Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities

Climate change communication; An interdisciplinary approach to understanding the climate crisis

Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

Shirin Sadat Ahmadi 1
Farzad Gholami 2
Zohreh Alikhani 2

1 environmental communication, climate change, climate change communication

2 Associate Professor, Department of Communications, Faculty of Social Sciences, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22035/isih.2025.5347.5058
Abstract
Climate change stands as one of the most critical environmental challenges of our time, with a global consensus on its significance. The complexity and multidimensional nature of this issue have led not only the natural sciences but also the humanities to engage with it. In other words, climate change can be regarded as one of the most prominent interdisciplinary subjects, requiring comprehensive analysis from the perspectives of various academic disciplines. Among the branches of the humanities, social sciences in general and communication studies in particular hold significant potential to contribute meaningfully to this discourse. The central question of this research is how communication studies can contribute to addressing the challenge of climate change. This study first examines the nature of climate change, its dimensions, and specifically climate justice. Subsequently, the role of communication and media in the context of climate change is discussed. A review of existing research in this field indicates that, in most developed countries, communication and media are widely recognized as key factors in both practical and academic engagements with climate change. However, in Iranian society, there has been no substantial attention to the relationship between media/communication and climate change at any level. Therefore, it is imperative to integrate climate communication into both academic research and practical applications.

Keywords

environmental communication
climate change
climate change communication

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 29 June 2024
  • Revise Date 28 October 2024
  • Accept Date 05 December 2024

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