Preface

It is my hope that this volume inspires ongoing thinking and research that interrogates why and how media representations of climate change are produced, negotiated and disseminated through unequal power and inequalities of access and resources. In so doing, I hope my work will expand the spectrum of possibility for enhanced decision-making and action on climate change.

This book has been an opportunity to weave a coherent narrative through quantitative and qualitative work that I have produced on the subject of media and climate change over the last decade or so. In particular, Chapter 1 derives from cooperative work that I have undertaken with Michael K. Goodman and Ian Curtis on ‘the cultural politics of climate change’. Chapters 5 and 6 draw from collaborations with Jules Boykoff on US newspaper coverage of climate change, and with Maria Mansfield on tabloid coverage in the UK. Parts of Chapters 7 and 8 draw on materials once assembled with J. Timmons Roberts as well as with S. Ravi Rajan, while considerations of new and social media in Chapter 8 stem from ongoing discussions with Saffron O’Neill. In addition, close readers will certainly detect the imprints of many scholars, mentors and friends who have influenced my considerations in the volume you now hold.