The Mediated Climate - by Adrienne Russell

About the Book

The Mediated Climate explores the places where the climate and information crises meet, examining how journalism, activism, corporations, and Big Tech compete to influence the public.

Book Synopsis

To what extent does journalism deserve blame for the failure to address climate change over the last thirty years? Critics point out that climate coverage has often lacked necessary urgency and hewed to traditional notions of objectivity and balance that allowed powerful interests--mainly fossil fuel companies--to manufacture doubt. Climate journalism, however, developed alongside the digital media landscape, which is characterized by rampant misinformation, political polarization, unaccountable tech companies, unchecked corporate power, and vast inequalities. Under these circumstances, journalism struggled, and bad actors flourished, muddling messages while emissions mounted and societies struggled to avert catastrophe.

The Mediated Climate explores the places where the climate and information crises meet, examining how journalism, activism, corporations, and Big Tech compete to influence the public. Adrienne Russell argues that the inadequate response to climate change is intertwined with the profound challenges facing the communications environment. She demonstrates that the information crisis is driven not only by technological changes but also by concentrated power that predates the rise of digital media companies. Efforts to improve climate coverage must take into account the larger social and material contexts in which journalism operates and the broader power dynamics that shape public discourse. Drawing on interviews with journalists and activists, Russell considers the ways recent movements are battling misinformation. She offers timely recommendations to foster engagement with climate issues and calls on readers to join in efforts to reshape the media landscape to better serve the public interest.

Review Quotes

By paying attention to the literal and figurative wildfires raging in the United States over what constitutes the public good and who gets to define freedom, Russell describes the fight for climate and information justice as part of a longer continuum of collective struggle against the tyrannies of unfettered power.-- "International Journal of Communication"

Contributes significantly to the ongoing scholarly discourse on climate change. It is an ideal resource for climate journalists and activists, policy makers, media scholars interested in the media's role in environmental justice, and anyone any environmentally minded reader.-- "LSE Review of Books"

The Mediated Climate is a fantastic read for any scientist, journalist, or activist navigating the murky waters of climate change communication. It is also an effective summary for new students who will benefit from learning what climate change journalism has accomplished in the last forty years, and where it is going next.-- "H-Environment, H-Net Reviews"

Recommended.-- "Choice Reviews"

Russell provides a comprehensive analysis of the intersection of the climate and the information crises and thereby shows how the climate crisis is also a communication crisis.-- "Journalism"

The Mediated Climate is the most comprehensive analysis to date of the intersection of the climate and information crises. Adrienne Russell expertly examines how climate discourses are created and negotiated in a polluted information environment. This book presents inspiring successes for anyone who is engaged in reclaiming our mediated spaces.--Bruno Takahashi, coeditor of The Handbook of International Trends in Environmental Communication

The Mediated Climate puts the status quo on notice. By scrutinizing the intersections between climate change and information ecosystems, the book shows that this is a social, political, cultural, technological, and existential set of intersecting challenges we must bravely address now.--Max Boykoff, author of Creative (Climate) Communications: Productive Pathways for Science, Policy and Society

A brilliant, sharp, and original book on how we talk about climate change, and what a difference that might make for our collective future. Change begins with words, and Russell presents an inspiring call for journalists and citizens to lead it.--Zizi Papacharissi, author of After Democracy: Imagining Our Political Future

As any journalist can tell you: the climate crisis is a communication crisis. Russell provides an honest reflection on the ways journalism has been part of the problem, as well as a necessary part of the solution.--Phaedra C. Pezzullo, author of Beyond Straw Men: Plastic Pollution and Networked Cultures of Care

About the Author

Adrienne Russell is Mary Laird Wood Professor and codirector of the Center for Journalism, Media, and Democracy in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington. Her books include Networked: A Contemporary History of News in Transition (2011) and Journalism as Activism: Recoding Media Power (2016).