ABSTRACT

This study interrogates the conventional understanding of and practice within mediated climate change communication (CCC) as a forum where transformative ideas on sustainability practices are shaped. Besides the dominance of non-African contexts and epistemologies in literature analyzing the media-climate change and public nexus, there is little attention given to problematizing public engagement. Common assumption pitches “the public” on the one side and “the communicator” on the other side. This bifurcated model of “communicating” climate change has import for the forms of subjectivity in climate (in)action, including a weakened citizenship representation in climate discourse and the de-pluralization of ideas. This study argues that for people to be actually engaged in climate campaigns, it is important to draw attention to what understanding of “person” and “community” undergird current CCC practice. The work draws insights from African political theories and communication studies to position CCC toward inclusive public engagement.

抽象的

这项研究审视了传统的对介导的气候变化交流（CCC）的理解和实践，因为它是形成有关可持续性实践的变革性思想的论坛。除了非非洲语境和认识论在分析媒体-气候变化和公共关系的文献中占主导地位之外，很少关注使公众参与问题化的问题。共同的假设是一方面推销“公众”，另一方面推销“传播者”。这种“传播”气候变化的分叉模型对于气候行动中的主观性形式具有重要意义，包括气候话语中的公民代表性减弱和观念的多元化。这项研究认为，要使人们真正参与气候运动，重要的是要引起人们注意，对于当前的CCC实践，对“人”和“社区”的理解是什么。这项工作从非洲政治理论和传播研究中汲取了见识，使CCC迈向了包容性的公众参与。