IKETIS · The Mediation of Climate Change Induced Migration. Implications for meaningful media discourse and empowerment of key intermediaries to raise public awareness
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2017-04-03 → 2019-04-02
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
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Results in brief
The Mediation of Climate Change Induced Migration. Implications for meaningful media discourse and empowerment of key intermediaries to raise public awareness
The IKETIS project focused on the mediation of climate change induced migration and explored how UK online news media and non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) online campaigns represent climate change induced displacement and those affected by it. It found that similar representational practices shape media and NGOs discourses and frames about climate migration. Climate displaced people are categorised as a victimised and equally dangerous ‘Other’. This comes with consequences for policy options, as it risks working in favour of xenophobic sentiments and restrictive refugee and migration policies. The project examined how a framing shift to a justice-based climate migration framing can be facilitated to influence policy and public understandings of the issue. Through media analyses of the role of different actors in the production, communication, and consumption of climate change and migration issues, it explored uses of frames and narratives to align climate justice messages with the needs, values and identities of different audiences for communicating climate migration effectively in a rapidly changing political context for migration in general. The findings highlighted that tailored messages of climate justice, along with a media narrative that underscores the notion of ‘political agents’ to migrating people, could challenge dehumanizing approaches to climate migration. Based on the project’s findings, e-learning materials were created to build capacity among journalists, NGOs, and policy-makers in responding to the challenges of communicating about climate migration, as these actors are key opinion shapers impacting on how this issue is perceived.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The IKETIS project will seek to raise awareness in the UK of the need for action to address climate change induced migration and will focus on the mediation of the climate refugees’ issue. The first aim of the action is to understand the representational practices that shape media and NGOs discourse about climate refugees. The second aim is to build capacity of journalists, NGOs and policy-makers, key intermediaries in the mediation of climate change induced migration, to enhance social support for policy actions. Together, both aims contribute to the transformation of how climate change induced migration is perceived and provide new patterns of critical thinking and civic engagement. The research consists of four phases: i) identify the policy, institutional and definitional factors that may impede meaningful media discourse on the issue ii) perform critical discourse analysis (image and text) and frame analysis of the representations of climate change induced migration of UK online news media iii) using these findings, then move on to examine how UK humanitarian and environmental NGOs utilise and challenge frames identified by online news media coverage of climate displacement and iv) based on the understanding of the representational practices that formulate climate refugees mediated discourse, promote climate justice approach to frame climate change and build capacity of journalists, NGOs and policy-makers to best use climate justice approach through e-learning strategies. This training-through research scheme will provide the applicant with the necessary skills to develop competences in media theory, visual communication, critical discourse and frame analysis and digital media research and plan an academic career track for a better integration into the academic community, while the applicant will be of specific benefit to the research-informed teaching that forms the basis of the host institution’s approach to undergraduate and postgraduate teaching practice.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF BRIGHTON · BrightonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union