Information about environmental change and associated risks are communicated to the public mainly through mass media. This information, along with the individual perception of environmental changes, is the basis for the subjective assessment of environmental risks. “Impersonal risks” are increasingly relevant: risks which are not perceived as a direct personal threat to the individual but as a threat to the environment and which, however, have direct consequences for the individuals (e.g. global warming). The relationships between media effects, information processing of environmental communication and the individual perception of environmental change according to impersonal risks have not yet been explored. These relationships are essential for explaining individual behavior and adaptation to environmental change. The proposed project will study this relationship from an interdisciplinary perspective. A field experiment by the example of the chestnut leaf miner, Cameraria ohridella, will be conducted. This is an invasive species whose larvae can cause a distinctive pattern of damage to chestnut trees as a result of the feeding activity. The leaves turn brown ahead of time, and fall early in July and August. This environmental change is clearly observable for the population. The horse chestnut is a common tree in Germany; however, the infestation of the trees varies within Germany. The horse chestnut leaf miner is therefore an ideal model organism by which the environmental awareness of individuals can be varied by selecting differently affected areas within Germany for the survey. A field experiment will be conducted in 12 different regions in Germany. The regions will be selected by using scientific rating processes in order to include differently affected regions. Thus, the perceivable environmental change for the respondents will vary clearly between regions. The project is divided into three research questions. First, it investigates how different information from mass media on impersonal risks is processed and which correlations with the individual perception of the environment show up. Second, it examines relevant factors of information processing and environmental perception for the subjective perception of risk. The interaction between media reporting on risks and subjective risk perception is of certain interest: Does the consistency between reporting and subjective perception reinforces the subjective risk perception? These results will also serve to enhance theories on media effects. Third, the field experiment enables to evaluate implemented actions of the respondents. The results will explain behavioral adaptations as a result from the subjective risk perception and information processing on impersonal risks, and answer the question to what extent this can be explained by media effects.
Conference Contributions:
Goodwin B., Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Wallner, C., Uretschläger,A., Weisser, W.W., & Brosius, H.-B. (2016, April). The influence of environmental perception and media coverage upon risk perception and pro-environmental engagement – a case study by the horse chestnut leafminer. Paper presentation at the 14th Public Communication of Science and Technology (PCST) Conference: The Global Conference on Science Communication. Hacettepe University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Goodwin, B., Rogers, R., Wallner, C., Brosius, H.-B., Heitland, W., Uretschläger, A., & Weisser, W. (2016, Februar). Chancen und Herausforderungen der interdisziplinären Umweltkommunikationsforschung am Beispiel eines Projektes zu Wahrnehmung und Medienberichterstattung von Umweltveränderung. Vortrag im Rahmen der WissKomm2016: Die Rolle der Disziplinen Jahrestagung der AhG Wissenschaftskommunikation in der DGPuK. TU Dresden.
Wallner, C., Rogers, R., Goodwin, B., Heitland, W., Weisser, W. W., Uretschläger, A., & Brosius, H.-B. (2015, December). Mass media effects on risk perception and intended pro-environmental behavior. Paper presentation at the International Conference on „Communication/Culture and the Sustainable Development Goals“, Chiang Mai University Thailand, supported by BGreen Project, Connect4Climate/World Bank, RMIT Melbourne, Southeast Asia Research Centre (SEARC) at City University of Hong Kong, and Wageningen University.
Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Wallner, C., Goodwin, B., Brosius, H.-B., Uretschläger, A., & Weisser, W. W. (2015, Dezember). Environmental communication – bridging the gap between social and natural science – Introduction to a current DFG-project, Lecture „Aspekte aus Naturschutz und Umweltforschung“, Ludwig-Maximilians-University München, , Martinsried, Germany.
Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Wallner, C., Goodwin, B., Brosius, H.-B., Uretschläger, A., & Weisser, W. W. (2015, September). The influence of environmental perception and media coverage upon pro-environmental engagement – a case study by the horse chestnut leafminer. Poster presentation at the 45th Annual meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Göttingen, Germany, August 31-September 4.
Goodwin, B., Uretschläger, A., Rogers, R., Brosius, H.-B., Wallner, C., Weisser, W., & Heitland, W. (2015). Influence of media coverage and observable environmental change on risk perception and environmental awareness. Paper presentation at the IAMCR-Congress, Université du Québec Montreal, Canada, 12-16 July.
Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Wallner, C., Goodwin, B., Brosius, H.-B., Uretschläger, A., & Weisser, W. W. (2015, June). Introduction to working with surveys for biologists based on the project “Influence of media coverage and leaf damage by Cameraria ohridella on perception and evaluation of impersonal risks”, Lecture Experimental Design, Technische Universität München, Weihenstephan.
Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Weisser, W. W., Uretschläger, A., Goodwin, B., Brosius, H.-B., & Wallner, C. (2014, September). Influence of media coverage and leaf damage by the horse chestnut leafminer Cameraria ohridella, on perception and evaluation of impersonal risks. Poster presentation at the 44th Annual meeting of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Hildesheim, Germany, 8 -12 September.
Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Wallner, C., Goodwin, B., Brosius, H.-B., Uretschläger, A., & Weisser, W. W. (2014, September). Influence of media coverage and leaf damage by Cameraria ohridella on perception and evaluation of impersonal risks, PhD Student Seminar in Ecology Technische Universität München, Weihenstephan, Germany.
Uretschläger, A., Rogers, R., Heitland, W., Wallner, C., Goodwin, B., Brosius, H.-B., & Weisser, W. W. (2014, May). The influence of media coverage and environmental conditions on the perception and evaluation of impersonal risks by the example of the horse chestnut leaf miner (Cameraria ohridella). PhD Student Seminar of the DFG-priority program SPP 1409 “Science and the public”, Marburg, Germany.
Applicant 1
Prof. Dr. Hans-Bernd Brosius
Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
Oettingenstr. 67
80538 München
089 2180-9455
hans-bernd.brosius@ifkw.lmu.de
Website
Research interest
Media use and Effects, Political Communication, Health Communication
Applicant 2
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang W. Weisser
Chair for Terrestrial Ecology
Department of Ecology and Ecosystemmanagement
Technische Universität München
Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2
85350 Freising-Weihenstephan
o8161/71-3496
wolfgang.weisser@tum.de
Website
Research interest
Terrestrial Ecology
Staff 1
Dr. Cornelia Wallner
Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung
LMU München
Oettingerstr. 67
80538 München
+49-8921809455
wallner@ifkw.lmu.de
Website
Research interest
Media Systems, Public Sphere & Political Communication & Science Communication
Staff 2
Dr. Bernhard Goodwin
Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung
LMU München
Oettingerstr. 67
80538 München
+49-8921809455
goodwin@ifkw.lmu.de
Website
Research interest
Science Communication, Web 2.0, Cybermobbing
Staff 3
Dr. Werner Heitland
Department of Ecology and Ecosystemmanagement
Technische Universität München
Hans-Carl-von-Carlowitz-Platz 2
85350 Freising-Weihenstephan
+49-8161714596
heitland@forst.tu-muenchen.de
Website
Research interest
Horse chestnut leaf-miner. Interaction between plants, phytophagous insects and their parasitoids. Sawflies and their parasitoid complexes. Feeding-strategies of phytophagous insects
Staff 4
M.Sc. Rebecca Rogers
Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung
LMU München
Oettingerstr. 67
80538 München
+49-8921809455
rebecca.rogers@tum.de
Website
Research interest
Invasive species, horse chestnut leaf-miner. Science communication and community ecology
Staff 5
Dipl.-Soz. Anja Uretschläger
Institut für Kommunikationswissenschaft und Medienforschung
LMU München
Oettingerstr. 67
80538 München
+49-8921809455
uretschlaeger@ifkw.lmu.de
Website
Research interest
Media Effects