Adapting communication conventions: helping vulnerable people in Adelaide learn about climate change and adaptation

Abstract

In this thesis, mediatization theory is used to investigate whether political institutional approaches to communications are helping people from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds in Adelaide, Australia, learn about climate change and adaptation. People from such backgrounds are the focus because they are more vulnerable than others in society to climate change and thus have a more pressing need to learn about how to adapt to the challenges they face. However, knowledge is limited about how such people in developed nations learn about climate change and adaptation. A mixed method, convergent research design was adopted for the study. Quantitative data was collected via a survey of 110 people living below the poverty line in Adelaide. Qualitative data was collected from nineteen semi-structured interviews with expert professionals associated with climate change and adaptation communications. The survey data was analysed with standard statistical reporting techniques. A thematic analysis of the qualitative data was conducted, using the institutional indicators of mediatization to identify the themes. Results show that those who completed the survey are aware of climate change but not adaptation. The survey respondents have consistent traditional and new media consumption habits, are engaging regularly with current affairs and view climate change and adapting to it as an issue of concern to people from a low SES background. Participants unanimously express distrust in political institutions responsible for communicating climate change and adaptation in Adelaide. Results also show greater concern about climate change amongst respondents who completed the survey in the summer than those who participated in the winter. The interview results show unanimously that expert participants have dysfunctional relationships with the media, and think it is pointless communicating with people from low SES backgrounds about climate change and adaptation. This is because interview participants think people from a low SES background will never be interested in the topic and are potentially climate sceptics. They do not think that the media is an effective way of communicating with people from low SES backgrounds, and rarely consider using it as a means of communications about climate change and adaptation. The thesis argues that political institutions in Adelaide are not mediatized, and, through a lack of media engagement, are not helping people from low SES backgrounds in Adelaide learn about climate change and adaptation. It argues that expert participant perceptions of people from a low SES background in Adelaide as being a politically and socially disengaged section of society are inaccurate. The thesis finds evidence of a low SES counter-public in Adelaide and suggests a short-term mediated method for communicating with them but argues that in the long-term, institutions in Adelaide will benefit from becoming mediatized. A process for institutional mediatization is proposed via a community of practice to help focus attention on the development of media engagement skills and expertise at an intergovernmental level. This study concludes that the results might have wider applicability in Australia, and potentially in other developed nations.