Risks of communication: discourses on climate change in science, politics,and the mass media

This paper summarizes the results of a research project analyzing communica tion about global warming among those in the fields of science, politics, a nd the media in Germany between 1975 and 1995. The methodology of discourse analysis has been applied to investigate the changing perceptions of clima te change over time and the ways in which it became an important issue on G ermany's political agenda. The first part of the paper will briefly introdu ce the underlying theoretical assumptions and explain the multiple steps by which data covering a period of two decades have been collected and analyz ed. In the second part, the paper will provide the reader with the main res earch results, indicating the usefulness of distinguishing among the separa te discourses on climate change in science, politics, and the mass media. T he results suggest that there are specific discourse dynamics common to eac h of the three spheres, as well as some important disparities among them. T hese findings will be illustrated by a selection of examples typical of the samples analyzed. Finally, the third part of the paper will discuss the br oader theoretical and practical implications of these results, which sugges t that modem societies must cope not only with environmental risks but also with the risks inherent in communication.