This article explores how readers of UK newspapers construct expertise around climate change. It draws on 300 online readers’ comments on news items in The Guardian, Daily Mail and The Telegraph, concerning the release of the International Panel on Climate Change report calling for immediate action on climate change. Comments were analysed using discursive psychology. We identified a series of discursive strategies that commenters adopted to present themselves as experts in their commentary. The (mostly indirect) use of category entitlements (implicitly claiming themselves as expert) and the presentation of one’s argument as factual (based on direct or indirect technical knowledge or common sense) emerged as common ways in which readers made claims to expertise, both among the supporters and among the sceptics of climate change science. Our findings indicate that expertise is a fluid concept, constructed in diverse ways, with important implications for public engagement with climate change science.

本文探讨了英国报纸的读者如何构建有关气候变化的专业知识。它借鉴了 300 名在线读者对《卫报》、《每日邮报》和《电讯报》新闻项目的评论，关于发布国际气候变化专门委员会报告呼吁立即对气候变化采取行动。评论使用话语心理学进行分析。我们确定了评论者采用的一系列话语策略，以在评论中将自己展示为专家。（主要是间接的）类别权利的使用（隐含地声称自己是专家）和将自己的论点表述为事实（基于直接或间接的技术知识或常识）成为读者声称专业知识的常见方式，两者都在气候变化科学的支持者和怀疑论者。我们的研究结果表明，专业知识是一个流动的概念，以多种方式构建，对公众参与气候变化科学具有重要意义。