Finding a Place for Deliberation and Democracy in the Manufactroversy about Climate Change

Abstract

Although climate change rhetoric increasingly circulates in public discourse, serious debate about climate change policies have only begun to emerge. An influential component of this hesitance rests in an assumed controversy among climate scientists about the origin and projected scale of climate change impacts. Certain media practices come into question that may perpetuate this sense of doubt: journalistic ethics that demand balance in media reporting and the polarization and simplification of arguments in social media. This presentation explores these spaces where scientific arguments enter the public sphere and how ethics can be used to negotiate the conflict that emerges.