Affect Theory and Effective Climate Journalism
Image Credit: Li-An Lim / Unsplash
The latest headlines about climate change make it all too easy to adopt a resigned, hopeless, and fatalistic mindset. Our oceans are suffering from a record-breaking year of heat. Global warming is expected to blast past the 1.5°C target. Infectious diseases are becoming more dangerous to organisms around the world.
Journalism is a valuable tool to mobilize the public and, with enough publicity, bring about changes in policy, law, and regulation. Done right, an article can persuade climate skeptics, encourage an ambivalent reader to act, or motivate those already working toward a better future. Done wrong, an article may steer audiences toward passivity or, worse, despair.
Climate journalism is inherently rich in emotion, often known in psychology as affect. The magnitude of climate change and the unforgiving nature of its ongoing effects create a challenge unlike anything our society has encountered. As a result, affect is unavoidable in climate reporting. Discussing the issue is more than relaying results; even the most matter-of-fact statement — a statistic from the latest IPCC report, for instance — brings the threatened state of our planet to the forefront.
Given the emotional resonance of climate journalism, I devoted my senior thesis to an analysis of the genre through the lens of affect theory. Affect theory can be difficult to define, because its development includes contributions from philosophy, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies. To keep things simple, my thesis relied on Heather Houser’s definition of “narrative affect” from Ecosickness in Contemporary U.S. Fiction — one of the most concise, accessible, and widely applicable definitions of affect that I’ve encountered. Houser designates affect as body-based feelings that arise in response to a variety of encounters, such as institutional relations or aesthetic experiences. These feelings are attached to formal components of texts such as metaphor and plot structure.
To determine which affective elements make a piece most effective, I applied affect theory to four contemporary newspaper articles, two of which were written by “climate advocates” and two by “climate action skeptics.” Skeptics reassure readers that the present conditions don’t necessitate change, while advocates call for climate solutions. (I used these terms to avoid generalizing with the politically and emotionally charged labels “liberal” and “conservative.”) In addition to evaluating the texts themselves, I surveyed the comments section of each article to gauge audience reactions.
After performing close readings of the texts and evaluating public comments, I concluded that an exemplary work of climate reporting uses negative affect (e.g., anguish, discomfort) to convince readers that the issue requires immediate attention and reserves positive affect (e.g., excitement, hope) for discussing climate solutions. Climate reporters should employ both kinds of affect, but only with an awareness of the risks of each.
On the one hand, negative affect can be incredibly intimidating. Journalists who reflect on this issue generally discourage the use of adverse emotions in climate reporting; writers don’t want to scare their audience into resignation. Although the fear of making readers feel powerless is justified, we cannot disregard negative affect. Unpleasant feelings draw attention to the problem and present readers with an obligation to act.
On the other hand, an excess of positive affect in climate journalism risks lulling readers into inaction. Journalists who refuse to acknowledge the consequences of climate change sometimes use this to their advantage. Without an imminent threat, people feel no urge to change their way of living. But when faced with encroaching devastation, they need hope to move forward. Presenting realistic and accessible solutions with positive affect can drive audiences to actively seek social change.
We may be in an era of climate doom, but we are also in an era of inspiring climate action. The adoption of clean energy technology is surging at an unprecedented rate. 2023 saw big steps forward for the protection of important cultural sites and the homelands of Indigenous communities. The rate of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon continues to fall.
Solving the climate crisis is no easy task — it will require unpleasant, discouraging, and at times depressing social change. Climate journalists must recognize this difficulty and inspire their readers by understanding the emotional resonance of their words. If climate reporters know how to achieve the right balance of positive and negative affect, they can guide their readers toward organized action, improved well-being, and environmental security for future generations.
