Communication & Misinformation
I found this article from last week in Inside Climate News “Journalism, Propaganda and Climate Change” an interesting comparison of journalism versus “communication”. It seems that in too much of today’s media “climate-communication” is agenda driven and synonymous with greenwashing, misinformation, misdirection, or propaganda. Per the article’s author, journalism’s purpose is to ferret out truth and present it in an unbiased manner to educate the audience. Alternatively, “communication” in the climate space is too largely driven by misinformation, with the objective of slowing or stopping the elimination of excess greenhouse gas emissions. It also serves the purpose of “dumbing down” the electorate so they have difficulty telling fact from fiction (or propaganda).
There is even now a field of study of this phenomenon, agnotology – the study of the deliberate creation of ignorance. And, it seems to be on blatant display with rampant conspiracies, alternative “facts”, and click-bait rabbit holes.
So, what do we do? We need to push back against the misinformation with verifiable fact-based information from reliable sources. In discussions, we need to politely ask about the source of any misinformation and offer to share our information, including our sources, and there are many. With the wild, extreme weather events this summer, people have a heightened interest in reliable climate information. Inside Climate News, Yale Climate Change Communications, Skeptical Science and numerous other private outlets, as well as various climate action groups, major environmental groups and many major newspapers can be excellent, resources. The key is to learn about and then talk to people about climate change. You may just discover a whole host of new friends you’d never imagined.
As always please let me know your thoughts about this article and your experience with climate communication more generally. And, if you know someone who might like these emails, please have them send me their email.
Cheers, Bill
