The Mediated Climate: How Journalists, Big Tech, and Activists Are Vying for Our Future

Journalism has been criticized for not addressing climate change with the necessary urgency due to traditional notions of objectivity and balance. However, climate journalism developed alongside the digital media landscape, characterized by misinformation, political polarization, and unchecked corporate power. This has led to a muddling of messages and a failure to avert catastrophe. The Mediated Climate explores how journalism, activism, corporations, and Big Tech compete to influence the public and argues that the inadequate response to climate change is intertwined with the broader challenges facing the communications environment. Efforts to improve climate coverage must consider the larger social and material contexts in which journalism operates and the broader power dynamics that shape public discourse.

Format: Hardback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 08 August 2023
Publisher: Columbia University Press

Critics argue that climate coverage has often lacked the necessary urgency and has adhered to traditional notions of objectivity and balance, which have allowed powerful interests, mainly fossil fuel companies, to manufacture doubt. Climate journalism, on the other hand, developed alongside the digital media landscape, characterized by rampant misinformation, political polarization, unaccountable tech companies, unchecked corporate power, and vast inequalities. Under these circumstances, journalism struggled, and bad actors flourished, muddling messages while emissions mounted and societies struggled to avert catastrophe.

The Mediated Climate delves into the intersections where the climate and information crises converge, examining how journalism, activism, corporations, and Big Tech compete to shape public opinion. Adrienne Russell argues that the inadequate response to climate change is intricately linked to the profound challenges facing the communications environment. She demonstrates that the information crisis is driven not only by technological changes but also by concentrated power that predates the rise of digital media companies. To improve climate coverage, efforts must consider the broader social and material contexts in which journalism operates and the broader power dynamics that shape public discourse.

Russell conducts interviews with journalists and activists to explore how recent movements are combating misinformation. She provides timely recommendations to foster engagement with climate issues and urges readers to join in efforts to reshape the media landscape to better serve the public interest.

Dimension: 216 x 140 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231201728