Communication for Development and Social Change and the Challenge of Climate Change

Authors

  • Patrick D. Murphy Temple University
  • Tracy Mwaka Tinga Temple University

Keywords:

climate change, ecological citizenship, development communication, global South, global warming, Kenya, social change, social justice

Abstract

The field of communication for development and social change (CDSC) has a crucial role to play in how citizens of the developing world adapt to the effects of climate change. To help inform this role, this article posits three interrelated points of consideration. First, CDSC should have an understanding of how environmental discourses imbue ecological agency. Second, CDSC must be informed by past research about what citizens in the global South know about climate change and how awareness impacts action. Finally, scholars should be guided by the lessons from past climate change–focused CDSC initiatives. As an example, a multistakeholder climate change action campaign in Kenya is examined. Weaving together these considerations, the article concludes by suggesting ways that CDSC scholars and practitioners might imagine how the adaptive challenges of climate change can animate future CDSC initiatives focused on ecological rights and responsibilities.     

Author Biographies

Patrick D. Murphy, Temple University

Patrick D. Murphy (Ph.D., Ohio University) is Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, Klein College of Media & Communication, Temple University. Murphy is author of The Media Commons: Globalization and Environmental Discourses (University of Illinois Press, 2017), co-editor of Negotiating Democracy: Media Transformation in Emerging Democracies (SUNY 2007) and Global Media Studies (Routledge, 2003), and his work has appeared in various journals and edited books. He has also translated into English articles by some of Latin America’s most prominent communication scholars.

Tracy Mwaka Tinga, Temple University

Tracy Tinga is a PhD candidate at Temple University's Lew Klein College of Media & Communication. Her research interests focus on media and globalization, identity, andcommunication and development as they relate to Africa. Her dissertation focuses on the shifting ways that the African continent is covered by Anglo-American and Afropolitan media and the discourses articulated through this coverage. She holds a Master or Arts in Communication and Development Studies from Ohio University and a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication from Africa Nazarene University, Kenya.

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Published

2019-03-14

Issue

Vol. 13 (2019)

Section

Articles

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