The global warming 'debate'—in pictures
Home » Blog » Annabel McAleer » The global warming 'debate'—in picturesDoes the media distort people's perception of climate change?
Graphic by Renegade Conservatory Guy
I've not noticed it in New Zealand media too much recently—maybe because it seems no one has been writing much about climate change recently—but it's been a problem here and in the US and UK for years: the over-reporting of climate change controversies in the media. This graphic neatly shows the gulf between public perception (in the UK) and scientific consensus, with the media screwing things up in the middle.
If you can't make out the text, here's what it says beneath each of those sections:
Scientific evidence
Surveys have found that over 97% of actively publishing climate scientists are convinced humans are significantly changing global temperatures (Doran 2009). Not only is there a vast difference in the number of convinced versus unconvinced scientists, there is also a considerable gap in expertise between the two groups (Anderegg 2010).
Media coverage
Because of the institutionalized journalistic norm of balanced reporting, United States television news coverage has perpetrated an informational bias by significantly diverging from the consensus view in climate science that humans contribute to global warming (Boykoff 2008).
Public perception
A recent poll by the BBC/Populus suggests that since the
‘climategate’ coverage in the media there has been an increase in the amount of people sceptical about man-made global warming. However, the scientific consensus has not changed over this period (BBC News).
Wed August 04, 2010 @ 05:37 PM
www.shapenz.org.nz