Cox, J. R. (2010). Beyond Frames: Recovering the Strategic in Climate Communication. Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture, 4(1), 122-133.

Recent calls for communication scholars and practitioners to identify effective communication means for mobilizing constituencies to address climate change often fall to distinguish between communicative acts that “mobilize” and mobilization that enables a particular end. The latter presupposes an account of the intentional or strategic alignment of mobilization, that is, the predicted or assumed relationships among a mobilized public, the mode(s) of influence or leverage this creates, and the expected consequences of such influence, i.e., how specific communicative efforts are related to outcomes or “effects” within a system. This essay argues that the neglect of strategic alignments in some recent climate communication campaigns have caused these campaigns to be non-adaptive at the scale and/or urgency required. Drawing on case studies of the 2007 Step It Up initiative and the Sierra Club's “Beyond Coal” campaign, the essay proposes viewing the strategic as an heuristic for identifying openings within networks of contingent relationships and the potential of certain communicative efforts to interrupt or leverage change within systems of power.Retrieve from here.

Keywords: Frame; Mobilization; Strategic; Strategy; Public Will Campaigns; Climate Change

Zia, A, & Todd, A. M. (2010, March). Evaluating the effects of ideology on public understanding of climate change science: How to improve communication across ideological divides? . Public Understanding of Science, Online

While ideology can have a strong effect on citizen understandingof science, it is unclear how ideology interacts with othercomplicating factors, such as college education, which influencecitizens’ comprehension of information. We focus on publicunderstanding of climate change science and test the hypotheses:[H₁] as citizens’ ideology shifts from liberal to conservative,concern for global warming decreases; [H₂] citizens with collegeeducation and higher general science literacy tend to have higherconcern for global warming; and [H₃] college education doesnot increase global warming concern for conservative ideologues.We implemented a survey instrument in California’s SanFrancisco Bay Area, and employed regression models to test theeffects of ideology and other socio-demographic variables oncitizen concern about global warming, terrorism, the economy,health care and poverty. We are able to confirm H₁ and H₃, butreject H₂. Various strategies are discussed to improve the communicationof climate change science across ideological divides. Retrieve from here.

Lakoff, G. (2010, March). Why it Matters How We Frame the Environment. Environmental Communication, 4(1), 70-81.

The article discusses environmental protection and describes the related terms. Use of the term climate change instead of global warming in memo is described as used to show less impact of the environmental change. The term frame related to cognitive and brain science is defined and its relation to ideological language to activate the ideological system. Other terms including enlightenment and issues related to environment is described. Retrieve from here.

Keywords: Enlightenment Reason; Framing; Global Warming; Hypocognition; Messaging;the Real

Perkowitz, R. (2010, March). Climate Communications: Conflicts and Opportunities. Environmental Communication, 4(1), 66-69.

The occasion for this forum was sparked by a front-page story in the New York Times by John M. Broder entitled, “Seeking to Save the Planet, with a Thesaurus” (May 1, 2009, p. A11). The article focused on the non-profit EcoAmerica's report, “Climate and Energy Truths: Our Common Future,” which shares research on communication approaches to engaging climate change and energy issues. The Broder article included commentary from Robert J. Brulle, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Science at Drexel University. In response, George P. Lakoff, Professor of Cognitive Science and Linguistics at UC-Berkeley, published an essay in The Huffington Post, “Why Environmental Understanding, or 'Framing,' Matters: An Evaluation of the EcoAmerica Summary Report” (May 19, 2009). The discussion about this report and differing approaches to environmental communication continued on blogs, in emails, and through various other forums. The editorial leadership team of this journal thought such prominent attention to environmental communication in the nexus of so many disciplines and professional investments was exciting. We are pleased the following scholars and practitioners are willing to elaborate on the stakes of this discussion in this forum. Retrieve from here.

Keywords: Frame Analysis; Global Climate Change; Messaging; Mobilization; Social Movements

Scannell, L, & Grouzet, F. (2010, April). The metacognitions of climate change. New Ideas in Psychology, 28(1)

How do individuals think about global climate change? Although a body of research on the cognitive elements of climate change has begun to accumulate (e.g., Bord, O'Connor, & Fisher, 2000, few studies have distinguished between categories of cognitions. One key distinction is between primary, direct thoughts such as perceptions and evaluations, and secondary, indirect thoughts which reflect upon and control primary cognitions (Petty, Brinol, Tormala, & Wegner, 2007); secondary thoughts are thus considered metacognitive. This distinction is important to climate change engagement given that primary and secondary thoughts may exert independent effects on behavior. Three metacognitive elements of climate change are delineated: metacognitive knowledge, or assessments of confidence in one's thoughts; metacognitive certainty, or assessments of the likelihood of an outcome; and metacognitive importance, or the relative emphasis placed on one's thoughts. The relations between these dimensions and climate change-relevant behaviors are explored. Possibilities for future research are also discussed. Retrieve from here.

Keywords: Climate change; Metacognition; Metaattitudinal; Knowledge; Certainty; Importance; Behavior

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