[Air-L] CFP Special Issue - Climate Crisis and Communicational Challenges

[Andrea Medrado]

Dear all.Hope this finds you well. Guest editors of the dossier Climate Crisis and Communicational Challenges, Claudia Sarmento (PUC-Rio/King’s College London), Andrea Medrado (University of Exeter, UK) and Katarini Giroldo Miguel (UFMS), invite submissions of studies that aim to rethinking communication strategies for addressing the climate crisis, considering the climate emergency and the rise of anti-scientific discourses.
Submission deadline: January 12, 2026
Publication: First semester of 2026

Articles, in Portuguese or English, must follow the submission template and editorial guidelines of the journal ALCEU (PPGCOM/PUC-Rio).https://revistaalceu.com.puc-rio.br/alceu/announcement/view/8



Full Call and Proposed Thematic Axes

Amid the increasing occurrence of extreme weather events, such as heat waves, forest fires, droughts and floods, there is consensus among scientists that the window of action to contain global warming is closing. Maintaining current levels of greenhouse gas emissions may lead to the so-called “point of no return,” that is, the collapse of natural systems, with irreversible consequences for humanity. In this context, the way the environmental crisis is communicated is crucial to inform the public, mobilize society, and produce collective responses. However, media discourse around the climate emergency has turned into a political battlefield, especially in countries like Brazil, marked by recurring environmental disasters, and where the rise of populist movements fosters anti-scientific narratives while predatory land exploitation advances. This scenario poses urgent challenges on the future of life on the planet, requiring communicative responses equal to the urgency.

Research shows that the population is concerned and consumes news about climate change, although there are high levels of misinformation and disinformation on the subject (Ejaz et al., 2024). Journalistic coverage plays a central role in shaping understanding and social implications of climate risk. By choosing sources and frames, media influence public perception of a complex and transversal problem. For Beck (2010), the climate crisis is not only about ecological decline but also about our political and communicative capacity to respond to it.

Since the Rio-92 conference, one of the most significant milestones in the history of global environmental negotiations promoted by the UN, research on the anthropogenic causes of rising temperatures has advanced considerably. At the same time, the production and consumption of content have undergone a profound transformation. Traditional media organizations face disruptive changes that affect all forms of communication. Although environmental headlines are abundant, news coverage demands analysis, depth, and commitment to the socio-environmental cause, elements sometimes incompatible with newsworthiness criteria and the immediacy of the digital age (Hackett, 2017).

According to Bueno, environmental journalism should incorporate pluralism and diversity (2007), but the theoretical assumptions of the field are not aligned with contemporary journalistic practices (Girardi et al., 2020). Although the topic is no longer invisible, the number of journalists systematically covering the environment remains small in all Latin American countries (Koop, 2020). It is cyclical coverage, with peaks of interest driven by events such as disasters and international conferences (Hansen, 2019). The emergence of non-hegemonic media, in turn, contributes to diversifying the debate (Loose, 2024). These outlets broaden criticism of the capitalist and colonialist economic development model and highlight voices and knowledge traditionally erased from global negotiations. However, these initiatives still face significant barriers to being heard and struggle with unstable funding models (Sarmento, 2023).

In such a scenario that combines the amplification of climate risks with public policies that contradict preventive and responsive measures, the objective of the dossier Climate Crisis and Communicational Challenges is to gather reflections on the transformations, obstacles, and possible paths of communicative practices in the face of the climate emergency and its multiple unfoldings. Considering that environmental communication, as a field of knowledge, still appears marginal within Communication Science in the Global South (Holanda et al., 2022), we would like to invite interdisciplinary studies on the mediatization of the ecological collapse.

>From this perspective, some central questions arise: To what extent do journalists and other communicators remain focused only on crisis moments, such as the floods in Rio Grande do Sul in 2024? What are the impacts of media concentration on the diversity of narratives about the climate crisis, especially in the Global South? How does the predominance of catastrophic views (the so-called language of collapse) contribute to explaining the causes and transversal impacts of climate warming, and to what extent does this framing foster social engagement or cause alienation? How do collective emotions such as fear, anger and hope shape social responses to the climate crisis? With the expansion of independent media, to what extent is there room to discuss issues such as environmental racism and climate justice, and what strategies have been adopted by community media, including Indigenous, riverside, and quilombola groups, to challenge dominant narratives about the crisis? How is it possible to rethink communication strategies for the climate crisis in the face of environmental urgency and the rise of anti-scientific discourses?

Suggested Themes (not exhaustive)
   
   - Analyses of discursive disputes around the climate crisis within a context of political polarization and disinformation;
   - Research exploring the intersections of environmental journalism with other fields, such as economics, politics, and science;
   - Studies on non-hegemonic media and their efforts to include marginalized voices and knowledge;
   - Critical investigations of media framings of specific environmental events;
   - Perspectives on activist and community use of digital media for engagement around environmental issues;
   - Theoretical approaches and empirical studies on artificial intelligence and the climate crisis;
   - Critical decolonial approaches that challenge conventional paradigms in communicating the ecological crisis.

 

About the editors:

 

Andrea Medrado is Associate Professor in Global Communication and Co-Director of Research in Communication at the Department of Communications, Drama and Film at the University of Exeter (UK). She is the author of the book Media Activism, Artivism and the Fight Against Marginalisation in the Global South (Routledge, 2023 – co-authored with Isabella Rega), which highlights the power of dialogue in uniting marginalized communities in the Global South. She is Co-Vice President of IAMCR (re-elected until 2028), where she has led a series of webinars featuring more than 50 scholars from different continents.

 

Claudia Sarmento is a journalist and researcher with a postdoctoral fellowship awarded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship (ECOLA Project), developed in partnership between the Department of Communication at PUC-Rio and King’s College London, and funded by UKRI. She is the author of the book Alternative Forms of News Reporting in Brazil (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023). Her work focuses on environmental journalism, alternative media, and decolonial communication in Latin America.

 

Katarini Giroldo Miguel is a Lecturer in the Journalism undergraduate program and the Graduate Program in Communication at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS). She holds a senior postdoctoral fellowship from CNPq, leads the research group Communication and Mobilization of Social Movements in Networks (CNPq-UFMS), and investigates environmental and feminist media activism. She served as coordinator of the research group Communication, Science Dissemination, Health and Environment at Intercom between 2021 and 2024.

 

References:

 

BECK, U. Sociedade de risco: rumo a uma outra modernidade. Trad.: Sebastião Nascimento. São Paulo: Editora 34, 2010.

BUENO, W. Jornalismo ambiental: explorando além do conceito. Desenvolvimento e Meio Ambiente, Curitiba, n.15, 2007. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.5380/dma.v15i0.11897. Acesso em: 13 jun. 2025.

EJAZ, W.; MUKHERJEE, M.; FLETCHER, R. Climate change news audiences: analysis of news use and attitudes in eight countries. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford, 2024. Disponível em: https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-01/Ejaz_et_al_climate_change_and_news_audiences.pdf. Acesso em: 13 jun. 2025.

GIRARDI, I.M.T.; LOOSE, E.B.; STEIGLEDER; D.G., BELMONTE; R.V. MASSIERER, C. A contribuição do princípio da precaução para a epistemologia do jornalismo ambiental. Revista Eletrônica de Comunicação, Informação & Inovação em Saúde, Rio de Janeiro, v.14, n.2, 2020. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.29397/reciis.v14i2.2053. Acesso em: 13 jun. 2025.

HACKETT, R.A. Democracy, climate crisis and journalism: normative touchstones. In: HACKETT, R.A.; FORDE, S.; GUNSTER, S.; FOXWELL-NORTON, K. (ed.). Journalism and climate crisis: public engagement, media alternatives. London: Routledge, 2017. p. 20-48.

HANSEN, A. Environment, media and communication. London: Routledge, 2019.

HOLANDA, J.S.P.D.; KÄÄPÄ, P.; COSTA, L.M. Jornalismo ambiental: características e interfaces de um campo em construção. Intercom: Revista Brasileira de Ciências da Comunicação, São Paulo, v. 45, p. e2022109, 2022. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1590/1809-58442022109pt. Acesso em: 13 jun. 2025.

KOOP, F. Environmental journalism in Latin America. In: SACHSMAN, D. B.; VALENTI, J. M. (ed.). Routledge handbook of journalism. London: Routledge, 2020. p. 383-391.

LOOSE, E.B. Jornalismo e crise climática: um estudo desde o Sul Global sobre os vínculos do jornalismo com a colonialidade. Florianópolis: Editora Insular, 2024.

SARMENTO, C. Alternative news reporting in Brazil. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2023.