A121. 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,
4830-4862. http://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4701/1800.
We
propose a rigorous basis for identifying and assessing visual frames as
part of
a pre-production phase of formative evaluation for climate change
campaigns. We
review research on images in climate change communication, and the role
of
formative evaluation in communication campaigns in general and climate
change
campaigns in particular. Manual content
analysis generated over 100 highly reliable image themes, and cluster
analysis
generated 15 dominant visual frames, from 350 images in 200
randomly-selected
climate change news articles from 1974-2009.
We discuss possible implications for utilization 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 provide justification for
using or
avoiding certain visual frames when seeking to achieve particular
outcomes
though communication with specific audiences.
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