Voicing climate change? Television, public engagement and the politics of voice

Bibliographic Data

ID8962867
AuthorsJ D Smith (0000-0002-7674-6699, Department of Geography The Open University Milton Keynes UK), George Revill (0000-0002-7004-4960, Department of Geography The Open University Milton Keynes UK, corresponding author), Kim Hammond (Department of Geography The Open University Milton Keynes UK)
Year2018
Volume43
Issue4
Pages601-614
Publication date2018-06-07
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12250
OpenAlexW2802451039
LanguageEN
Citations received4
References cited47

This paper examines a body of TV commissions made for BBC Television that formed components of the BBC Climate Chaos season (2006–2007). These commissions represent the first and, to date, only concerted attempt to address the issue of climate change with a range of approaches across a number of broadcast and online platforms within a public service broadcasting context across an extended season. The paper contributes to the task of balancing the relatively extensive body of research into news media coverage of climate change with that of longer form broadcast content. It examines these programmes as a particular moment in the history of broadcasting, lying on the threshold of a proliferating number of TV channels and the burgeoning growth of interactive digital and social media based forms of leisure and public engagement. It takes as its starting point Couldry's plea to make voice a key focus for the promotion of more democratic media spaces. Specifically, it examines this assertion in relation to calls for polyvocality and the need for new and expanded political spaces in relation to human‐induced climate change. The paper contributes to the developing geography of voice in relation to public understanding and debate of complex global issues. At the most practical level, it also assesses a body of innovations and experiments in content, tone and media mix in broadcast television commissions on climate change, and points to areas for future investment

Context (archaeology · Democracy · Geography · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Public broadcasting · Public relations · Public service · Sociology · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Law · Social Acceptance of Renewable Energy · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance

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