Mass Media and Climate Change Perceptions Among Youth

Climate Change is a serious problem worldwide. The Earth is warming up and the causes range from natural to man-made. Industrial emissions, emissions from vehicles and burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, etc. are affecting the energy balance of Earth, causing drastic changes in climate. Climate Change has a severe impact on several facets of our day to day lives, livelihoods, agriculture and food security, biodiversity and ecosystems, water resources, health, human settlements and migration patterns, transport and energy.

The effectiveness with which society responds to climate change depends on how well the issue is understood by individual citizens. Mass media plays an essential role in informing the public, raising awareness and understanding of science issues and promoting positive action. The media is a strategic partner in the area of climate information dissemination, warning, adaptation and mitigation. Very few people have access to scientific literature on this topic, they generally rely upon media presentations of climate change.

India has a very large percentage of the youth population in the world. Youth can play a critical role in climate change. They are the segment of population that will take climate change mitigation efforts forward for they are the ones who will be most affected by climate change in the future.

The present study explores the level of awareness of climate change among the youth, their level of engagement and an analysis of the effect of mass media and other information sources in shaping the youths opinions about climate change. It examines if information obtained from mass media and other sources has a role to play in the adoption of environmentally sensitive behavior among youth.

This piece of research can be utilized by researchers and academicians of environmental studies, bio-diversity, climate change studies and policymakers in the area of mass media and climate change.