Dominant Visual Frames in Climate Change News Stories: Implications for Formative Evaluation in Climate Change Campaigns

Below is a summary of: Rebich-Hespanha, S. & Rice, R. E. (2016). Dominant visual frames in climate change news stories: Implications for formative evaluation in climate change campaigns. International Journal of Communication, 10(33), 4830-4862. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4701.

"Although images used in public communication are known to play an important role in the development of public awareness, knowledge, and attitudes, the understanding of appropriate and effective use of visual imagery in climate change communication campaigns remains incomplete and sometimes contradictory. Successful climate change messaging therefore requires both interrogation of assumptions and evaluation of candidate images for use in particular contexts and with particular audiences."

This study is grounded in, and contributes to, research on visual framing, formative evaluation in public communication campaigns, and climate change communication. From 350 images in 200 randomly selected climate change news (print) articles published in the United States (US) from 1974-2009, manual content analysis generated over 100 highly reliable image themes, and cluster analysis generated 15 dominant visual frames. Stacy Rebich-Hespanha and Ronald Rice discuss possible implications for use of those frames in climate change campaign messages. The dominant visual frames also provide bases for more structured and comprehensive formative evaluation research that could justify use or avoidance of certain visual frames in the pursuit of particular outcomes though communication with specific audiences. The idea is that, because visual imagery is meant to serve a variety of functions in communication campaigns (e.g., to draw attention, stimulate emotional response, enhance memorability, cue prior knowledge and attitudes, or represent complex or abstract concepts), formative evaluation should explicitly assess whether or not selected imagery imagery (especially combinations of images, or visual frames) fulfills its intended purposes.

Framing is the "process by which the emphasis or construction of a message affects the interpretation of the receiver" (Shah, McLeod, Gotlieb, & Lee, 2009, p. 85). Framing can influence thoughts, attitudes, affect, and behaviour, though most effects occur through complex interaction of audience characteristics, message features, and resonance with existing cognitions, as well as other situational and contextual factors. In the context of climate change communication, certain images and frames - for example, the stranded polar bear, the calving glacier, or the billowing smokestack - have become iconic representations of the issue. As Rebich-Hespanha and Rice note, creating or capturing images that effectively communicate about climate change - an abstract, complex, long-term, often distant phenomenon - is particularly challenging because of the invisibility of many key aspects (e.g., emissions, ocean processes, temperature and chemical changes) and the temporal and geographical disconnect between causes and effects. "Although use of iconic imagery can facilitate communication by aligning a message with narratives and schema already familiar to the audience, this communicative strategy also carries risks." For instance, repetitive use of particular image motifs may normalise such visual representations so much that they are looked through and taken for granted, or make it difficult for both communicators and audiences to imagine and contemplate alternative perspectives. Furthermore, dominant visual frames may confine or simplify communication about the issue by representing certain perspectives while ignoring others.

Public communication campaigns using such images may apply 3 kinds of evaluation: formative evaluation (to collect information about audiences and pretests of draft messages), process or programme evaluation (to judge how well a campaign's components were actually implemented), and summative evaluation (to assess effects and effectiveness). This study focuses on formative evaluation, a process that involves research both before and during a campaign to engage and analyse community resources and stakeholders, explore meanings and contexts of relevant goal behaviours, identify audience characteristics and media preferences, develop and test candidate messages, and help anticipate potential barriers to campaign effectiveness. This process may include a wide range of methodologies, such as focus group interviews, in-depth personal interviews, surveys, theatre testing, day-after recall, media gatekeeper review, readability testing, eye- and attention-tracking, and/or physiological responses.

Figure 1 on page 4837 shows the frequency of appearance of the 15 climate change visual frames the authors identified through their analysis as being dominant in US print news. (This analysis focused specifically on visual images, and aside from their associated headlines and captions did not consider the text of the accompanying news stories. Rebich-Hespanha and Rice did not report on issues related to editors' and journalists' selection and creation of such images, readers' interpretations of them, or any directly observed effects of viewing them.) The government, politics, and negotiation frame, observed in 34% of all of the coded images, appeared most frequently. Climate science, research, and scientists and monitoring and quantifying frames were also very salient, each appearing in 21% of the coded images. Other frequently observed frames included (in order of decreasing frequency): temperature record; "regular" (sometimes vulnerable) people; food and agriculture; alternative energy and energy prices; industry impact on the environment; future climate, vulnerable landscapes, and adaptation; citizen leaders; wilderness and nature recreation; storms; impacts on polar animals and landscapes; view of globe from space; and energy efficiency. The following sections of the paper provide additional information about each of these visual frames and discuss how awareness and understanding of these common elements of visual representations of climate change can be a key component of formative evaluation of climate communication campaigns. Examples of images from the press are included.

The authors conclude that "[t]he 15 most frequent visual frames may have considerable influence both separately and as elements of related news stories. Further, they have the potential to influence climate-change-related knowledge, attitudes, and behavior both positively and negatively. Climate change communication campaign designers should at least take note of these frames' potential and assess how representative audiences interpret or respond to the frames." Rebich-Hespanha comments: "If we want people to come up with creative climate change solutions, we probably shouldn't keep showing the same well-worn imagery. Instead, we should be using novel visuals to help inspire new ways of thinking." And Rice adds, "but we should also conduct formative evaluation on those new visuals to know what kinds of audience interpretations and responses follow."

The next section of the paper proposes a formative-evaluation strategy for assessing the relevance and effects of the frames' possible interpretations and salience. As part of this process, message designers should assess whether the candidate visual elements can achieve the desired effects with the intended audience(s). For example, do the images draw the attention of the desired audience(s) and stimulate the desired emotional response? (For instance, does fear-evoking imagery lead to expected changes in attitudes, beliefs, intentions, and behaviours?) Is the visual imagery memorable, and does it increase the memorability of the overall message? Do the visual elements cue desired (or unwanted) prior knowledge or attitudes? Do the visual and textual components of the message reinforce or contradict one another? How do audience characteristics - existing knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviours - influence responses to particular message elements or strategies? Such relationships can be explored through well-designed comparative analyses.

Rebich-Hespanha and Rice conclude: "The results and suggestions presented here have laid a foundation for much more comprehensive formative evaluation research that could provide testable propositions and informed guidelines for using or avoiding particular visual frames in climate change campaign messages aimed at specific audiences or communication outcomes."