We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Media Contributing to ‘Hope Gap’ on Climate Change

Click here to access article by John Upton from Climate Central.
...the team of researchers also examined the ways the stories about the IPCC’s findings were framed. They found a preponderance of them emphasized scientific consensus and scientific disputes. They also found that many focused on disasters, invoking fear that research by O’Neill and others have concluded can bring attention to climate change but fail to engage audiences. Very few IPCC stories were found to have been framed in terms of opportunities, health effects, ethical considerations, or the economics of global warming — frames that O’Neill said have been shown to be more engaging for audiences.
Could it be that our capitalist media managers deliberately framed coverage of climate destabilization issues as unsolvable in order to create a sense of hopelessness and turn people away from such coverage? After all, if they were to cover opinions about the economics of global warming, this might lead people into a dangerous territory of ideas which pose questions for the system of capitalism which are dangerous for the capitalist ruling class. I think that it's becoming clear even to managers of media that there is no solution within capitalism to the crisis of climate destabilization.
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