ISTPP Director, Arnold Vedlitz, and other ISTTP researchers – Senior Fellow James Stoutenborough, former student worker Nick Fette, and Research Associate Carol Goldsmith, have published their article, “Understanding the Communication of Climate Change Risk: Climate Scientists’ Perspectives of Media Sources and Policy Makers” in Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy. The authors examine the acceptance gap that has developed between climate scientists’ consensus that climate change is occurring due to human activity and the skepticism that many citizens and government officials express about both of these points. This gap could result from the characteristics of communication between scientists and the media, the public, and government officials. To discover how climate scientists view this gap, its causes, and potential solutions, the authors conducted a survey focusing on the scientists’ assessments of three specific factors—knowledge, media relations, and trust.

James W. Stoutenborough, Robert Nicholas Fette, Arnold Vedlitz, and Carol L. Goldsmith. 2014. “Understanding the Communication of Climate Change Risk: Climate Scientists’ Perspectives of Media Sources and Policy Makers.” Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy 5(4): 365–384. DOI: 10.1002/rhc3.12066.