Public understanding of climate change in Australia: dominance of politicians' voice over scientists' and environmentalists'

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Title: Public understanding of climate change in Australia: dominance of politicians' voice over scientists' and environmentalists'
Author(s): Perera, Liyanage; Hewege, Chandana
Abstract: A content analysis of the online version of 'The Australian' newspaper has been carried out to gauge public understanding of climate change in Australia, Based on a content analysis of 300 news articles published during the last two years, it has been found that public understanding of climate change is primarily framed as a political issue. Scientific and environmental claims are not prominent. It has been also found that most of the claim makers and their frames of climate change are inclined toward suggesting remedies to alleviate climate change repercussions. A less attention has been paid to causes of climate change. Based on the content analysis, the study concludes that public understanding of climate change in Australia tends to be biased toward political debate on the emission trading scheme.
Publication type: Conference paper
Research centre: Swinburne University of Technology. Faculty of Business and Enterprise
Source: Proceedings of 'Transformational Marketing', the 43rd Academy of Marketing Conference (AM 2010), Coventry, United Kingdom, 06-08 July 2010
Publication year: 2010
FOR Code(s): 050299 Environmental Science and Management not elsewhere classified; 150599 Marketing not elsewhere classified; 160802 Environmental Sociology
Keyword(s): Australia; Climate change; Environment; Politics; Public understanding; Science
Publisher: Coventry University Business School
Publisher URL: http://www.academyofmarketing.org/conference_2010/2010.html
Publisher URL: http://wwwm.coventry.ac.uk/bes/cubs/Pages/CoventryUniversityBusinessSchool.aspx
Peer reviewed