Applications are invited for the following Grantham Institute-funded PhD studentship to be based in the Science Communication Group in the Department of Humanities at Imperial College. The deadline for applications is 6th February 2011.
Source-journalist relationships in the reporting of climate change
Aim
This project will examine journalists’ strategies for the sourcing of stories about climate change. Who is given voice in media reports, and how different news actors are represented, is one of the most pressing issues for the public mediation of climate science and climate policy. Journalists have been found to misrepresent the scientific consensus on climate change by deploying ‘false balance’ (e.g., Boykoff 2007). Yet in other cases science journalists are overly-reliant on single scientific sources, going against the journalistic norm of testing the claims of news sources (e.g., Conrad, 1999). The question of how climate reporting is sourced has become more acute than ever in the fall-out from the UEA ‘Climategate’ affair. On the one hand, climate sceptics have successfully positioned themselves as part of the story, making it difficult for journalists to ignore their views; on the other hand, there are indications that scientists may be retreating from media appearances after seeing the pressure to which the CRU scientists have been subjected. Some media commentators, such as the International Broadcasting Trust (2010), believe that Climategate has prompted a return to framing climate news in terms of a polarised debate between equal parties. For broadcasters in particular, with their legal obligation to cover controversial issues with due impartiality, Climategate re-invigorates the already troublesome question of the extent to which impartiality requires the sceptic position to be heard.
Methodology
This project will build on analyses of the ideological framing of UK press coverage of climate science (Boykoff 2008, Carvalho 2007) to look at how the UK news media respond to Climategate in terms of their sourcing strategies. Through qualitative interviews with journalists, it will examine how they decide who to interview in climate stories and how they weigh the inclusion of a range of voices with faithful reporting of the current state of scientific knowledge. It will also draw on interviews with scientists to investigate their willingness to make themselves available for media comment given the hostility and tenaciousness with which some bloggers now pursue climate scientists with public profiles. The findings from the interviews will be analysed alongside a discourse analysis of actual media content to reveal how journalist-source relationships shape news output.
The Grantham Institute Studentships
This project is one of 24 shortlisted by the Grantham Institute, The student will be based in the Department of Humanities but will interact with other Grantham students through attendance at Institute seminars, including a fortnightly series organised by and for research students. The project will be supervised by Dr Felicity Mellor, lecturer in science communication in the Department of Humanities. The studentship will commence in October 2011. The Grantham Institute will pay Home Fees plus maintenance at standard Research Council rates and an element for consumables and travel. For more information about the Grantham Institute, please see: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange . For further information about the Science Communication Group, please see: http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/humanities/sciencecommunicationgroup .
Application process and deadlines
Candidates should have, or expect to obtain this year, a good masters degree in science communication, journalism studies, media studies, the sociology of science or other relevant field. Academic specialism in the media coverage of science or the social context of climate science is desirable. Candidates should submit an application to the Science Communication Group in the Department of Humanities using the College’s online application system at http://apply.embark.com/grad/imperial/grad/. Please include a CV and a personal statement (not more than one page of A4) explaining your interest in, and suitability for, the proposed research. The deadline for applications is 6th February 2011. Interviews with shortlisted candidates will be held during February. The selected candidate’s application will then be forwarded to the Grantham Institute for the final selection of projects for funding. The final decision should be reached by the end of February.
Contact
If you have any queries about this studentship, please email Felicity Mellor at f.mellor@imperial.ac.uk
