse; (2) the interdisciplinary challenge, i.e. how media research might engage in productive collaboration with other disciplines; (3) the international challenge, i.e. how to achieve a more diverse and complex understanding of news reporting globally; and (4) the practical challenge, i.e. how to reduce the theory–practice divide in media research.

Intentional and unintentional transnationalism: Two political identities repressed by national identity in the news media

This article explores how the powerful mechanisms of nation-state discourse in the news media obscure emerging constructions of transnational political thought and action. With the aid of empirical examples from qualitative media studies on critical events extensively covered by the news media, the article demonstrates how national identity in the news media represses transnational political identities of the intentional as well as the unintentional kind.

Few-to-many communication : Public figures' self-promotion on Twitter through 'joint performances' in small networked constellations

The purpose of the study is to examine how members of a Twitter elite act together on a raised platform, thus performing “before” their manifold followers/audiences. A discourse study of Swedish pu ...

Media Research on Climate Change: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Heading?

There is no doubt that research on media coverage of climate change, as a particular subfield of environmental communication research, has proliferated over the past decade. However, this is a mixed blessing. Climate change may very well be the greatest environmental challenge of our time, but as such it also risks obscuring other important environmental issues. Notwithstanding this, the idea behind this special issue was our belief that it is time to make some kind of reckoning as regards the development of this particular subfield. Accordingly, this issue sets out to consider what conclusions can be drawn in light of the existing body of work, what lessons can be learnt, what are the challenges to be met, and what are the directions to be taken in order to further develop media research on climate change. The mixture of articles in this special issue serve well to illustrate the range of empirical, theoretical, and methodological approaches subsumed under the broad heading of “media studies on climate change.” Some contributions focus on the past—how the subfield has developed and what we can learn from that—and some look toward the future. Either way, all the authors share the ambition to suggest important avenues of research, be they centered on media, context, applicability of results, or theoretical advancement. As such they make a valuable contribution to identifying important directions for future research on the role of the media in communicating climate change. In the opening article, Schäfer and Schlichting provide a convincing large-scale meta-analysis of existing research on media representations of climate change in order to identify its main characteristics. The analysis demonstrates a rapid expansion of studies of media representations, an ongoing diversification of the field, a strong bias toward European and North American countries (though interest in Asian, Latin American, and African countries is increasing), an evident analytical focus on print media, and a broad set of applied methodologies and research designs. Based on this analysis the authors argue that there is a need for more variation in terms of countries studied—in particular those countries most vulnerable to climate change—as well as types of media. Environmental Communication, 2014 Vol. 8, No. 2, 139–141, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2014.910330

Foreign, domestic, and cultural factors in climate change reporting : Swedish media's coverage of wildfires in three continents

ABSTRACT This study examines domestic media’s coverage of foreign wildfires from a climate change perspective. It explores Swedish newspapers’ coverage of wildfires in Australia, the Mediterranean region, and the USA during a three-year period (February 2013–March 2016), focusing on how and to what extent climate change is viewed as an underlying cause. A central result is that climate change is mentioned far more often in the case of Australian wildfires than of fires in the other two regions. Another finding is that the climate change issue became more prominent after a severe domestic wildfire in 2014. These observations are also examined qualitatively through a combined frame and discourse study where the importance of foreign news values, the use of foreign sources, cultural proximity/distance, and domestication procedures are analysed. In conclusion, foreign, domestic, and cultural factors in climate change reporting in relation to extreme events are further discussed.

What Is Sustainable Journalism

This edited volume, which elaborates on the idea and concept of sustainable journalism, is the result of a perceived lack of integral research approaches to journalism and sustainable development. ...In this chapter, the sustainability of journalism is explored with interest in how users express trust and distrust towards professional news media. The challenges to the sustainability of journali ...This is an Accepted Manuscript that has been published in What Is Sustainable Journalism? Integrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges of Journalism edited by Peter Berglez, Ulrika Olausson and Mart Ots. The original work can be found at: https://doi.org/10.3726/b11462.

What is Sustainable Journalism? : An introduction

This edited volume, which elaborates on the idea and concept of sustainable journalism, is the result of a perceived lack of integral research approaches to journalism and sustainable development. ...In this chapter, the sustainability of journalism is explored with interest in how users express trust and distrust towards professional news media. The challenges to the sustainability of journali ...This is an Accepted Manuscript that has been published in What Is Sustainable Journalism? Integrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges of Journalism edited by Peter Berglez, Ulrika Olausson and Mart Ots. The original work can be found at: https://doi.org/10.3726/b11462.

What Is Sustainable Journalism? : Integrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges of Journalism

This edited volume, which elaborates on the idea and concept of sustainable journalism, is the result of a perceived lack of integral research approaches to journalism and sustainable development. ...In this chapter, the sustainability of journalism is explored with interest in how users express trust and distrust towards professional news media. The challenges to the sustainability of journali ...This is an Accepted Manuscript that has been published in What Is Sustainable Journalism? Integrating the Environmental, Social, and Economic Challenges of Journalism edited by Peter Berglez, Ulrika Olausson and Mart Ots. The original work can be found at: https://doi.org/10.3726/b11462.