#31 The climate change media landscape with Hanna Morris

Today we welcome Dr. Hanna Morris. Hanna is an Assistant Professor at the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto with research interests in climate change media and communication, culture and politics, and transnational climate movements. Previously, Hanna was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, where she also completed her MA and PhD. Hanna completed her BSc. at the University of California-Berkely, an her MSc at the London School of Economics and political Science. Hanna’s research and writing have been published in academic journals and popular media outlets including Environmental Communication and Media Theory. Her scholarship has been recognized by the IAMCR Stuart Hall Award, New Directions for Climate Communication Research Fellowship, and Top Paper Awards from the International Communication Association and Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences.

In our conversation with Hanna we explored many of the topics that will be in her upcoming book which is titled Apocalyptic Authoritarianism: Climate Crisis, Media and Power. We spoke about the history of climate change journalism, the various media channels through which the topic of climate change is communicated, and the inadequate coverage of the disproportionate impacts of climate change. We talked in depth about the balance of power in environmental media, with Hanna reflecting on the implications of that for the future of climate change journalism. We also spoke about the challenge of disentangling the relationship between public opinion of climate change and climate change activism and how those topics are covered in the media. We ended with some thoughts on how to have those tough conversations about climate change with an emphasis on trying to find shared values, and common concerns.

It was a pleasure to dig into this challenging topic with Hanna, and we hope you enjoy our conversation!

Hanna's website: https://hannamorris.com/

Hanna on twitter: @sustaintheconvo