Communicating Science, Climate Change and the Environment in Hybrid Media: Constructed Facts, Contested Truths
Oxford: Routledge (2025), xiii, 243 pp.
Contains figures, tables, index
Series: Routledge Studies in Media, Communication, and Politics
ISBN 978-1-032-76668-3 (pbk); 978-1-003- 47955-0 (ebook)
"This volume examines how a new hybrid mediascape represents and contributes to the construction of facts and knowledge in relation to science, environment, and climate controversies, providing a new, critical perspective to the bourgeoning field of science and environment communication. Arguing that science must be understood from an inclusive perspective, respecting public values and concerns alongside scientific arguments, the authors demonstrate how this will allow us to properly understand the role of science, truth, and factuality alongside the ethical, cultural, and political concerns about science raised in different publics. The chapters focus on the more controversial aspects of science and environmental communication: misinformation, public understandings of science and the environmental crises, vaccination, and the role of the hybrid mediascape in science, environment, and climate conflicts." (Publisher description)
1 Introduction: Contesting truths in science and environment communication / Anna Maria Jönsson, Mette Marie Roslyng, and Anna Rantasila, 1
PART 1: ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE TRUTHS IN MEDIA, 15
2 The scientification of risks and the risks of scientification: Insights from the coverage of artificial turf pitches as microplastic pollutants in Sweden / Ernesto Abalo, 17
3 Web of denial: Climate change denial discourse on Instagram / Virág Vécsey, 35
4 Cli-fi and five narratives of future warming / Gregers Andersen, 57
5 Green populism: Counterpublics and the formation of counterknowledge [Denmark] / Óscar García Agustín and Isabel Jerne, 70
PART 2. CONTESTED SCIENCE: CONSPIRACY AND COUNTER-KNOWLEDGE, 89
6 Fighting (for) truth? Alex Jones, the WHO and the legitimation of conspiracy discourse / Massimiliano Demata, 91
7 Knowledge and counter-knowledge: The construction of facts in vaccination debate / Gorm Larsen and Mette Marie Roslyng, 112
8 Citizen activists or pandemic deniers? Alternative voices in the Finnish journalistic media during the COVID-19 pandemic / Maarit Mäkinen, 131
PART 3. CONSTRUCTING PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE AND TRUST, 151
9 Mediated science and issues of public knowledge and trust / Anna Maria Jönsson, 153
10 Constructing trust with affective discipline: Finnish nuclear energy experts and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster / Anna Rantasila, 176
11 Nuclear stories in the news media: Filtering and altering of expert views / Gabor Sarlos, 194
12 Journalists-sources relations in Russian environmental journalism / Olga Dovbysh and Mika Perkiömäki, 216
13 Conclusion: From constructing facts to constructing expertise and trust? / Anna Rantasila, Anna Maria Jönsson, and Mette Marie Roslyng, 233
PART 1: ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE TRUTHS IN MEDIA, 15
2 The scientification of risks and the risks of scientification: Insights from the coverage of artificial turf pitches as microplastic pollutants in Sweden / Ernesto Abalo, 17
3 Web of denial: Climate change denial discourse on Instagram / Virág Vécsey, 35
4 Cli-fi and five narratives of future warming / Gregers Andersen, 57
5 Green populism: Counterpublics and the formation of counterknowledge [Denmark] / Óscar García Agustín and Isabel Jerne, 70
PART 2. CONTESTED SCIENCE: CONSPIRACY AND COUNTER-KNOWLEDGE, 89
6 Fighting (for) truth? Alex Jones, the WHO and the legitimation of conspiracy discourse / Massimiliano Demata, 91
7 Knowledge and counter-knowledge: The construction of facts in vaccination debate / Gorm Larsen and Mette Marie Roslyng, 112
8 Citizen activists or pandemic deniers? Alternative voices in the Finnish journalistic media during the COVID-19 pandemic / Maarit Mäkinen, 131
PART 3. CONSTRUCTING PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE AND TRUST, 151
9 Mediated science and issues of public knowledge and trust / Anna Maria Jönsson, 153
10 Constructing trust with affective discipline: Finnish nuclear energy experts and the Fukushima Daiichi disaster / Anna Rantasila, 176
11 Nuclear stories in the news media: Filtering and altering of expert views / Gabor Sarlos, 194
12 Journalists-sources relations in Russian environmental journalism / Olga Dovbysh and Mika Perkiömäki, 216
13 Conclusion: From constructing facts to constructing expertise and trust? / Anna Rantasila, Anna Maria Jönsson, and Mette Marie Roslyng, 233
