The credibility of environmental problems in Argentina and Spain/La credibilidad de los problemas ambientales en Argentina y España

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to analyse the credibility of the content of the message and that of news stories about environmental problems, comparing the cases of Argentina and Spain. Its novel contribution is that it also analyses credibility according to the generation to which the informant belongs. In Argentina, information was compiled by means of an online survey (N Argentina = 450), whereas in Spain the same survey was conducted by interviewers (N Spain = 493). Low levels of credibility were found for the contents of messages about environmental problems and also for the news stories and narratives generated around them. Significant differences were noted between Argentina and Spain in relation to the credibility of the content of the message (which is greater in Argentina) but not in the credibility of news stories about environmental problems. In contrast to expectations, no generational differences were found in the two countries with regard to either type of credibility. This paper discusses the implications of the lack of generational segmentation as well as the low levels of credibility detected.

Does Water Context Matter in Water Conservation Decision Behaviour?

“…For example, the World Economic Forum report [31] shows that 86% of people worldwide consider water-related crises to be a significant short-term risk that will be more problematic in the mid-and long-term. However, Sarabia-Sanchez and Bianchi [32] show this situation is not uniform, but varies greatly among countries. This variability refers to both the perceived importance of the environmental problem and its potential future effect.…”

“…The way people perceive risk can be also conditioned by the credibility of information [32,42]. Studies that examine ecological risk perception show that certainty that the hazard will happen is an important feature for evaluating risk, and this certainty is the result of perceiving information as credible [38,43,44].…”

El discurso ausente: el caso del cambio climático

“…Al menos, no se cuestiona tal recepción (Pettenger, 2007), entendida como el uso, en sus mundos de vida, de estos discursos institucionales a los que han estado expuestos los sujetos. Sin embargo, cuando se enfrentan registros de expertos y legos, se muestran distantes en sus expresiones sobre el cambio climático (Jasanoff, 2011;Sarabia y Bianchi, 2019). Estos últimos estudios tienen especial relevancia por la distancia que se establece entre el discurso societario (de los medios de comunicación, en particular; de las instituciones, en general) y el discurso social, el que los sujetos expresan en sus nichos comunicacionales cercanos.…”