ABSTRACT
‘New media’ are defined in this chapter as media which are integrated, interactive and use digital code (as van Dijk, 2006). Defined as such, new media have been touted as ‘one of the greatest tools in achieving a true democracy’ (Dawson; cited in Head, 2009). Malone and Klein (2007, p26) go some way to showing a potential shape of this democracy, in their web-based forum thought experiment the ‘Climate Collaboratorium’, describing it as ‘a kind of Wikipedia for controversial topics, a Sims game for the future of the planet, and an electronic democracy on steroids’. Yet others have called for a more critical reading of the use of new media in facilitating democracy (Sunstein, 2007), with Dietz and Stern (2008) stating that there is still some way to go in understanding the dynamics of new media engagement. With these conflicting positions in mind, this chapter reviews and critically evaluates the current role, and potential future roles, new media could play in engaging the public with climate change. This chapter also contains a more detailed examination of two climate engagement approaches (one a community-based emissions-reduction programme, the other a climate contrarian engagement approach) that have successfully utilized new media to engage audiences with climate change.
