Slides available for download from: Visual Q-method materials Dr Saffron O’Neill

Particular images make us think in particular ways... Visuals help to frame climate change

Study 1: Image matters 13 major newspapers from US, UK, Australia online versions consulted over a year (2010) article search (inc. news, comment, features, reviews, interviews; excl. blogs) containing ‘climate change’, ‘global warming’ or ‘greenhouse effect’ with an associated image (x = 1,644) O’Neill, S. (2013) Image matters: climate change imagery in the US, UK and Australian mass media. Geoforum 49, 10–19 images from UK newspapers

Visual climate change coverage by newspaper. Australian newspapers in blue, UK newspapers in green, US newspapers in red. 'Other' is a condensed category (of nine others) for clarity. Image matters results

a, newspaper ownership influence on visual climate change coverage for all thematic codes. b, newspaper ownership influence on 'people' sub-code. Influence of newspaper ownership on visual coverage tested for significance using Kruskal-Wallis test: *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, * p < 0.1 News Corporation newspapers (Murdoch owned) Newspapers under any other ownership a b Image matters results

Climate change is contested and politicised -Much newspaper climate imagery features political figures or protest -Levels of visual coverage influenced by political events Climate change is distant to the everyday -climate change as distant to peoples’ everyday lives -e.g. industrial smokestacks, polar ice, distant places; rather than as an issue with both causes and solutions closer to home Image matters conclusions

Study 2: Engagement with imagery 3 Q-method workshops held (UK, US, Australia) collected rich, in-depth data with a diversity of people (75 participants) two Q-sorts (see photo) undertaken with image subset from Study 1 O’Neill, S., Boykoff, M., Day, S. & Niemeyer, S. (2013) On the use of imagery for climate change engagement. Global Environmental Change, 23, 413–421

Images used in the Engagement with imagery Q-workshop

Country ThemeImagesUSUKAus Reasoning climate impacts flood aerial view ice sheet deforestation polar bear cracked ground coral reef threat is visible, personal, threatening links to (personal experience of) unusual weather imagery is emotive valuing ecosytems climate pollution smokestacks traffic jam drastic imagery of carbon pollution feeling disgust, distress blame for industry or government scientific evidencetemperature graph++ evidence for rapid, frightening change people David Cameron Prince Charles Julia Gillard Rajenda Pachuri Bob Geldof Richard Branson Al Gore Barack Obama no connection between person and climate change lack of trust in politicians / political system ineffective greenwash hypocritcal climate and religionChurch congregation no connection between faith/climate change ineffective By-country factor scores show images defining the dominant factor (or discourse). Factor scores converted from Z-Scores and so are a simplified portrayal of participant views. Underlined scores indicate significant difference (p < 0.01) between country cohorts. Engagement with imagery results (saliency)

Country ThemeImageUSUKAus Reasoning energy futures solar panels electric car traffic jam home insulation wind farm fuel pump ability to take personal action ownership co-benefits positive change effective lifestyle choices red meat climate protest ecohouse food choices political action sustainable housing political leaders (esp. Australia cohort) Julia Gillard David Cameron Barack Obama lack of trust in politicians / political system climate impacts (esp. UK / US cohorts) flood aerial view cracked earth flooding map coral atoll ice sheet glacier helpless, overwhelmed ‘drop in the ocean’ feeling By-country factor scores show images defining the dominant factor (or discourse). Factor scores converted from Z-Scores and so are a simplified portrayal of participant views. Underlined scores indicate significant difference (p < 0.01) between country cohorts. Engagement with imagery results (efficacy)

Slides available for download from: Studies cited: O’Neill, S. (2013) Image matters: Climate change imagery in US, UK and Australian newspapers. Geoforum, 49, O’Neill, S., Boykoff, M., Day, S. and Niemeyer, S. (2013) On the use of imagery for climate change engagement. Global Environmental Change, 23, 413–421 Please contact Dr Saffron O’Neill with any comments or queries. Visual Q-method materials Dr Saffron O’Neill