Climate change (CC) has become one of the main challenges that the global village is facing today. Scientists have reached a significant agreement about the origins and magnitude of this process, whose consequences are already evident in many points all over the planet. However, research shows that there is a deficit of media coverage and information on CC and that its quality and effectiveness is not always suitable.
Among the factors that influence this information deficiency, it should be pointed out, among others, the intense politicization that CC treatment has undergone and the complexity of communicating the sciences involved in its study. These processes are influenced by guidelines and values regularly used in the exercise of, which occasionally struggle with scientific rigor of information and may become a burden for message effectiveness.
The XXVIII International Conference of Communication CICOM which will take place in Pamplona, Spain, November 7 & 8, 2013, will focus on the different aspects regarding the interaction between journalism and communication on environmental issues in general, and more particularly, on climate change.
The proposed thematic areas are the following:
- Social representation of environment and CC
- Environment, CC and media
- Journalism guidelines and values on the treatment of environmental information
- Source treatment and approach to environmental information
- Information interest on environmental issues versus scientific rigor
- Images and icons of environment and CC
During that same week, the XII edition of the International TV Festival for the Conservation and Divulgation of Nature, teleNatura will take place. This television festival aims to foster knowledge and respect towards nature by screening quality films, at the same time it tries to offer a display to help producers show their work and therefore encourages the production of programmes on this kind of contents.
For the organisation of the Conference and the teleNatura Festival we are counting on the collaboration of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, the Centre of Environmental Resources of Navarra (CRANA) and the Association of Environmental Information Journalists (APIA).
Sending Papers
Papers proposals should be submitted no later than June 15th 2013 by email to the Conference’s address: cicom@unav.es. The proposals may have a maximum of 700 words, including keywords. The proposals will be peer reviewed by the members of the Scientific Committee.
The admission of the selected papers will be announced by 15th July 2013. A maximum of two papers per author will be allowed, as well as a maximum of three authors per paper. The official languages of the conference will be Spanish and English. Therefore, it is possible to send the papers in either one of them.
Once the approval or rejection of the proposal is communicated, the authors will be notified on the deadline for sending the full texts. The author will decide whether he/she wishes that his/her text may be available in a digital repository of the University of Navarra to which only conference participants will have access, with the purpose to serve as a starting point for dialogue in the work groups. They will also have the choice of publishing or not in a digital support at the end of the Conference.
Topics for the work groups
- Social representation of environment and climate change
- Environment, climate change and media
- Journalism guidelines and values on the treatment of environmental information
- Source treatment and approach to environmental information
- Information interest on environmental issues versus scientific rigor
- Images and icons of environment and climate change
Presentation of Papers
The methodology of the Conference alternates discourses, round tables and panels for the presentation of the papers. Discourses will be run by academics as well as professionals who stand out in their areas and will have an approximate duration of one hour plus a time for debate after each one of them; their purpose is to help researchers and professionals to develop some aspects of the central topic of the Conference in depth. On their part, round tables will try to show different visions of the same subject and they will be presented by professionals that usually have a protagonist role in the practical development of the matter that is being discussed.
The more academic component of the Conference, which materialises in the elaboration and presentation of papers, is organized throughout the work groups. These sessions become a vehicle of academic exchange of the ideas exposed in the presented works. The work tables will be organized according to the number of papers received, and the authors will have a presentation time of approximately 15-20 minutes, followed by some time for discussion on the contents.
Each work group will be led by a president/chair and a discussant. The president will introduce the session and the speakers, and will coordinate the interventions. The discussant will comment on the papers presented, suggesting questions and topics for debate. Subsequently, a period for public interventions will be opened.
More information: http://www.unav.edu/web/facultad-de-comunicacion/cicom-eng