"We are a Bit Blind About it": A Qualitative Analysis of Climate Change-Related Perceptions and Communication Across South African Communities. Issue 6 (17th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mahl, Daniela; Guenther, Lars; Schäfer, Mike S.; Meyer, Corlia; Siegen, Dario
• Is Part Of: Environmental communication. Volume 14:Issue 6(2020)
• Page Start: 802
• Page End: 815
• Publication Date: 2020-08-17
• Subjects: Climate change -- perceptions of climate change -- media use and information sources -- South Africa -- qualitative interviews -- Global South; Communication in the environmental sciences -- Periodicals; 333.7
• DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2020.1736116
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1752-4032

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Climate change-related perceptions and communication are important factors influencing people's support for climate change policies and individual behavior. Since research on both climate change-related perceptions and communication is biased towards Western countries and standardized research methodologies, this paper investigates perceptions across South African communities using a deductive-inductive qualitative approach. 20 individuals in three communities of a South African town were interviewed about their climate change-related perceptions and communication. Results show that for individual concepts of climate change, interviewees' perceptions differed across the communities: higher educated communities had more differentiated and diverse conceptions of causes and consequences of climate change and potential countermeasures. Most interviewees, across the communities, stressed that they considered climate change as an important problem, although other social problems seemed more pressing. Interestingly, all three communities most frequently encounter the issue of climate change through new and traditional mass media, but their self-assessed knowledge about it varies widely.