Listening for the local: Australian community radio and climate change communication

Abstract

Climate change is most acutely experienced at the local level so conversations and action must be locally relevant. Australia's community radio sector is uniquely positioned – both as hyperlocal media and a platform for diverse voices – to facilitate these conversations. Drawing on research conducted with 12 community radio stations, this article enlists Dreher and de Souza’s idea of community radio as community ‘listening posts’: spaces for communities to engage with external groups as well as those within. Community radio stations present opportunities for political leaders and policymakers to access community sentiment and experiences of climate change. The role of listening in community radio also speaks to the relationships between communicative justice and climate justice – the politics of who speaks and who is heard. The findings suggest that the Australian sector and its global contemporaries could embrace the role of listening with community radio to support community resilience to climate change.