Introducing "Climate Change Communicated"
A newsletter about the science of talking about the climate crisis
Welcome to “Climate Change Communicated” by me, Jill Hopke. Assistant Professor DePaul University. Climate change communication, journalism and social media.🌱 #climatehope
I am an Assistant Professor of Journalism in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago. I got my Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2015, from one of the leading graduate programs in communication worldwide. I am an Educator Fellow with the International Environmental Communication Association.
At DePaul University I designed an undergraduate course, which I regularly teach, in climate change communication. Topics I cover with my students include:
Effective messaging on climate change during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The development of climate denialism in a U.S. context.
How to debunk misinformation on climate change.
The growing field of climate attribution and ways in which news media can connect the dots between extreme weather events and climate change.
Strategies for communicating climate change visually.
Climate change in popular culture and on social media.
In this newsletter, I’ll delve into these topics, and more, with an eye to sharing my insights from a close study of what social science research says about effective climate change communication.
In my research, I seek to understand how individuals engage with the climate crisis, the existential threat of our time. My focus in climate change communication is on how activists on climate and energy issues use social media to amplify their messaging.
My work has been published in leading science communication and social media journals, including: Public Understanding of Science, Environmental Communication, Social Media + Society and Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies. I contributed to the Oxford Encyclopedia of Climate Change Communication on fossil fuel divestment and internet-enabled climate activism.
I have written for The Conversation US, In These Times magazine and Yale Climate Connections, as well as appeared on Fox News. My writing for The Conversation US has been republished in the International Business Times and Salon, as well as numerous local publications around the country.
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