Climate Change Communication Studies: Inquiries into Beliefs, Information and Stories

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of selected aspects of social sciences' studies on the phenomenon of climate change. In particular, this chapter discusses studies in the realm of risk perception and risk communication; it pays specific attention to insight from discourse analysis and findings in media research, such as the norm of balanced reporting. Scholarship of public understanding of science and science communication provides additional information on how societies perceive the risk of climate change. With this in mind, the chapter closes with a closer look at cultural theory and cultural study approaches to the topic before introducing the cultural sociological perspective as the theoretical basis for the following empirical analysis.