Thursday 18 June 2009

1-2pm, in Fenner School's Forestry Lecture Theatre

CULTURAL VALUES AND INFLUENCES THAT FRAME ENVIRONMENTAL DISCOURSE - AUSTRALIAN CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION 1987 -2001 AS CASE STUDY

Or, lessons from studying multi-sector framing of controversial science over time

Maria Taylor, PhD scholar, ANU Centre for the Public Awareness of Science

Abstract

Research into the science communication of climate change was prompted by my experience as a journalist that showed controversial science and society research messages face many influences and barriers that have nothing to do with the scientific ‘facts’. The ‘information deficit’ model of communication suffers not only from the fact that there is not one monolithic audience that needs to be informed (but rather many audiences), but also from the fact that there can be and often is outside ’interference’ to the flow of the message.

The Australian evidence shows how climate change science and risks have been framed and reframed during the past 20 years given the same basic science facts, the same possible range of cultural values and the same avenues to public discourse. During the same period, the public record indicates an arc of public knowledge and political commitment that has ranged from the very clear and committed to the very murky and indecisive and arguably suggests 20 years of lost opportunity for action. The question therefore became how did the communication change and what cultural values and ideas influenced those changes during the study period.

This seminar will cover some theoretical background on framing communication and suggests via this case study some reasons and means for the fundamental re-framing of public knowledge of climate change in Australia between 1987 and 2001 (the timeframe prior to and during three major IPCC reports) which has segued into the contemporary situation.

The multi-disciplinary approach to the study informing this talk, with a strong input from humanities research, found that climate change communication and public understanding have not manifested as a linear progression towards clearer knowledge, but have shifted dramatically and unexpectedly over time. Science communication received or ‘heard’ by the public has reflected these shifts in public agendas, values and discourse with the main actors being scientists, policy-makers and media.

Bio

Maria Taylor has considerable professional experience as a print journalist and editor and as a documentary film-maker, specialising in recent years on environmental, agricultural and resource management issues. She has worked for newspapers in the United States and Australia, and has also worked in the Australian federal government sector, both in-house as a communicator and as a consultant writer/journalist, editor and publisher. She now publishes a monthly local paper north of Canberra, with an emphasis on sustainable living that includes science communication wherever feasible. Maria’s PhD research is a ‘science technology and society’ project arising from an interest in defining real world, contemporary barriers to effective environmental science communication. Her broad multi-disciplinary study of climate change communication in Australia study suggests that public science knowledge can be strongly affected by cultural influences and information framing. BA ANU; Master of Journalism (University of California, Berkeley); PhD candidate ANU Centre for the Public Awareness of Science Email: maria.taylor@anu.edu.au

The Fenner School Seminar Series is held in the Forestry Lecture Theatre, Forestry Building 48, Linnaeus Way (comes off Daley Road), ANU (Acton) campus, ACT

The seminar will start at 13:00 and finish at 14:00